***1/2 Bad Livers

HOGS ON THE HIGHWAY

(Sugar Hill)

With refrains like "Cousin's in jail, uncle's in the government, he totes the US mail," these guys don't mean to be taken seriously, other than that they're serious stylists interested in a pan-Texas/Louisiana/Kentucky bluegrass sound. Yet with Mark Rubin's tuba, Ralph White's saucy fiddle, and Danny Barnes's resonator guitar, "Shuffin'{?} to Memphis" sounds as if this quartet were comin' straight from New Orleans. Given the presence of White's accordion and Rubin's tuba, the Dixieland feel is not such a stretch.

The title track is an unabashed bluegrass look at Texan iconography, complete with livestock on main thoroughfares and mom in the kitchen. But don't let Barnes's tenor or the faithful strings fool you: in many cases the CD's guitar licks and chords are more interested in effect than in the integrity of the note.

-- Marc Levy

(The Bad Livers play the Rat this Friday, February 28.)