HELL-BENT FOR HOME.

NICKELBACK (Performer); KROEGER, Chad, 1974-

The article reports on Nickelback, a Canadian rock band that features lead singer Chad Kroeger. The band has tapped its hometown roots for its fourth album, All the Right Reasons, which debuted this month at the top of the Billboard 200 chart. The first single, Photograph, a nostalgic ode to delinquent youth, is about Hanna. And much of the song's video was shot in this small Prairie town in Alberta. Kroeger once played in a local band called the Village Idiots. The group made a breakthrough with their 2001 album Silver Side Up, which sold 10 million copies and spawned the ubiquitous hit single, How You Remind Me. Only once before had a Canadian band scored a No. 1 hit on both the Canadian and U.S. charts--that was the Guess Who's American Woman, 35 years ago. And like the Guess Who, Nickelback's four members--singer/guitarist Chad Kroeger, his bassist brother, Mike, guitarist Ryan Peake and newly recruited drummer Daniel Adair--are another Prairies outfit of meat-and-potatoes rockers taking care of business. But in a rock culture where success and sellout are often seen as synonymous, Nickelback is also one of the world's most derided bands. Like Bryan Adams, Shania Twain and Celine Dion, it's another commercial act from Canada that critics, and cooler bands, love to hate.