Culture No. 36: Darius Rucker

Hootie and the Blowfish’s Cracked Rear View. First CD I ever bought.

It came out the summer of ’94, which means I was on the verge of entering fifth grade and probably made the purchase with a combination of allowance money and bottle deposit cash. I don’t remember where I bought it, but most likely it was a music store at the mall – the glory days, before they were reduced to selling video games and cardboard cutouts of Rpattz – because K-Mart was outside of my bike’s radius and Wal-mart was nowhere in sight.

Egads, that paragraph made me sound old. At least I’m not waxing on the intricacies of cassette tapes a la the previous generation’s love affair with vinyl. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Bring on mp3s! (Sacrilege, I know. I will admit: I do miss flipping through the little books that came in CD and cassette cases. Those were fun to read and – pre-internet – convenient for learning lyrics to songs you didn’t understand. Which kind of happened a lot with Hootie. He mumbles, I’ll give you that.)

Until Hootie, my musical education consisted of Disney songs, contemporary Christian pop, Mariah Carey (Thanks, Sister V.!), and whatever radio station the bus driver chose. So I guess you could say buying an album that mixed in a bit of blues and – gasp! – borderline twang was quite rebellious of me. (Quirky musical choices started at a young age. First cassette? Ace of Base’s The Sign. Yes, I’m quite the rebel.) Sister V. thought I was nuts (and still does, although her version of “Only Wanna Be With You” is spot on), but I was hooked. Hootie and the Blowfish is still one of my favorite bands, I love Darius Rucker’s solo albums, and the sound of that man’s voice never fails to make me feel safe, home, sound, and secure. (I know there are people reading this who just threw up in their mouths a little, but work with me here. Tomato, tomahto. We can’t all be music snobs.)

When I found out that Darius Rucker was coming to Wilkes-Barre’s F.M. Kirby Center, I pulled one of those trophy wife stunts where you hint about something by leveling commands, albeit in a sweet fashion. As in, “Bert, buy tickets to this concert. Now. Please.” (Saying please is being sweet for northern girls. I do try sometimes.) I like when Bert buys tickets for things because he is always more willing to shell out for better seats. The Kirby Center is a pretty cozy venue for a country concert, so I’m not sure any seat was a bad seat, but he did get us tickets almost dead center. I’m always up for no awkward neck angles.

Except the awkward neck angle caused by trying to take photos of yourself. I'm all up for that.

When we got to the theater, Froggy 101 was blaring country music inside and out, which seemed a fitting sendoff for our last concert in NEPA. (Personal Failure: Never landing a Froggy 101 bumper sticker while living here.) The opening act was a chick named Mallary Hope, who was cute and talented, but had a little bit too much of a Georgia twang for me. (Gotta keep those Georgia Peaches away from my Georgia Boy, right? ;)

Darius himself? *Sigh* Fantastic.

I tried to go into the concert fairly levelheaded, as it’s not really fair to hold a singer up to seventeen years of accumulated childhood/teenage/college memories he is completely unaware of, but it was a really fun time. Darius isn’t much of a talker – I can’t think of any act I’ve seen that moved so fast or played so many songs. He played three Hootie songs, four covers, and a whole slew of stuff from his two albums. Some personal highlights?

• “Only Wanna Be With You” accompanied by a BANJO. Bert stood up before I did. LOVE IT.
• Covers of “Ticks” and “Family Tradition,” two songs that never fail to bring me back to many evenings well spent in Bluefield, West Virginia.
• Hearing “It Won’t Be Like This For Long” live. I love when Darius sings about his kids. Chokes me up every time.
• “Let Her Cry” accompanied by a violin. (If that video doesn't make you miss the post-grunge 90s, I don't know what will.) They need to release country versions of some of those old songs.

So what's next on the country music schedule? I won't lie. Hearing "Ticks" for the first time in a long time kinda made me want to see Brad Paisley next. He's in Baltimore in March. Sarah's Birthday Bash, anyone? ;)