Idiots

James Carville wasn't kidding when described Pennsylvania as Philadelphia in the east, Pittsburgh in the west, and Alabama in between. For the most part, Pennsylvania is the essence of Middle America — travel a few hours outside of Philly to the rural Pennsylvania Dutch Country, and you feel like you're in the Heartland. So it really isn't all that surprising that an alternative country-rock/no depression band as good as Frog Holler would come out of Berks Country, PA, which is only two counties away from Philadelphia County. Like a lot of country releases, Frog Holler's third album, Idiots, is full of songs about life in small-town America. But to their credit, Frog Holler's members don't pretend to be from Mississippi or Arkansas — they're quite open about the fact that they're from the Pennsylvania Dutch Country. Some residents of the Deep South might hear Pennsylvania and think "Yankee," but the down-home rural Pennsylvania that Idiots describes is a very different world from Philly's neighborhoods. And, quite honestly, this CD is more earthy and down-home than a lot of the slick, radio-oriented pop-country coming out of Nashville. That isn't to say that Idiots is for country purists — Frog Holler is, in fact, every bit as rock-minded as Garth Brooks. But what Frog Holler does with rock elements and what Brooks does with them are like night and day. Idiots is recommended to anyone who is seeking something fresh and challenging from country-rock.