Halfway to Hazard

• Genre: New Country

About

Since New Jersey-born Bon Jovi were allowed to make a country album, it now makes perfect sense for a couple of bubbas from the southeastern end of Kentucky to sow songs tinged with pop metal-inspired hooks. Such is the steez of Halfway to Hazard. Childhood friends Chad Warrix and David Tolliver aren't blood kin, but their close harmonies suggest that they should just go the extra country mile and change their names to Bo and Luke -- they even have a song titled "Daisy" about a bumpkin belle, so why not? Their hell-raising country rock songs even reflect an honest-to-goodness childhood in a small town like Hazard County. According to their website, these two were raised doing the kinds of things young folks do in small American towns that don't have a movie theater like fishing, riding dirt bikes, going to church, playing school sports, getting busted for beer, riding ATVs and, of course, writing songs. And their lyrics float with an unpretentious style suggesting that Warrix and Tolliver were lucky enough to have also been raised listening to a decent radio station.

- Eric Shea