IMPORTANT NOTICE – INSOMNIA CAFE HAS MOVED

Hi everyone,

for various reasons, I have decided to move Insomnia Cafe from WordPress to Blogger. This site will continue to remain open solely as a place for archive posts for the time being, however it will no longer be updated.

Please update your bookmarks, RSS feeds, etc. to our new location:

http://insomniacafepodcast.blogspot.com

New content will continue to be posted their regularly, including the podcast playlists, reviews, recommended albums and all the usual Insomnia Cafe content you’ve come to know and (hopefully) love.

See you over there,

Michael

RECOMMENDED ALBUM: Marianne Faithfull – Easy Come, Easy Go

Marianne Faithfull – Easy Come, Easy Go

Naive Records

Out now (Europe),

Available December 9th, 2008 (US)

Easy Come, Easy Go is the 22nd album from Marianne Faithfull and was recorded in December 2007 in NYC at the famous Sear Sound recording studio.

Easy Come, Easy Go is the third album of Marianne’s to be produced by Hal Willner (the others being Strange Weather and Blazing away). Marianne and Hal have been close friends since they’ve met, back in 1982, and have worked together on many different projects over the years, (most recently on three songs from Marianne’s acclaimed last album “Before the Poison”) but Easy Come, Easy Go is their first complete studio album since Strange Weather, more than 20 years ago.

Like that earlier album, Easy Come Easy Go is a collection of songs written by others and interpreted by Marianne. When Strange Weather was released in 1987, it was quickly hailed as one of Marianne’s finest recordings, so this time around the challenge was really high: Marianne and Hal had to make an album that was at least as good. Both artists have risen to the challenge beautifully: they achieve a timeless recording, a masterpiece.

All the songs have been chosen by Marianne and Hal, and range from Billie Holiday’s “Solitude” to “The Crane Wife” by current band The Decemberists. Other tracks are “Sing Me Back Home” by Merle Haggard, “Children of Stone” by Espers, the title track “Easy Come, Easy Go Blues” by Bessie Smith, Morrissey’s “Dear God Please Help Me”, Dolly Parton’s “Down from Dover ” and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s “Salvation”. Easy Come, Easy Go also includes some interesting guest vocalists; Keith Richards appears on the aforementioned “Sing Me Back Home” Antony Hegarty on “Oo Baby Baby” and Jarvis Cocker on Sondheim’s “Somewhere”. Other guest appearances on the album come from Rufus Wainwright who contributes powerful vocals to “Children of stone”’ while his aunt and mother Kate and Anna McGarrigle enchant on the “The Flandyke shore”. Warren Ellis plays his magic violin on 3 songs, and Nick Cave lends some vocals to “The Crane Wife”. Sean Lennon and Teddy Thompson play guitar on a couple of the tracks, and Cat Power harmonizes on “Hold On, Hold On”. The album was recorded live in the oldest recording studio in Manhattan the famous Sear Sound. The arrangements are by Cohen Bernstein and Weinberg Goldstein and were done specifically for Marianne. The String and Horn sections were led by L. Picket, and the band includes Marc Ribot, Greg Cohen, Rob Burger, Barry Reynolds and Jim White.

After the launch of the album, a short tour of the main capital cities of Europe will take place throughout November and December 2008. Marianne will recreate “Easy come Easy go” onstage using the same band as the recording sessions, complete with a horn and string section. As well as the new material, Marianne will be performing a selection of hits from her rich back catalogue; all in all it promises to be a fantastic show.

INSOMNIA CAFE SPECIAL – Patti Russo – Available Now!

Yes folks, our long-awaited new episode is finally available (or should be within a few hours of this post), and we’ve devoted the whole episode to one of my favorite women in all of music – known for her powerful, gutsy singing and equally knockout stage prescence, star of We Will Rock You, Queen collaborator, and Meat Loaf’s leading lady for close to 15 years in his touring band The Neverland Express, the one and only Miss Patti Russo!

It was a real treat to be able to interview Patti earlier this year at Amsterdam’s Heineken Music Hall, following an excellent performance from Meat and The Neverland Express as part of the Casa De Carne tour. She’s every bit as warm, funny, insightful and ballsy as you’d expect, and the interview (originally intended to be 15 minutes) absolutely flew by. In fact, I decided that rather than including it as a section of a regular show, we’d bookend the conversation with a couple of her solo songs and put the whole thing out on its own.

The two songs of Patti’s included in the podcast are:

Bring Me A Bible And A Beer (currently available to hear on her myspace – see below) and

Here We Are (available to purchase on iTunes)

My apologies for the poor sound on the actual interview. I made the mistake of thinking that the 120 euro digital recorder from Philips, bought especially for the occasion, might have some sort of quality surpassing my 15 year old micro-cassette dictaphone. I was wrong. Hopefully that won’t spoil your enjoyment of what is, in my opinion, a very lively and fun interview. We discuss everything from her work with Meat Loaf, the time she met Cher, her favorite Queen songs, bibles, beer and much more.

Head over to our iTunes page right now to download the full episode for free!

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=208833379

For more info on Patti, check the following links:

Patti-Rocks (fan site)

Patti Russo’s myspace

If you enjoy this episode, please consider making a small donation to Insomnia Cafe via Paypal at locusceruleusmedia@gmail.com – Insomnia Cafe is, and always has been an ad-free, non profit making blog and podcast. All travel expenses, equipment costs, etc. come out of my own somewhat thinly lined pockets. Donations will go towards helping us buy our own server space for the podcasts, a dot com domain, and yes, a functioning, decent quality digital-recorder.
– Michael

Guns N’ Roses ‘Chinese Democracy’ release date finally announced. In other news, Hell freezes over.

It’s a day many Guns N’ Roses fans thought would never come: Chinese Democracy, the album Axl Rose has labored over for more than a decade, will finally hit stores on Sunday, November 23rd (a departure from the normal Tuesday record release day). The album will be sold exclusively in Best Buy stores and online at Bestbuy.com and iTunes. A music video is in the works, and the band — in which Rose is the only remaining original member — is expected to tour in 2009, according to a source close to G N’ R. “The music is well worth waiting for,” says Gary Arnold, senior entertainment officer for Best Buy, which began negotiating the deal in 2007. “We’ve all heard the stories about this album, and now everybody gets to hear that it’s real.” The album’s 14 songs include the poppy “Better,” the industrial rocker “Shackler’s Revenge” (featured in the new Rock Band 2), the power ballad “If the World” (which plays in the new film Body of Lies), the anthemic title track and a song called “Scraped” that was previously unknown to fans. “It’s going to be a great rock Christmas,” Arnold says. “I just hope it doesn’t take 14 years for the next one.” Bestbuy.com has a listings page up that isn’t taking pre-orders yet but does suggest that there will be several different versions of the album available (or at least a few different covers).

Source: Rolling Stone

RECOMMENDED ALBUM – Lucinda Williams: Little Honey

Lucinda Williams – Little Honey

(Lost Highway Records)

Available now.

Lucinda Williams has always been adept at painting landscapes of the soul, illuminating the spirit’s shadowy nooks and shimmering crannies — but she’s never captured the sun breaking through the clouds as purely as on her new Lost Highway release, Little Honey.

“I’m in a different phase of my life, so there are more happy moments on this album,” the singer-songwriter says of her ninth studio set. “ ‘Darkly introspective,’ is one phrase people have used to describe a lot of my songs. There are moody songs, but I’m looking outside myself a little bit more. These aren’t ‘boy meets girl, boy leaves girl, girl gets bummed out’ songs — there’s a lot more than that going on.”

Williams wastes no time signaling that mood change, leading into Little Honey‘s opener, “Real Love” with a false start riff that’s the six-string equivalent of a friendly wink – then sidling into the tune’s hard-rocking vibe with a sensual slink that underscores the passion of finding exactly what that title indicates. The bluesy physicality of that tune is echoed in several of Little Honey‘s tracks, from the charmingly chugging “Honeybee” to the gorgeous melodies of “If Wishes Were Horses”.

“I’m stepping out and writing about things other than unrequited love. But because that’s not part of my experience anymore,” she explains, “doesn’t mean I’m going to stop being a songwriter. There are plenty of other important things to write about — the state of the world, for one thing — I don’t buy into the myth that because you get to a certain level of contentment, you have to throw in the towel.”

While Little Honey certainly has plenty to move the hips, Williams doesn’t neglect her uncanny ability to do the same to the heart. The sparse delta delivery she affords “Heaven Blues” — a keening consideration of what might await on the other side – hits home thanks to its arresting blend of hope and vexation, while the epic “Rarity” rides soft waves of brass (instrumentation never before heard on one of her discs).

“The one thing the songs have in common is directness,” she says. “The beauty of country and blues is their simplicity, it’s about getting things across in a really direct way. I’ve spent a while stretching out and going in different directions, which is my nature. But I feel that I can always embrace that original simplicity again — that’s why I went back to record ‘Circles and Xs,’ which I actually wrote back in 1985.”

Over the course of a recording career that’s now in its fourth decade, the Louisiana-born singer has navigated terrain as varied as the dust-bowl starkness of her 1978 debut Ramblin’ (recorded on the fly with a mere 250 dollar budget behind her) and the stately elegance of last year’s West (which Vanity Fair called “the record of a lifetime”). Between those signposts, Lucinda Williams established a reputation as one of rock’s most uncompromising and consistently fascinating writers and performers, earning kudos from artists as diverse as Mary-Chapin Carpenter (who helped win Williams a Grammy with her recording of “Passionate Kisses”) and Elvis Costello (who joins her for a duet on the Little Honey mini-drama “Jailhouse Tears”).

Williams learned the importance of professional integrity around the same time most kids are learning their ABCs, thanks in a large part to her award-winning poet father Miller Williams — who invested her with a “culturally rich, but economically poor” upbringing where artistic expression was of primary importance. Later, she’d hone her vision playing hardscrabble clubs around her adopted home state of Texas, absorbing the influence of sources as varied as Bob Dylan and Lightnin’ Hopkins.

“I sometimes say I just started out singing folk songs acoustically by default,” she recalls. “Even when I was playing open mic nights by myself, I’d be sitting up on stage with my Martin guitar doing ‘Angel’ by Jimi Hendrix or ‘Politician’ by Cream alongside Robert Johnson and Memphis Minnie songs. It never occurred to me to pick just one style.”

She’s never settled for any sort of pigeonholing, entering the ‘90s with the slow-burning Sweet Old World — a disc that, as much as any release, helped place the Americana movement at the forefront of listeners’ minds — and cementing her own spot in the cultural lexicon with 1998’s rough-hewn masterpiece Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.

The latter disc earned Williams her first Grammy as a performer, but rather than try to capture the same lightning in a bottle a second time, she stretched her boundaries on 2001’s Essence, an album rife with both cerebral interludes and soul-stirring stomps. In recent times, Williams has broadened her palette even further through frequent collaborations with kindred spirits — acts as varied as The North Mississippi All-Stars and Flogging Molly — who share her uncommon sense of non-revivalist traditionalism.

Little Honey continues that ongoing forward quest, mixing country, R & B and blues-rock elements with adventurous aplomb. The disc gets an added octane boost from the powerful chemistry between the musicians, primarily drawn from Williams’ latest road band (now collectively known as Buick 6) — includes bassist David Sutton, Eels veterans Butch Norton and Chet Lyster as well as longtime collaborator Doug Pettibone.

Williams augments that core unit with a passel of like-minded folks spanning a huge chunk of the musical spectrum, from octogenarian singing legend Charlie Louvin to power-pop vets Susannah Hoffs and Matthew Sweet, the latter of whom helped arrange the Spector-tinged “Little Rock Star” — applying studio skills that prompted Williams to dub him “this generation’s Brian Wilson.”

“I feel that this is the most eclectic record I’ve ever done, and I’ve always been known for being eclectic,” she says. “ For this album, I was comfortable just letting the songs flow, and not worried about being so serious and heavy and having to top myself — and I think that shows.”

She needn’t have worried for a minute because, with Little Honey, Lucinda Williams has indeed topped herself again.

RECOMMENDED ALBUM – Jolie Holland: The Living & The Dead

Jolie Holland – The Living And The Dead

(ANTI)

In Stores Now.

The Living & the Dead is a work between worlds, of moving on and finding something new, of missed chances, and promises on distant horizons. From the past (the haunting simplicity of “Love Henry,”which Bob Dylan tells us pre-dates the Bible) to the future (the stunning emotional complexity of her song,”The Future”), the Texas-bred singer-songwriter navigates a new rock approach that is built upon the folk, blues and jazz spectors that populated her three acclaimed previous albums.

Holland composed these songs in her old home town of San Francisco, as well as on the road across North America and Europe. A few were born during a writing retreat in New Zealand. Arising out of her life stories, and from the rich estuaries of the mysterious tales of other adventurers, her songs are grounded by true experience.

The Living and the Dead is an exhilarating ride with a higher voltage than the previous albums, music that had already left fans and critics at a loss to describe her singular vision as performer and writer. Holland worked with co-producer Shahzad Ismaily (Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Two Foot Yard, Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog) in sessions both in Brooklyn, New York and Portland, Oregon. With contributions from guitar maestros Marc Ribot (who played with Tom Waits and Elvis Costello) and M. Ward (who also produced one song and helped shape the sound of others) and drummer Rachel Blumberg (M. Ward, Bright Eyes, the Decemberists), Holland has created an album that serves as a career statement. Holland’s voice is the same beautiful instrument, which has never before sounded so confident, relaxed or emotive.

With 2003’s Catalpa (essentially home-made demos released due to popular interest and then nominated for the prestigious Short List Music Prize by Tom Waits), 2004’s Escondida and 2006’s Springtime Can Kill You (which Rolling Stone said “feels better than a good cry”), she evolved a sound that existed in its own time, as if it could have been recorded anywhere between God knows when and yesterday. The Living & the Dead shares that same quality, but its timelessness is rooted in the present. Take Holland’s description of the song “Your Big Hands”:

“It’s just terribly naïve—it’s the kind of song Daniel Johnston made me feel brave enough to write,” she says. “It starts out with these beautiful dirty guitar chords from M Ward, almost like a Rolling Stones song…the overall feel of this song owes a debt to Waits’ version of rock ala ‘Downtown Train’…then, in the middle of the song, all that has disappeared…you feel as though you’re wandering around in the woods–there are owls and shooting stars…but then the song burns out with a mess of distorted guitars.”

In many ways, this album is a chronicle of her own journey. The driven “Corrido Por Buddy” (about a friend who sunk so far into addiction that Holland didn’t recognize him on the street) is both character study and self-examination/recrimination – a sense magnified for the singer by not just one, but two instances of eerily identical poltergeist phenomena in the studios while the band was recording “…Buddy.” The phenomena were witnessed by three band members, and occurred both in Portland and New York, during the song’s production.

“The Future” is a presentation of beautiful poetry which arose out of personal misery – “When I wrote that I was really kind of crying and holding on to the piano—it’s about the hell of breaking up and moving out at the same time.”

“Palmyra” is a prayer for the broken-hearted and traumatized, both individuals and communities. The first half paints a picture a love-lorn traveler pulling herself back together after a disastrous affair. The second half is lovingly and respectfully dedicated to the hard-pressed people of New Orleans’ Ninth Ward, hallowed estuary of some of the finest music the world has ever witnessed.

Upon hearing the completed album, Holland says, “I hear a lot of interesting connections between the songs that I didn’t premeditate. ‘Sweet Loving Man,’ (a very modern love song, based on South Louisiana dance music) is sitting right next to ‘Love Henry’ (which is ancient as hell.) The first song is about a lover who sets out to attempt a life free from heart-break, by any means necessary. And the second is a twisted tale of a scheming rich woman who kills her lover in a fit of jealousy. It’s like putting two opposite colors next to each other on a painting.”

The perceived space between ancient and modern seems to fade away. If something speaks to you and is meaningful, dates can become irrelevant. In that way, Holland’s work has always been characterized as timeless. This album lives and breathes through memories of the past via reflection and resurrection, and grows into the present tense. The Living and the Dead reflects those timeless elements that make Holland’s songwriting so powerful. It’s multi-faceted, emotionally rich, and a continuation of one songwriter’s existence within her own worlds and outside others. Enjoy Yourself.

INSOMNIA CAFE PODCAST: New Episode & Playlist – Season 2, Episode 3

Tonight the new episode of Insomnia Cafe will go live on iTunes. Here’s the full playlist, and clickable links to each artist’s website.

Black Velvet Elvis – The Girl With The Strawberry Hair

Melissa Ricks- Heartbeat
Kelly’s Lot- Joan Of Arc

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis- Going Up The Country
Sharon Robinson- Party For The Lonely + interview

Billy Bragg- O Freedom
Jean Synodinos- Waiting For The Light To Change

David Bennett Cohen- Blues For A Summer Dream

Visit our iTunes page and download the episode (Episode 9/Season 2, Episode 1) at: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=208833379

Download iTunes for free at http://www.apple.com/itunes

Send feedback to: insomniacafepodcast@gmail.com

AVAILABLE NOW (US): Vonda Shepard – From The Sun

Vonda Shepard – From The Sun

Available now in the US, European release to follow in November.

Vonda Shepard’s career has ranged in scope from early hits in the late ’80s with “Don’t Cry Ilene” (Reprise Records) and “Can’t We Try” (with Dan Hill) to her work as an independent artist, and then as the voice of Ally McBeal, selling more than 12 million records worldwide throughout the span of the hit TV show.

Her magnificent new CD From the Sun finds her indie roots firmly planted. Infusing her deep and melodic songwriting style with splashes of powerful vocals, From the Sun is also Vonda’s first studio release since 2003 and her fourth collaboration with legendary producer Mitchell Froom (Crowded House, Elvis Costello, Randy Newman). Froom describes the album as “modern-day soul” with Vonda’s solid piano playing and soulful, blues-inspired voice driving the tracks.

From the Sun also features guitarist James Ralston (Tina Turner), bassist Jim Hanson (Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen), and drummer Matt Chamberlain (David Bowie, Tori Amos, John Mayer), as well as mixer/engineer David Boucher (Daniel Powter, Indigo Girls, Andrew Bird).

“I love performing live so much – I wanted to write songs that I could really wail on. I love the idea of making and releasing my own records exactly the way I envision them, then going on the road, getting the music out there and having a blast doing it all. I have tons of energy for music and life.”

From the Sun highlights the work of an artist who began performing original material at small L.A. clubs at age 14. Having released five studio albums of original material, a live retrospective and DVD, and four soundtracks for the series Ally McBeal since, Vonda is a remarkable talent with boundless energy and inspiration. Plans are underway for Vonda to support From the Sun with a U.S. tour, TV appearances, in-store performances and radio airplay. The CD will also be released in Europe November 14 on PanShot Records, and an extensive European tour will begin in early 2009.

At a time when pop stars come and go in the flash of a camera bulb, Vonda Shepard’s From the Sun is yet another reason to believe that there is an artist who stands apart, continues to bring us the quality of music that we crave, and is here to stay.

AVAILABLE NOW: Amanda Palmer – Who Killed Amanda Palmer

Amanda Palmer – Who Killed Amanda Palmer

(Roadrunner Records)

Multi-talented songstress Amanda Palmer is set to release her first solo album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer on Roadrunner Records on September 16th. One half of the creative force behind The Dresden Dolls, Amanda has amassed mountains of critical acclaim touring the world as vocalist, keyboardist and songwriter for her band. By experimenting with broader musical stylings on Who Killed Amanda Palmer, Amanda showcases endless creativity, exposing herself as a woman whose artistic endeavors have no boundaries.

Who Killed Amanda Palmer began as a minimal affair: Amanda decided to record a solo album for piano and voice, made in her bedroom, finished in a week. During a chance meeting with Ben Folds in Australia, the two bonded over mutual loves and suddenly the record was moved out of the bedroom and into Folds’ Nashville-based, piano-filled recording studio. With Ben Folds acting as producer, the songs on Who Killed Amanda Palmer (a name initially meant as a Twin Peaks reference that has since come to take on new meanings for Amanda) began to come alive, resulting in what is some of the best recorded work of her multi-faceted career.

Mixing the magical and the macabre, the mundane and the sentimental, Who Killed Amanda Palmer is a musical tour de force, the culmination of nearly ten years’ worth of songwriting. Some songs on the album pop and twist with the intensity of their own subject matter while others are soft and intimate, revealing sides of Amanda not usually seen within her work in The Dresden Dolls. Featuring guest turns from the likes of The Dead Kennedys’ East Bay Ray (on “Guitar Hero”), St. Vincent’s Annie Clark (on a warped take on Carousel’s “What’s the Use of Wondrin”), cellist Zoe Keating, and string arrangements by master composer Paul Buckmaster, Who Killed Amanda Palmer gives Amanda’s compositions new color via expansive instrumentation and glorious arrangements.

Who Killed Amanda Palmer will feature liner notes written by celebrated graphic novelist Neil Gaimen, with whom Amanda will be collaborating on a photography book in tandem with the album’s release. Amanda is set to embark on a tour in support of the album this fall.

The tracklisting for Who Killed Amanda Palmer is as follows:

1. Astronaut

2. Runs in the Family

3. Ampersand

4. Leeds United

5. Blake Says

6. Strength Through Music

7. Guitar Hero

8. Have to Drive

9. What’s the Use of Wondrin

10. Melissa Mahoney

11. The Point of It All

12. Another Year

AVAILABLE NOW: Darius Rucker – Learn To Live

Darius Rucker – Learn To Live

(Capitol Nashville)

It’s a voice that needs no introduction. Darius Rucker’s soulful, rich baritone instantly resonates as a comforting companion in this journey we call life.

On Learn To Live, his first project for Capitol Records Nashville, Rucker has created a work that is steeped in the country traditions of meaningful lyrics and resonant melodies, yet sounds completely modern.

As the best country albums do, Learn To Live takes the listener on a trip. The album’s arc covers major life themes such as falling in love, birth and death. “This CD is a journey,” Rucker says. “I realized I’m 42. I’m not going to write many songs about drinking, chasing girls or booty calls. I was going to write songs about having kids and stuff – songs about life.”

Guests on the album include Brad Paisley on the humorous “All I Want” and Vince Gill and Alison Krauss on the inspirational “If I Had Wings.”  “Brad just showed up in jeans and a t-shirt. To me, he’s one of the best guitar players around,” Rucker says. Gill and Krauss made Rucker, the ultimate fan, dizzy with delight. “They sounded like angels. You have these two artists singing on top of my voice . . . it gave me chills.”

Rucker has always had a close kinship to country music and country artists.  “Growing up in South Carolina, it was always around, always on the radio,” he says. First an acolyte of Buck Owens, Rucker naturally gravitated towards Dwight Yoakam, New Grass Revival and Radney Foster in his twenties. “When I first heard Radney’s voice on Foster & Lloyd’s ‘Crazy Over You,’ I thought, ‘this guy’s voice is bigger than Texas.’ I’m thinking, ‘this is cool songwriting.’ ”

Rucker’s career path veered first into pop as the lead singer/co-writer for the wildly successful Hootie & the Blowfish. The Grammy-winning group’s 1994 debut, Cracked Rear View, is one of the best-selling albums in history, surpassing the 16 million album mark.

Fans of the band, many of whom have made the natural migration from pop to country radio, realize that Hootie & the Blowfish’s catchy songs were rooted in the same elements that make great country music. In fact, Rucker says, “We talked about being a country band, and I just got outvoted! They also used to kid me about how I always was bringing them country songs that they had to turn into rock songs . . .”   Therefore, making his first country CD was not so much a big leap for Rucker as simply a slight shift in Rucker’s musical evolution.  As Billboard magazine noted, “There’s a sense of purpose that makes Rucker feel like a member of the country family, rather than an interloper…Sounds like country may have a shining new star.”

As a student of great songwriting, Rucker earned his advanced degree while working on Learn To Live.  “Writing with those songwriters was like going to Songwriting University,” he says. His professors/co-writers included such legendary writers as Rivers Rutherford (Brad Paisley, Tim McGraw, Gretchen Wilson); Frank Rogers (Brad Paisley, Trace Adkins) and Clay Mills (Diamond Rio, Reba McEntire).  “So many people in pop try to write all these psychedelic crazy lyrics, and I’m sure I’ve been part of that – but that’s something you don’t find in country music.  The thing I like most about country songs is that they keep it simple. I love that, and I love the melodies.”

Fellow South Carolina native Rogers also served as the album’s producer, a job he secured immediately after meeting Rucker:  “In the first 30 minutes, we wrote ‘All I Want.’ The label asked if I wanted to meet the other [potential producers] and I said, ‘Never mind. I met my guy’.”

The success of first single, the bittersweet “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It,” shows that Rucker had country fans at hello. The single, co-written by Rucker with Clay Mills, soared into the top 15 at radio even more quickly than anticipated. “It just breaks your heart,” says Rucker of the song. “And it was country enough that it wouldn’t be perceived as me being pop and just putting fiddle on a song.”

That song and the universal emotion it evokes typifies the stripped-bare nature of Learn To Live. “I want people to take away a sense of realness,” Rucker says. “I want everybody to find a song on it that they can relate to and go, ‘Wow, I did that, too.’ ”

For Rucker, the welcome mat that country radio has laid out for him has been extraordinarily gratifying. “The reception has been unbelievable,” he says.  But smart programmers know that teens raised on Hootie are now confirmed country listeners, so hearing Rucker is like hearing an old friend.  “People listen to country music because they know it’s where you can find songs.”

While Hootie & the Blowfish are an ongoing project, Rucker’s solo career is taking center stage for the foreseeable future. He is devoted to promoting Learn To Live. “We’re taking a long time off,” he says. “It’s not, ‘make one record and go back to Hootie,’” Rucker says.  “I’m making country music.”

Darius Rucker’s current hit, “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It,” has broken territory in country music that hasn’t been broken in two decades.

The Hootie + Blowfish singer is the first African-American artist to appear in country music’s Top 10 since Charley Pride last did that in 1988. In fact, the song Charley did it with has a title that now seems somewhat appropriate, “Shouldn’t It Be Easier Than This.”

Ending that particular drought was not Darius’ intent.

“I was just trying to make a record that people wanted to hear,” he told the Associated Press.

Darius didn’t particularly expect to become a country star, though he certainly liked the music. In fact, he did a Burger King commercial a few years ago dressed in a western suit while singing the country classic “Big Rock Candy Mountain.” And in some ways, the transition to country has a bit of logic to it from his standpoint. He says Dwight Yoakam and Foster & Lloyd were both influential on his songwriting when he was coming up as a musician.

“Back in the day,” he said, “I wrote a lot of country songs and we turned them into rock ‘n’ roll songs. Now I get to write those songs and play them as country.”

www.dariusrucker.com

Our thoughts: Much has been made of Darius’ transition to country music, but this new direction is unlikely to surprise long-term Hootie fans. Rucker has already long since proved himself an able contender in the country arena with songs like ‘Desert Mountain Showdown’ and ‘One By One’ from the band’s ‘Musical Chairs’ album. Nevertheless, recording in Nashville has brought out the best in Darius’ warm, rich vocals and pop sensibilities. The songs are catchy and sweet – though riddled with country cliches (i.e. what I learned on my father’s knee, cautionary tales of drinkin’ too much and waking up with an ex-girlfriend, driving away from her on a dusty highway) but its all so charmingly executed, it’s impossible to dislike.