Turning The Wheels

Fans discover the new country side of Darius Rucker

Darius Rucker was content just to be on the road. Spending a tour as the opening act for Jason Aldean or the Zac Brown Band would have been just fine.

But his recent successes demand otherwise. He'd done a few one-off headlining gigs previously, but he's since launched the nationwide "True Believers" tour, which shares a name with his latest album. The tour, with support from Pat Green and A Thousand Horses, comes to the Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion tonight.

FAQ

Darius Rucker

WHEN — 7 p.m. today

WHERE — Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion in Rogers

TICKETS — $29-$79

INFO — 443-5600 or via arkansasmusicpavili…

BONUS — Supporting acts include Texas country act Pat Green and southern rockers A Thousand Horses.

Of course, this isn't Rucker's first time in the spotlight -- or as part of a massive headlining tour. He first found fame as frontman of pop rock band Hootie & The Blowfish, a South Carolina band that released two immensely popular albums -- with elements of country -- in the mid-1990s.

In 2008, Rucker launched a solo country career that's been in a slow but steady ascent. He topped the country music chart later that year with the song "Don't Think I Don't Think About It," becoming the first black country musician to hit that peak since Charley Pride in 1983.

He's since hit the top of the chart again with a cover of Old Crow Medicine Show's "Wagon Wheel," recorded with fellow country stars Lady Antebellum.

"I've been doing that song for about 10 years," Rucker says by phone before his gig here. "I never thought about cutting it (as a single)." But with Lady Antebellum in the studio, and the song being used as a warmup, it worked.

Rucker has never been scared of a cover song. He often covers Hank Williams Jr., just as frequently as he plays "Purple Rain" by Prince.

"I won't ever cover a song that I don't love," he says. "I've always said I had a cover band (Hootie & The Blowfish) and got really lucky."

As he was while with Hootie, Rucker is a prolific songwriter on his own. He estimates he wrote more than 50 songs, and perhaps as many as 70, in the cycle that led to the "True Believers" album. As he does with the covers he picks, he's less interested in a message and more compelled by how a song sounds.

"I'm about finding 12 songs that I love," Rucker says.

And finding 12 songs his fans, new and old, might love.

He likes to share the story about a gig in Houston where two young girls on the front row were singing all of his songs right back at him, even the deep album cuts.

He then moved to a different tune and the girls stopped and stared in wonder. The song he was playing was "Let Her Cry," one of this smash hits from the Hootie & The Blowfish days.

"They'd never heard it before," Rucker says.

But like an ever-increasing part of the population, they've heard his country songs -- enough to make sure he won't be an opening act again anytime soon.

NAN What's Up on 06/20/2014

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