From Hootie and the Blowfish to Country

IT seems an unlikely music career path but after doing his apprenticeship, and sharing in album sales of almost 18 million CDs with Pop group Hootie and The Blowfish, Darius Rucker is now the first African American since Charley Pride to top the US Country charts.He has a new album released this side of the Atlantic to coincide with his tour of Ireland, as support act to Brad Paisley, at concerts in Castlebar's Royal Theatre and Dublin's Olympia Theatre next month.Darius, whose new album has the Country sounding title Charleston, SC., 1966 says that going Country feels like he is going back to his roots and he added that even during the Hootie and the Blowfish years he was very much a Country boy.'We talked about being a Country band, and I just got outvoted,' says Darius.'They (the other band members) also used to kid me about how I was always bringing them Country songs that they had to turn into Rock songs,' he added with a smile.Charleston, SC., 1966 is his second Country album and many of the songs were influenced by his hero, a star of the New Country movement of the mid-1990s, singer and songwriter Radney Foster. Radney, along with Darius was the co-writer of one of the tracks Might Get Lucky. Apart from his talent as a singer Darius has also co-written all of the tracks including one with fellow Nashville-based artist Brad Paisley, and the two of them sing on that track I Don't Care.Playing support to Brad during his Irish and UK tour should help the record sales for the new CD by Darius and he will be comfortable being on the same stage as Paisley as he has toured with him in the US in recent times.Darius says he has always had a close kinship to Country music and Country artists.'Growing up in South Carolina, it was always around, always on radio,' he says.Therefore moving back into the Country scene from the Pop world was not such a big leap for him as it was simply a slight shift in his musical evolution.His songs are Rock-tinged, as one might expect because of his background during the Hootie and the Blowfish days when the Grammy-winning group sold more than 16 million copies of the album Cracked Rear View.Darius says that he feels that many of the fans from that era have now followed him into Country music.Even the bible of the Rock industry, Rolling Stone seems to have accepted that this is a natural musical progression for Darius. 'His rich baritone, sentimental ballads and bright hooks make him the most successful African-American Country singer since Charley Pride,' states a recent review of his new album in the Rock magazine.He is also the first African American artist to win a â€ËœNew Artist' award at the Country Music Awards (CMAs) in the 43 years since the awards were inaugurated.The collaboration involving Darius and Brad Paisley seems to have worked well at concerts in the States.As for this country, Saturday August 20 is the date with destiny for the two US Country stars in the West of Ireland at the Royal Theatre Castlebar. â€â€ TG Darius Rucker