Bottle Rockets

Brian Henneman was an extra guitarist with Uncle Tupelo between disbanding his old group Chicken Truck and forming his new outfit, Bottle Rockets. Like his old St. Louis pals, Henneman has fashioned a rough-and-tumble brand of hillbilly music with loud drums and modern storytelling. Henneman, who wrote or cowrote 11 of the album's 13 songs, owns a great rock & roll voice that can growl when it wants to and articulate nuances when it needs to. This is an impressive debut album that introduces a major singer-songwriter. --Geoffrey Himes