How many of y'all remember when Hootie kicked the Blowfish to the curb, signed with Hidden Beach Recordings and released an album under his government name, Darius Rucker? Yeah, I recall it well and found it a hard pill to swallow myself.
Actually, Hootie wasn't even Darius' nickname, and the group simply took a break at the time. Selling tens of millions of albums can be quite taxing, you know. So during that downtime, Rucker decided to explore his roots and tried his hand at making some sweet soul music. The result was the 2002 release, Back To Then, which was quite an unfortunate album. Intrigued at the notion of Rucker pairing with neo-soul/jazz label Hidden Beach, I gave the CD a listen, but it just wasn't my cup of chamomile. The only song that I could bear to listen to more than once was his duet with Jill Scott, "Sometimes I Wonder," for no other reason than Jilly, to be honest. Plus, you gotta love a song that contains the lyric "from the rooter to the tooter." With a line like that, this should've been nominated for a Grammy--or at least a Soul Train award.
Darius Rucker: "Sometimes I Wonder" feat. Jill Scott
Now, Darius is recording a country album according to his website, which makes perfect sense. Perhaps this style of music will be a better fit for him, because neo-soul wasn't it.
