UNCASVILLE, Conn. – Touring in support of his latest release, True Believers, Darius Rucker made his way to a sold out Mohegan Sun Arena on Friday night. Rucker, formerly of Hootie and The Blowfish fame, has three country music releases under his belt. His latest and most successful country release, has solidified Rucker’s standing in the country music world and he seems to be truly embracing it.
Rucker came walking on the stage to a roar from the crowd and started right into one of his country hits, Radio. The stage was set up in two levels, with half his band on a riser about 15 feet in the air and the rest of the band joining Rucker on the same level. The next five songs, Heartbreak Road, This, Miss You, Alright and Shine, which was a sampling from all three of his country music releases and showed why Rucker’s songwriting fits into country so well.
Asking the crowd if they “remembered a little band named Hootie and The Blowfish, Rucker and company played the Hootie song Time, which was the first of many covers on the evening. Speaking of covers, the next song was just that, John Mellancamp’s Pink Houses. Actually half of the next six songs were Hootie songs including, Let Her Cry, Hold My Hand and Only Wanna Be With You.
A Hank Williams Jr song, Family Tradition, had Rucker bring out the shows openers, Joel Crouse and the Eli Young Band to each take a verse and sing along. Crouse drew a little laughter from the crowd when he went to sing his verse and realized the microphone wasn’t on. This actually made the band miss a beat, but they quickly figured it out and kept playing. Rucker and bandmates took time to celebrate on stage with a few shots of liquor while the other two sang their verses.
After thanking the openers for help with Family Tradition, Rucker told the crowd how he was a huge Burt Reynolds fan as a kid and always thought how cool he was as the Bandit in Smokey and The Bandit. This led to another cover, this time it was Jerry Reed’s East Bound and Down, which was the theme song for the Smokey movie.
The set was coming to a close with the Rucker playing the title track off his current release True Believers, before going into a cover of the band Old Crow Medicine Show’s Wagon Wheel. Wagon Wheel is also on the True Believers release and won Rucker a Grammy for best Country Solo Performance. This is only the third time in history that an African American has won a vocal performance Grammy award in a country music category. The show ended with Rucker and band covering Prince’s Purple Rain. An interesting choice, but this also shows how diverse Rucker is as an artist.
Overall, Darius Rucker put on a very good concert and the crowd seemed to really enjoy the show. It is amazing to see him up there as a successful country artist after having seen him live with Hootie and the Blowfish a few times. Although the set list was very heavy on covers and Hootie songs, it was a good mix of songs and it worked for the show. I am sure we will continue to see and hear great things from Darius Rucker in the future.
