The lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish!
In the mid-80s, Darius Rucker met Mark Bryan at University and formed a duo called Wolf Brothers, mainly playing covers of their favorite band, R.E.M.
After recruiting bass and drums (Dean Felber, Brantley Smith) they picked a new name, Hootie & the Blowfish.
To me, the style the band played is best described as Heartland Rock, a polished, radio-friendly pop rock with Americana and Country influences.
Their debut album came in 1994, almost 10 years after the formation of Wolf Brothers.
In hindsight, they may look like a safe bet for a big label (Atlantic) but you must remember that 1994 was peak Grunge so Hootie & the Blowfish was funnily enough anti-establishment.
The album, Cracked Rear View fits in with other contemporary bands like Goo Goo Dolls, Wallflowers, and of course, their favorite band, R.E.M.
Selling over 10 million copies, the band was a huge success overnight. Singles Hold My Hand, Let Her Cry, Only Wanna Be with You, and Time all charted well. Time had a cover of Bill Withers‘s Use Me as a B-side.
The follow-up, Fairweather Johnson (1996) initially did well, clearly on the back of the debut’s success as sales soon fell off, still, it did sell over 2 million copies.
The third album, Musical Chairs (1998) only had one single in I Will Wait. By now the band’s popularity was clearly diminishing, and their next release Scattered, Smothered and Covered (2000) is a bunch of (mainly) unknown covers by Tom Waits, The Smiths, R.E.M., Roy Orbison, Led Zeppelin, and Bill WIthers (Use Me, released again)
Perhaps the best one here is the Tom Waits cover, I Hope That I Don’t Fall in Love with You.
Following the covers album, Hootie, I mean Darius, goes off and records an R&B solo album. Initially called The Return of Mongo Slade it wasn’t even released by Atlantic. After being taken over by an indie label, now named Back to Then it featured Snoop Dog and the production crew of Jill Scott.
One tune, This Is My World appeared in the movie Shallow Hal. Honestly, it’s not great.
After Darius failed R&B adventure, he returned to Hootie & The Blowfish to record their fourth album. Named after themselves it didn’t do well at all and Darius’s career seemed to be on the rocks.
Following a few years of contemplation, Darius relaunched himself as a (black) Country Artist. One can only imagine how the haters must have been wringing their hands!
Haters were soon shut down as Learn to Live (2008) is an absolute smash hit, reaching #1 in the country charts and #5 on the Billboard. Singles Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It, It Won’t Be Like This for Long, and Alright all go to #1 too.
The follow-up, Charleston, SC 1966 also hit the top spot, with singles Come Back Song and This achieving the same.
Darius’ third country album, True Believers is where we find his cover of the mysterious Bob Dylan tune Wagon Wheel. Darius’s version sold 10 million copies, that’s the same as Hootie & The Blowfish did with their now legendary debut album!
So what do you do when you’ve had that much success? Obviously, you must now release a Christmas album! Darius dropped Home for the Holidays in 2014 and presumably cried all the way to the bank.
In 2015 he’s back on the Country Wagon with Southern Style, it goes to #1, and one single does well, Homegrown Honey.
2017, Rucker’s When Was the Last Time is released, and guess what? It’s another #1. If I Told You and For the First Time are both #1 singles.
This prompted Darius to revisit his old pals Hootie & the Blowfish for a sixth studio album. 2019’s Imperfect Circle.
With guest writers Ed Sheeran and Chris Stapleton, it wasn’t as great of a return as the band had hoped although being released in 2019, hoping for a tour in 2020 didn’t work for anyone because of COVID.
The last thing we heard from Hootie was a cover of their favorite band’s signature song, Losing My Religion.
Darius’s latest release Carolyn’s Boy came in 2023, The single Beers and Sunshine sounds like I’m Yours and Chicken Fried met in a bar and had a love child.
Darius Rucker tunes | Related pages
Losing My Religion
You can learn how to play Losing My Religion by R.E.M. using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, and the original recording.
| Am | Am | Em | Em |
Oh, life is bigger, it’s bigger than you and you are not me…
Wagon Wheel
You can learn how to play Wagon Wheel by Darius Rucker using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, TAB, and the original recording.
| G | (Dsus2) D | Em | (Csus2) C Csus2 |
So, rock me mama like a wagon wheel, rock me mama any way you feel…
Darius Rucker on the web
- DariusRucker.com
- Discogs
- Wiki
- YouTube
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