First and foremost Darius Rucker is a top notch front man and
an entertainer of the highest degree. Regardless of the ethnic diversity, or
lack of it to be more precise, within Nashville’s major country music labels, the
executives were getting a sure fire winner when Darius headed to Music City to
record the next phase of his music career back in 2008. Digging deep into his
South Carolina roots and refreshing his natural charisma led to enormous
success in sales of both records and concert tickets. Perhaps it was Darius’s eye
for a challenge which sees him at the forefront of Nashville’s latest raid on
the UK market. So eighteen months on from a successful slot at the inaugural Country
2 Country Festival, Darius Rucker has kept his promise to return to the UK with
the added bonus of a provincial tour.
In the last half a dozen years, this prime venue in
Wolverhampton has sporadically dallied with country music by hosting Hal
Ketchum and Guy Clark but it was very much the changing of the guard
audience-wise with this latest promotion. Darius admitted on more than one
occasion that his heart will always be with Hootie and the Blowfish but fair
play to the respect he pays to country music with his approach to the stage performance he puts on. Whether covering Hank Jr’s ‘Family
Tradition’ or ensuring pedal steel, fiddle, banjo and mandolin play their
part, any fears of a watered down version of this great genre were allayed. The
Blowfish part circa 2008-2014 is in the format of the South Carolina Grey Boys,
a fine bunch of pickers mixing some genuine roots music with soulful keys and
refined guitar rock. Together they blistered their way through an hour and
three quarter set led by the consummate aura of Darius Rucker, primarily on
vocals with the odd acoustic guitar segment.
The breadth of Darius’s lengthy career in this show was celebrated, ranging from Hootie numbers such as ‘Time’
through to his latest single cut ‘Home
Grown Honey’. It was no surprise that the popular songs like ‘Alright’ and ‘True Believers’ were greeted with exuberant audience enthusiasm which
was only surpassed by the contrasting and curious encore pairing of ‘Wagon Wheel’ and ‘Champagne Supernova’. With a polite nod to the Old Crow Medicine
Show and references to Tom Petty and Bob Dylan, there were moments of embracing
‘cool Americana’ alongside the trademark brashness and posturing. Amongst the
usual suspects for that premium concert experience, including his country chart
debuting no.1 single ‘Don’t Think I Don’t
Think About It’, was the impressive track ‘Southern State of Mind’.
Joining Darius on stage for the Hank Jr cover was opening
act Patrick Davis who had earlier done a sterling job warming up the crowd with
vibrant rigour and plenty of well received rapport. With a friendship going
back to their South Carolina upbringing, Patrick and Darius exuded a kindred
spirit which has seen the former share many tunes in the guise of his Nashville
song writing day job. In the obvious style of chasing that lucrative cut, there
was a strong contemporary feel to Patrick’s songs which in my view peaked with
the fabulous ‘Numbers’. A little
humour surrounded his cover of ‘I’m on
Fire’ but in the name of perfecting that warm up slot, Patrick scored favourably with many in a highly respectable West Midlands turnout.
This assembly of Midlands based music fans mixed hard core
Darius Rucker‘ believers’ with others curious to see a rare regional visit of a
major country music artist. His musical background and style will naturally court a divided
opinion in country music circles but what was in evidence at Wolverhampton’s
Wulfrun Hall was a respectful and major league performer at the top of his
game.