Darius Rucker Is Here To Stay

For those who think former Hootie and the Blowfish lead singer Darius Rucker isn’t serious about his Country career and putting out a quality Country album, he may just prove you wrong. Rucker has spent 18 months putting together his debut album, and according to CMT.com, he pulled out all the big guns. Brad Paisley lends his supreme guitar skills to the track “All I Want” and Allison Kraus and Vince Gill sing on the ballad, “If I Had Wings.” Rucker’s album, Learn To Live, was released Sept. 16, but his first single, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It," is spending its second week as No. 3 on the Billboard Country charts and is No. 1 on the R&R, Mediabase & Music Row charts. Rucker is sure that the CD is classically Country and is unlike anything he has done before.“I think for me, it’s traditional Country the way I hear it. The way me and Frank Rogers (Learn to Live Producer) hear it and we really just tried to make Country we wanted to hear. When we took it to the label they said ‘Yeah, but man, that is so country.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, I told you guys I wasn’t going to make a Hootie and the Blowfish record and put fiddle on it. I’m going to make a Country record.’ So it’s just traditional Country—of what I hear as traditional Country,” said Rucker. Rucker promises that this won’t be his only Country album. He’s in it for the long haul, trying to prove that his switch to Country isn’t some gimmick but a heat felt love for the music.“I plan on doing a lot of Country records; I plan on doing as much Country as I can.”For the full interview with Rucker check out cmt.com.