Current News
Learn to Live named one of the best releases of 2008 in the New York Times!
New York Times contributer Jon Caramanica has named Learn to Live one of the best releases of 2008; check out what he had to say:
"More like Hootie and the Albatrosses: Shed of the bar-band dead weight, Mr. Rucker has looked within and discovered a country classicist with a keen pop ear. And then there's that voice, robust and honeyed and not at all, it turns out, a relic."
Check out the full list and top 2008 song picks from Caramanica!
"Winter Wonderland" Now Playing!
Check out Darius' new version of the holiday classic "Winter Wonderland" now playing in the DariusRucker.com audio player!
On behalf of Darius and all of us here at DariusRucker.com we hope that you enjoy the song and have an amazing holiday season filled with family, friends, good food and of course...good music!
The DariusRucker.com Team
Darius to Celebrate "Christmas In Washington"
Join Darius when he performs at this year's Christmas In Washington musical concert celebration tonight (Wednesday, December 17) at 8 pm EST, exclusively on TNT.
Other artists slated to perform include platinum-selling, Grammy-winning Christian music group Casting Crowns, Tony-winning performer Kristin Chenoweth, rising country star Julianne Hough and a cappella sensations Straight No Chaser.
Dr. Phil and Robin McGraw host.
Visit TNT.TV for more information.
December 16 Ticket Presale: Wabash, IN
Hey y'all, we're currently holding a ticket presale for Darius' March 20, 2009 performance at the historic Honeywell Center in Wabash, IN.
If you're still lookin' for the perfect gift for that special someone on your list, this might just be the thing. Or pick up a pair for yourself and make plans to catch Darius LIVE in concert in Wabash.
In order to participate in the presale, you must be a DariusRucker.com member, so if you haven't already, sign up today; it's quick, easy and doesn't cost a thing.
Don't forget, quantities are limited and seats will be assigned on a first come, first served basis, (the earlier you make your purchase, the better your seats will be), so make sure to buy now, to give yourself the best shot at great seats!
Xbox Live Game With Fame with Darius!
Darius is giving you the chance to play Madden™ NFL 09 with him!
If you're an Xbox LIVE Gold member, and you want a chance to play with Darius Rucker, send a friend request to the following Gamertag and be online half an hour before (1:30 pm ET) the Game with Fame session starts on Tuesday, December 16, 2 pm ET.
Xbox Live Game With Fame with Darius Rucker
Date: Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Time: 2 pm - 4 pm ET/11 am - 1 pm PT
Game: Madden NFL 09
Gamertags: Darius GWF
For more information please visit Xbox.com.
Darius is also the Xbox Artist of The Month. Check it out!
Darius in Washington Post
Hootie And a Hollerin'
Rucker Finds Unlikely Success In Country Music
By J. Freedom du Lac
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 10, 2008; C01
NASHVILLE The Hootie Guy has hung up his cowboy hat.
It just doesn't fit Darius Rucker anymore, now that the Hootie & the Blowfish frontman has gone country.
"The last eight years with Hootie, I wore a straw cowboy hat on all our shows," Rucker says of his standard headgear with the mega-million-selling jangle-rock band. "Wearing it in rock-and-roll was a fashion thing. But coming here as a country singer, trying to make a country career, I'd be making a fool of myself by wearing a cowboy hat. And it would be a slap in the face to guys like George Strait and Alan Jackson, guys who are cowboys."
The South Carolina singer-songwriter with the gruff, brawny baritone is lunching at the Palm steakhouse, just a boot-scoot from Music Row -- or trying to. His meal keeps getting interrupted by country power players stopping by to offer their congratulations.
It's Country Music Association Awards week, which is something like prom season for Nashville stars and rookies alike -- and Rucker happens to be both. This year, at 42, he recast himself as a country singer after leaving Hootie behind, maybe for good. "I love Hootie & the Blowfish and what we do, but that's not my main focus anymore. This is a career move for me. I'm gonna be doing this until I've got my own theater in Branson," he says, laughing about the Missouri entertainment town where old singers go to keep singing. "I'm a country singer now."
An instantly successful one, too: "Don't Think I Don't Think About It," the catchy, melancholy first single of Rucker's nascent Nashville career, reached No. 1 on the country charts in late September. A second song, "It Won't Be Like This for Long," just cracked the Top 25. His album, "Learn to Live," reached No. 1 on the country charts.
With a single, transformational stroke, Rucker has revived a recording career that was long ago left for dead, even as Hootie continued to do robust touring business.
That it happened for Rucker in country made the feat even more remarkable, given the overwhelming whiteness of the genre. Rucker was the first African American singer to reach the Top 20 on the country-singles chart since 1988 -- and the first to ascend to No. 1 since Charley Pride scored the last of his 29 chart-toppers in 1983 with "Night Games." A black artist hadn't hit No. 1 on the country album chart since 1985, when Ray Charles did it with a duets collection, "Friendship."
The significance of these accomplishments is not lost on Rucker, who once sang about racism in "Drowning," in which the Charleston native wondered why a Confederate flag still flew at the South Carolina statehouse. (It was taken down in 2000.)
"I'm used to being the only black guy," he says, while observing that he is, in fact, the only African American having lunch at the Palm. "I've seriously walked onstage, looked out in the audience, 15,000 people -- and I'm the only one in the place. It's no big deal. My whole career's been like that.
"I never even thought about it until people started bringing it up. I thought Cleve Francis or Cowboy Troy or Trini Trigg would've at least had a Top 20. Then you get to number one? Wooowwww. When I let myself think about it, I think: Why me? . . . I've got a great song, but it's gotta be more than that. I don't know what it is. I'm just glad it is."
He adds: "A year ago, we told our son, 'You can be anything you want, except president or a country singer.' Now we can't say that." He shakes his head. "It's been a long time since I've been this happy. I'm so ecstatic about all of this. I just want to play. I want. To. Play. After being in a band for a long time, playing the same songs, I mean, yeah, I'll play 'em. But it feels great to want to play again."
The first -- and, frankly, last -- time most people thought about the Hootie Guy in the context of country music was in 2005, when he appeared in a TV commercial for Burger King's TenderCrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch sandwich. Wearing a white felt cowboy hat and a bejeweled, purple Nudie suit that looked like a Porter Wagoner loaner, Rucker sang an ode to the deep-fried chicken fillet sandwich to the tune of "Big Rock Candy Mountain," an old hobo ballad.
Rucker played the bluegrass jingle straight, but the spot was a surreal sendup, complete with a dancing chicken, a ranch-dressing waterfall and some Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. It was about money, not art. "Do the commercial, buy a pool," Rucker jokes.
But he says he had really wanted to sing country music for years. Rucker was exposed to some of the genre's old-timers when he was growing up, courtesy of his grandfather. But his a-ha moment didn't come until he was 21 and heard "Crazy Over You," a 1987 hit by the country duo Foster and Lloyd. "I remember thinking: Who is this? Why haven't I heard this before? Where can I get the record? Hearing Radney Foster was big for me, like hearing Al Green or R.E.M. for the first time."
Rucker's new obsession wasn't necessarily reflected in Hootie & the Blowfish's music: If the quartet was a teensy bit country, Hootie was principally about rock-and-roll -- namely, rootsy, Southern-flavored guitar-rock that tried to split the difference between R.E.M. and the Marshall Tucker Band. "The other guys in Hootie were into rock," Rucker says. "I brought the country influence."
The band came together in the late '80s at the University of South Carolina and specialized in impossibly catchy songs with considerable mainstream appeal. On the strength of radio hits including "Hold My Hand" and "Only Wanna Be With You," Hootie's 1994 album, "Cracked Rear View," reinvigorated the slumping record industry by selling 16 million copies -- a figure that ranks in the top 20 on the Recording Industry Association of America's all-time bestsellers list. Not bad for a band that critics wrote off as dull and derivative.
"We were a bar band that got lucky," Rucker says with a shrug. "We were just in the right place at the right time with the right record. People were tired of being depressed; they wa