Frog Holler has been kicking around for a few years, now, selling out shows in and around eastern Pennsylvania, building a reputation with strong songs and impeccable musicianship that occasionally is happily sacrificed on the alter of exuberance. The country-tinged songs on IDIOTS lean more towards the mountains than to Nashville, and swing back and forth between beery anthems that Jerry Jeff Walker would have been proud to have written and sung (Pennsylvania," "Spiders and Planes") and moody dirges that put you in the mind of lost loves ("WJKS", "Happy Hour") and aging, gracefully or not ("Stray," "Thirty-one"). The effect leaves the listener mentally seesawing between crying and laughing. On some of their more ethereal songs ("WKJS," "The Kingdom of Bocephus Klein") the lyrics conjure up images that flash by as if viewed from a moving car at dusk. The arrangements on each song are an additional strength; they continually surprise and delight. As IDIOTS progresses, Frog Holler takes more and more chances, tossing in what they call "background fun and games" which could be just about anything (the occasional trombone and trumpet slips in and out, for example, on "Bitter Blues") but this is not about being different for its own sake. The additions supplement the guitar and banjo foundation, rather than detracting from it.

IDIOTS is sure to bring Frog Holler a larger audience and to cement their relationship with those fortunate enough to hear ADAMS HOTEL ROAD, the band's 1999 release. I'm looking forward to the time when they tour around my neck of the woods. This is a band that sounds like they just have to be great in concert, whether a six-pack is handy or not.