For much of the Nineties, Missouri's Bottle Rockets were the torchbearers for smart Southern-style rock. Here, they continue their recent return to form: Brian Henneman sings tenderly of dead soldiers ("Kid Next Door") and bad marriages, and "Get on the Bus" is a killer blue-collar defense of the environment.

Like most members of the alternative-country club, the Bottle Rockets (St. Louis chapter) and Old 97's (Dallas chapter) have learned their music history backward. Starting with punk rock's door-opening conceit that anyone might play music, they have worked through Skynyrd to Waylon and Willie, then to Haggard and Hank. Nashville will hardly recognize the result, replete with volume, speed and...

On their major-label debut, the Bottle Rockets achieve what Lynyrd Skynyrd often tried to do but never quite pulled off. Without sacrificing their identity as a proud blue-collar rock & roll band, the Bottle Rockets obliterate the redneck stereotype that has long been attached to Southern-style rock. This Festus, Mo., band's down-home roots flow naturally from the chunky rhythms, slide guitar,...