Things I probably shouldn't say out loud: I like Darius Rucker's country music

Definitely a consideration, o_t. Female singer-songwriters can still do OK (though not guitar-only), but where can a man do that? Folk music is dead.

 

If Bob Dylan didn't have all his fame from the 60s, do you think his record would sell or get any airplay. I'm sorry if you think otherwise, but the answer is a resounding NO! Dylan's popularity today is more from a novelty standpoint. Anyone under 30 who buys a ticket to a Dylan show is doing so just to see if he'll yell "GET OFF MY LAWN!"

 

Rucker is 100,000% right on there being no home these days for a "Cracked Rear View." (But, then again, there's no home on regular radio for most music these days.)

I think people forget just how fucking ubiquitious that album was. They were played EVERYWHERE--Top 40, album rock (there were a few grittier tunes on the album), A/C. Everywhere. They owned MTV for most of 1995. That's probably why they disappeared so quickly...people got burnt out on them. And they knew it was going to happen, too: I remember a Rolling Stone cover story on the band in which they seemed pretty jaded for a bunch of guys moving 100,000 units a week. Hence the title of the second album: "Fairweather Johnson."

I enjoyed the hell out of "Cracked Rear View" and one of the followups ("Musical Chairs"). Was it ground-breaking? No. But they were just good, solid songs. And as Babar says, you had to appreciate how hard those guys worked and how smart they were. I remember reading they had their own benefits plan. Smart, smart guys.

Most of the time, anyway: Funny that Tony mentions Dylan, since he sued them for including some of his lyrics in "Only Wanna Be With You."

 

Good point. Bob ain't nothing compared to Hootie!

 

good point

hey, have ya heard the forthcoming son volt record, american central dust?

pretty damn awesome

 

lots of solo acts with guitars working the alt-country scene.
you got guys like jay farrar, alejandro escovedo, and countless others working the scene.
and if pallister thinks escoveda sucks, then he's just off his rocker. and, oddly enough, great american country was showing a special on darius rucker.

 

same question ... you heard the new son volt? american central dust?

pretty great

 

The thread title's wrong. Darius Rucker is not a country music artist.

 

Gotta go with BYH on this one. Hootie and the Blowfish reminded me a lot of Huey Lewis and the News because, though the music wasn't challenging, they sounded like they were having a lot of fun, were grateful for their 15 minutes or so of fame and would be fine with moving on.

Heard - and have - much better music in the CD bin. But enjoy Hootie and Huey Lewis as I do much of the rest of the collection.

 

I can think of 100,000 things I'd do before take advice on what's cool or what's good from write then drink.

 

Darius Rucker had a soul album out a few years ago, too, with a Snoop cameo on it.

http://www.amazon.com/Back-Then-Darius-Rucker/dp/B000066HQD/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1241385043&sr=1-1