Here's a news flash: Charleston loves Rascal Flatts, as evidenced by the polite yet wildly enthusiastic crowd that bumped up against the rafters of the Civic Center auditorium.
Also quite telling was the fact that RF gave West Virginia a Saturday night show that could have been easily done in a bigger city playing before a much larger audience in a more spacious venue.
Thanks, Flatts. And thanks also for bringing along the extremely talented Darius Rucker as your opening act.
Oddly enough, Rucker, the former front man of the alt-rock supergroup Hootie & The Blowfish, turned out to be the country portion of the evening's entertainment.
The South Carolina native seems to possess a doctorate in debuts, having struck No. 1 gold on both his first album and single.
Rucker certainly hit the ground running by starting the show with "Forever Road," the opening salvo from his groundbreaking CD "Learn to Live." From that point on there was no stopping his high-energy performance.
Rucker's rapid rise has to be due in part to his smooth, confident, everyman voice, making it quite easy for all to sing along with his catchy, thoughtful tunes.
His five-member band had little trouble keeping up as he showcased several songs from the aforementioned CD. "Alright," "Learn to Live," "It Won't Be Like This for Long," "History in the Making" and "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" were all highlights and "All I Want" and "Drinkin' and Dialin'" spotlighted Rucker's ability to vocalize with tongue planted firmly in cheek.
A cover of Hank Jr.'s "Family Tradition" was aces high, and Rucker thankfully acknowledged his Hootie history with excellent renditions of "Let Her Cry" and "Only Wanna Be With You."
Rucker ended his dozen-song set with a blowout version of a Prince classic. Anyone who can country-up "Purple Rain" is bowling right up my alley.
Darius Rucker is certainly an artist I haven't heard enough or the last of.
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