By Jon Bream

Owatonna's Owl City was the surprise Minnesota pop-music success story of 2009 with the chart-topping "Fireflies." Now Rocket Club hopes to have similar success in country circles.

The Twin Cities group's "One More Day" has been inching up Billboard's country chart, now at No. 57. It's a tug-at-the-heart plaint about losing a young daughter. (To listen, click here.)

But Rocket Club isn't an innocent young man experimenting with computer music in his parents' basement. The harmony-loving rock band is fronted by Chris Hawkey, a barroom veteran who is probably best known as the producer and sidekick on KFAN's The Power Trip morning show.

Hawkey knows his way around the music business: His wife is Cities 97 program director/DJ Lauren MacLeash and his KFAN boss is Gregg Swedberg, who doubles as program director of country giant K102. (Frankly, Rocket Club's Lifehouse-meets-John Mellencamp sound fits better on Cities 97 than K102.) If Hawkey can't figure out how to play the radio game, who can?

By the by, Rocket Club will sing about the rockets' red glare before the Vikings-Giants game on Sunday.