I smoked a pork shoulder the other day.  I fired up the electric smoker and stoked it with charcoal and cherry wood chips.  It spent 12 hours in there before I brought it in to finish in the oven. It had a dry rub that was long on salt and black pepper and lesser amounts of other stuff that came to hand when sorting through likely items in the spice cupboard:  Paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, brown sugar, & Etc.