Hillbillies from Minnesota don't often end up in State College, but a few of them will be here next week.

The Urban Hillbilly Quartet, a Twin Cities-based group that blends bluegrass with loud, electric rock, will perform at 9 p.m. Tuesday at Crowbar, 420 E. Beaver Ave.

Members of the group chose their band's name because it best summed up their favorite styles of music, namely urban rock, hillbilly folk and quartet jazz. They describe their sound as "hillbilly-roots-rock music."

The Urban Hillbilly Quartet has released four albums to date and is presently touring behind its two most recent releases, 1999's Beautiful Lazy and this year's Lanky But Macho, an odds-and-ends mix of live recordings and previously unreleased studio output.

The songs on all four of the Quartet's albums were built with more than the traditional guitar/bass/drums combo that most rock groups employ. In addition to those instruments, the Quartet predominantly features a fiddle, accordion and mandolin in its music.

The Urban Hillbilly Quartet has existed in various incarnations since 1992, when several college friends got together to form a folk outfit. After a few lineup and name changes, the band settled on a core group of four members.

The band's current lineup includes founding member Erik Brandt as well as Jeremy Szopinski, Sena Thompson and Greg Tippett.

The Quartet originally only played local colleges, cafes and bars in the Twin Cities, but after building a solid regional following, the group began touring throughout the Midwest. Most of its set consists of original material.

The Quartet's present tour is the band's first to reach the East Coast.

In 1999, the Minnesota Music Academy named the Quartet's St. Paul Town the best bluegrass album of the year. This year the band is nominated for "Best Americana Band."

The Urban Hillbilly Quartet will be opening for Burlington, Vt.,-based Jazz Mandolin Project, which last appeared on Nov. 8, 1999 in State College.

The Jazz Mandolin Project is led by Jamie Masefield and features a rotating lineup that in the past has included Phish's Jon Fishman.

The group has released three albums thus far, which, like the Urban Hillbilly Quartet's recordings, showcase an ability to improvise and freewheel with ease.

Masefield is known for milking rock chords out of his mandolin much like he would with a guitar, and fits them into odd, complicated tempos. While the mandolin is often used by rock acts, few jazz outfits employ the instrument, and Masefield's group has attained much critical respect for working the instrument into post-bop, avant-garde jazz.