Artist:The Henningsens
Song:American Beautiful
Album:American Heartland
American Beautiful was a top 30 country hit in 2012 for The Henningsens. It was their debut single so it was a good start but they never released an album before Sony Nashville released them in 2015. They still record for their own label. But I guess the question is why were they dropped. I have a theory. The Henningsens is a family group from the small town of Atwood, IL. Brian Henningsen played in bands in the 80s and started writing songs in the 90s. He was interested in getting a publishing deal but he put that on hold to run the family farm. He started performing with son Aaron Henningsen and daughter Clara Henningsen as The Henningsens. They recorded a demo and they were going to shop it around when Aaron met Cactus Moser of Highway 101 at church. Moser is married to Wynonna Judd. He gave the demo to producer Paul Worley. Worley is a former Sony and Warner exec who at the time was mostly producing Lady Antebellum. He liked what he heard. Meanwhile The Henningsens wrote several songs for The Band Perry including the hit single You Lie. The Henningsens signed with Arista Nashville and Worley produced the 2012 single American Beautiful. It reached #29 on the Country Singles chart and #17 on the Country Airplay chart. The Henningsens wrote the song with Dierks Bentley's producer Brett Beavers. An EP was released in 2013 along with a couple more singles. But an album was never released. You can get American Beautiful on this 3CD various artists comp. I assume an album was recorded but Sony chose not to release it. And then The Henningsens were dropped in 2015. So what happened? One problem I see is The Henningsens are way too similar to The Band Perry to the point where listeners would confuse the two. And maybe radio programmers gave them that feedback. Also, Sony Nashville got a new president and they purged a few acts including two decade RCA Nashville artist Sara Evans. They weren't going to do anything with The Henningsens anyway so they might as well let them go. The Henningsens released a 2016 album on their own label and they continue to perform. I guess that's the way things go in the record business sometimes. Here's the video for American Beautiful by The Henningsens.
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