Brian Henneman (born July 17, 1961) is an American musician best known as the frontman of the

alt-country Alternative country, or alternative country rock (sometimes alt-country, insurgent country, Americana, or y'allternative), is a loosely defined subgenre of country music and/or country rock that includes acts that differ significantly in style ...

roots rock Roots rock is a genre of rock music that looks back to rock's origins in folk, blues and country music. It is particularly associated with the creation of hybrid subgenres from the later 1960s, including blues rock, country rock, Southern rock, ...

band

the Bottle Rockets The Bottle Rockets were an American rock band formed in Festus, Missouri in 1992, and was based in St. Louis, Missouri. Its founding members were Brian Henneman (guitar, vocals), Mark Ortmann (drums), Tom Parr (1992–2002, guitar, vocals) and To ...

, with whom he has been active as lead singer, guitarist and songwriter. Artists such as

John Prine John Edward Prine (; October 10, 1946 – April 7, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter of country-folk music. He was active as a composer, recording artist, live performer, and occasional actor from the early 1970s until his death. He ...

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fu ...

and

Merle Haggard Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler. Haggard was born in Oildale, California, toward the end of the Great Depression. His childhood was troubled a ...

have influenced his songwriting style. Henneman began his musical career in the mid-1980s with the bands The Blue Moons and Chicken Truck, and also spent time as guitar tech/additional musician with peers

Uncle Tupelo Uncle Tupelo was an alternative country music group from Belleville, Illinois, active between 1987 and 1994. Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, and Mike Heidorn formed the band after the lead singer of their previous band, The Primitives, left to atten ...

from 1990 before forming the Bottle Rockets in late 1992.

History

1980s

Sometime in late 1985, Henneman's band The Blue Moons played on a triple bill in

Millstadt, Illinois Millstadt is a village in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States, located at the crossing of Illinois Routes 163 (locally, "Jefferson Avenue") and 158 (locally, "Washington Avenue"). The village is known for its German heritage, with more th ...

, which also included Uncle Tupelo predecessor the Primitives. A few years later,

Jeff Tweedy Jeffrey Scot Tweedy (born August 25, 1967) is an American musician, songwriter, author, and record producer best known as the singer and guitarist of the band Wilco. Tweedy, originally from Belleville, Illinois, started his music career in hi ...

was instrumental in getting Henneman's next band, Chicken Truck - an original outlaw country rock band - an opening slot for Uncle Tupelo at Cicero's in St. Louis,

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

. Chicken Truck released several cassettes in the 1980s, including "The 90 Minute Tape" and "Loud Music", the latter of which featured so many songs that Henneman's bands were still using material from it for their albums over a dozen years later. Some of the songs from that collection were written by or with Scott Taylor, a friend from

Festus, Missouri Festus is a city situated in Jefferson County, Missouri, United States, and is also a suburb of St. Louis. It had a population of 12,706 individuals as of the 2020 census. Festus and its adjacent neighbor Crystal City are often collectively kno ...

who continues to collaborate with Henneman. Chicken Truck and Uncle Tupelo remained on good terms and a frequent double bill with one another until Chicken Truck disbanded in 1990. Chicken Truck had been composed of Henneman, Mark Ortmann, and brothers Bob and Tom Parr.

1990s

After Chicken Truck broke up, Henneman played occasional shows as a solo acoustic act, and sometime in late 1990 he began working as a roadie for Uncle Tupelo, occasionally playing extra guitar or mandolin with them. He became a staple during their encores, and played lead guitar on "Cortez the Killer", "Moonshiner", and many other covers. He also played extensively on the albums ''

Still Feel Gone ''Still Feel Gone'' is the second album by American alternative country pioneers Uncle Tupelo. It was released in 1991 on Rockville Records and re-released in 2003 by Sony Legacy. Reception ''Still Feel Gone'' has been generally well receiv ...

'' and ''

March 16–20, 1992 ''March 16–20, 1992'' is the third studio album by alternative country band Uncle Tupelo, released on August 3, 1992. The title refers to the five-day span during which the album was recorded. An almost entirely acoustic recording, the album fea ...

'', and also on some of the Uncle Tupelo tracks that ended up on various compilations ("Blue Eyes" and "Movin' On"). Henneman, Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, and

Mike Heidorn Mike Heidorn, born 1967 in Belleville, Illinois, is the former drummer and founding member of alternative country bands Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt. Heidorn also played with the Uncle Tupelo precursors the Primitives (or ) and the one-off band Coff ...

formed a band called Coffee Creek, playing country covers in small clubs and bars between Uncle Tupelo tours. In late December 1991, Coffee Creek played at Cicero's for the first time. In March 1992 Uncle Tupelo, including Brian Henneman, went to

Athens, Georgia Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the ...

, to record their third LP at John Keane's studio, this time with

Peter Buck Peter Lawrence Buck (born December 6, 1956) is an American musician and songwriter. He was a co-founder and the lead guitarist of the alternative rock band R.E.M. He also plays the banjo and mandolin on several R.E.M. songs. Throughout his ca ...

of R.E.M. producing. Henneman played guitar, mandolin, and bouzouki on ''March 16–20, 1992''. In 1992 Henneman recorded the solo 45rpm single "Indianapolis," an autobiographical song which he had written about Uncle Tupelo's van breaking down on tour. It was released on Rockville Records and backed with two more originals, "Get Down River" and "Wave That Flag", featuring vocal and instrumental back-up by Farrar, Tweedy, and Mark Ortmann. Meanwhile, manager Tony Margherita shopped demos made by Henneman, which had been recorded with leftover studio time from the ''Still Feel Gone'' sessions. When those demos garnered a record deal with East Side Digital records, Henneman formed the Bottle Rockets with drummer Mark Ortmann (Chicken Truck, Blue Moons) in 1992. Throughout 1993-94, during Uncle Tupelo's slow dissolution, the bands remained closely interconnected. In addition to Farrar and Tweedy appearing on the Bottle Rockets' debut album, Henneman and the two bands also shared the same management and often performed together. When Uncle Tupelo finally disbanded in 1994, Henneman played lead guitar on

Wilco Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup changed frequently d ...

's debut, ''A.M.''. That same year, the Bottle Rockets released their critically acclaimed album ''The Brooklyn Side'' and toured with Wilco and Son Volt in 1995.[Kasten, Roy (April 29, 2008)
Fifteen Things You Might Not Know about The Bottle Rockets, on Their Fifteenth Birthday
Riverfront Times.] "The late '90s exacted a heavy toll on the band," Peter Blackstock wrote in ''No Depression'' issue No. 48. Besides having their career held hostage by a staggering series of record companies they had signed contracts with that folded and/or floundered, a UPS strike holding up distribution of one of their new records as well as band personnel changes, Henneman's parents both died within six weeks of each other. The band had been touring with

Lucinda Williams Lucinda Gayle Williams (born January 26, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter and a solo guitarist. She recorded her first two albums: '' Ramblin' on My Mind'' (1979) and '' Happy Woman Blues'' (1980), in a traditional country and blues style ...

and had to leave the tour prematurely.

2000s

Despite these difficulties, in 2005 the Bottle Rockets stabilized from the upheavals with their good nature and trailblazing edge intact. Henneman and Ortmann got the band back on course, along with new additions John Horton and Keith Voegele; they remain the current line-up of band members. The band also re-hired their manager from the early days, Bob Andrews. As noted in a ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' article by William Hogeland, the Bottle Rockets' songwriting has been likened to

Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He has inspire ...

's folk style in "spirit, smarts, and satire". The Bottle Rockets' first live album ''Live in Heilbronn Germany'' was released in February 2006. The double-disc set was recorded on July 17, 2005 at the Burgerhaus in Heilbronn-Bockingen, Germany (which also happened to be Henneman's birthday). It was released in Europe on CD and vinyl by Blue Rose Records. Bloodshot Records released the band's next album, ''Zoysia'', recorded at Ardent Studios in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mo ...

with producer Jeff Powell, in June 2006. ''Zoysia'' received a spot on novelist/audiophile

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

's Best Records of 2006 list in ''Entertainment Weekly'' magazine. In 2006, Jeff Tweedy joined Henneman and the Bottle Rockets onstage in Chicago for reunion renditions of "Passenger Side" and "Casino Queen" (both from ''A.M.''), and a cover of Neil Young's "Walk On". The band celebrated its 15th anniversary throughout 2008 with a series of 15 special shows and a contest to win the Creston Electric Instruments custom guitar Henneman played at each of the shows. The Bottle Rockets teamed up again with producer

Eric Ambel Eric "Roscoe" Ambel (Born August 20, 1957) is a New York City–based guitarist and record producer, originally from Batavia, Illinois. He has worked with a wide range of artists including Nils Lofgren, The Brandos, Steve Earle, the Yayhoos, D ...

(''Brooklyn Side'', ''24 Hours A Day'', ''Leftovers'', ''Brand New Year'') at his Cowboy Technical Services Recording Studio in

Williamsburg, Brooklyn Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant to the south; Bushwick and East Williamsburg to the east; and the East River to the west. As of the 2020 United ...

, to record their new album ''Lean Forward''. It was released by Bloodshot Records on August 11, 2009.

References

External links