Darius Rucker

Darius Rucker was originally the lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish, but now he is a country singer that is hitting the top country charts fast and is not stopping. Darius Rucker has a few chart toping hits such as “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About it,” “Alright.” And “It Won’t Be Like This For Long.” Not many singers can go from mainstream pop/ rock to country and still be a hit artist, Darius Rucker is an exception. Many of Hootie and the Blowfish’s followers have begun to follow Darius Rucker in his solo career. Darius Rucker has also gained many new followers that love his new music.

Darius Rucker was born and raised in Charleston, SC where he was exposed to the sounds of Al Green, Gladys Knight, and Otis Redding when he was young. Darius Rucker has not only tried mainstream pop/rock music and country music but also R&B music. Back in 2002 Darius Rucker introduced his mellow, R&B-influenced style of music, which featured Jill Scott and Snoop Dogg.

Darius Rucker has a tour going on right now with tickets still on sale in some cities. On October 18^th he will be in Kelseyville, CA; October 20^{th Los} Angeles, CA; November 1^st Nampa, ID; November 13^th Tulsa, OK; November 14^th Robinsonville, MS. The list goes on and on it you want to see all of his tour dates go to http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/rucker_darius/tours.jhtml.

On August 20^th of this year Darius Rucker had a platinum party for his album Learn to Live. The party was taken place in Nashville Tennessee. Mike Dungan from Capital Records’ recognized the platinum status of Darius Rucker’s album and then presented Darius Rucker with it. This was a big accomplishment for Darius Rucker because this showed that he can be a successful solo country singer.
New York Times claimed that Darius Rucker’s debut album is “one of the year’s most vibrant country albums.” Variety declared that “country music has a new major star, and the genre may never be the same.” When hearing that kind of stuff being said about your music that can be some pretty heavy stuff. Darius Rucker has been invited to perform on The Late Show, The Tonight Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Jimmy Kimmel Show, and more. Darius Rucker has been all over the world wide web and the television that unless you live under a rock you know who he is and that he has transferred to country music.

The album Learn to Live covers major life themes such as falling in love, birth, and death. Darius Rucker says “This CD is a journey, I realize 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.” This shows that Darius Rucker is not going just sing about anything to sell albums, he is going to write about what he knows and hope that other connect with him about the songs he writes.

Upcoming Concerts in Michigan

For those of you who want to find a country concert to go to in the upcoming future you are in luck. On November 6^th Montgomery Gentry will be at the Palace of Auburn Hills. If you haven’t been to one of their concerts I highly recommend it. They are amazing in concert. Other than Montgomery gentry Kenny Rogers will be in Michigan. On December 11^th Wynonna will be at the Motor City Casino Hotel. Then on December 18^th Kenny Rogers will be at the Fox Theatre. No matter what time of the year it is, there are always country music artists coming to Michigan.

All I Wan to Do

When it comes to an excellent performance, Sugarland puts on ones that are up there on the charts. For anyone who has been following Sugarland they would know that there were originally three group members, but in early 2006 Kristen Hall left the group because she decided she wanted to stay home and write songs herself. Since Kristen Hall left it has been just Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush rocking out the country charts.

Back when Sugarland was a trio they had the chart topping song “Baby Girl”. Since then they have had many chart topping hits such as “All I Want to do,” “It Happens,” “Want To,” and “Everyday America.” These are all upbeat, fun to sing songs, but Sugarland also has some slow, sad songs such as “Stay,” and “Joey;” which “Joey” is slowly but surely climbing the charts.

Jennifer Nettles has an excellent voice that mesmerizes her audience. She can sing those high notes right along with those lower notes. Nettles doesn’t seem to get winded when performing her concert even though she is singing and dancing throughout the whole concert. If someone was to watch Nettles sing they would notice all her little quirks. For example when Nettles sings her legs are always shoulder length apart as if to steady herself. Also when she sings she tries to smile the full time, but sometimes she makes weird faces when she hits those higher notes.

For those of you who want to go see Sugarland, I am sorry to say this, but their current tour is not coming to Michigan. On October first they will be in Bloomsburg, PA; then on the second they will be in W. Springfield Ma. The seventh they will be in Albany, NY and on the eighth they will be in New York NY. For those of you would drive that far to go see them I would recommend it, because they put on an amazing performance that is worth the drive. On the ninth they will be in Buffalo NY. They do have some shows left for those willing fans that would drive to see them, but not many.

Sugarland has nine albums out right now. Their oldest album is the Twice the Speed of Life which was released in 2004. After that album they had their Stand Back up album that was created for proceeds to go towards the hurricane Relief. Then they had their Sessions@AOL that came out in 2005. Next was Down in Mississippi (up to no good) and Enjoy the Ride which both came out in 2006. In 2008, one of their best CDs, came out entitles Love on the Inside. Since 2008 there has only been two CDs that Sugarland has produced one came out on August fourth named Live on the Inside then later this year their new album is to be released on October thirteenth entitled Gold and Green.

For anyone who is not a part of Sugarland’s fan club yet and would like to be go to http://www.sugarlandfan.com/ and you can join.

Country Man

When it comes to newer country artist Luke Bryan comes to mind. Luke Bryan has some hits such as “Country Man”, “All My friends Say”, “You Make Me Want To”, and “We Rode in Trucks”. Many people do not know this but the song “Good Directions” was actually co written by Luke Bryan with Billy Currington.

Luke Bryan‘s real name is actually Thomas Luther Bryan, his birthday is July 17, 1976. The hometown of Luke Bryan is Leesburg Georgia. Sorry to say it ladies but Luke Bryan is married to Caroline with a baby boy names Thomas Boyer Bryan born in 2008. Luke Bryan got his first guitar at the age of fourteen and he learned how to play it then joined various local bands and began playing in clubs.

Luke Bryan is an excellent artist that creates songs that can relate to everyone. We words his songs that it makes everyone want to sing along. When Luke Bryan is in concert he gives off a great energy and dances for the crowd. He had girls in the crowd yelling cat calls as he danced to his music. Luke Bryan is one singer that can dance and sing at the same time. If he wasn’t married he would have a lot more girls falling over him more than he already does.

Luke Bryan maybe famous, but he doesn’t let it go to his head. He is still the nice guy that everyone loves just like he was before he got his record deal. Luke Bryan is not one of those people who get famous and go out every night and party to get in the tabloids. He would rather be at home with his wife and baby boy. When baby Thomas grows up he will have a good life because of the money his daddy makes being a famous, loved country singer; but it is unlikely for him to be pig headed because of who his dad is, since his dad is nothing like that.

Starting on October 30^th in Jacksonville Florida Luke Bryan will be starting his own first tour as a headliner. This is a big step up for Luke Bryan; Luke Bryan has opened for Kenny Chesney, Brooks and Dunn, Dierks Bentley, and Trace Adkins. No matter if Luke Bryan opens for an artist or is the headliner he is an amazing singer and artist that keeps his crowds mesmerized by how much energy he gives off. Luke Bryan has been singing for so many years that he knows how to put on a great show that makes his audience keep wanting more.

There are many fans out there who cannot wait until Luke Bryan starts his own tour or even comes out with a new hit single. Everyone wants to know what Luke Bryan is going to do next, but the only way to tell is to wait and see, hopefully it will be a next hit single that everyone can sing to just like the song “You Make Me Want To.”

Kenny Chesney Sun City Carnival Concert

This is a little late, but I just made the blog and wanted something strong to start the blog off with. Four weeks ago there was Kenny Chesney’s Sun City Carnival Concert. For anyone who has ever been to a Kenny Chesney Concert you know that he puts on an excellent show. But his concert this year has been the best so far. Chesney has been coming to Detroit Michigan for seven years now and each year he is impressing Detroit more and more. Kenny had not only one opening band but four opening bands. This year he had Lady Antebellum, followed by Miranda Lambert, and Montgomery Gentry. All these bands pumped up the crowd for Sugarland who opened right before Kenny. This years concert was packed with great music and powerful energy from the artist who made time seemed like it stopped. Lady Antebellum only has four hit songs at the moment, if they played only their songs they would have had to put on a very short show. Fortunately, Lady Antebellum likes to keep their crowds on their feet so they played some oldies that everyone knows. They played songs like “Kiss’s I Wanna Rock n Roll” and ACDC’s “You shook Me All Night Long”. Even though this was a country concert these rock songs are hits in all genres. Lady Antebellum was a great band to start the concert off because they got the crowd pumped and excited for the artists to come. After Lady Antebellum was Miranda Lambert. For anyone who knows Miranda Lambert’s music, they know that Miranda Lambert is more of a rock country artist than a regular country artist, just like Keith Urban. Miranda Lambert shook her hair around when she sang her songs like “Gun Powder and Lead” and “Kerosene”, just like she was singing at a rock concert. Then Miranda Lambert took the concert back from the rock country songs she sings to the country songs and sang “Famous in a Small Town”. Miranda Lambert kept her play list well balanced between her rock country songs and her country songs. Montgomery Gentry took the audience from sitting in their seats and singing along to standing at their seats and singing along with the songs they knew. Montgomery Gentry gave off such a great energy that the audience couldn’t help but dance along to the music. Montgomery Gentry played some of their new music such as “One In every Crowd” and “This Is My Town” and also a few of their old music such as “Gone” and “Wanted Dead Or Alive”, that they kept all of the audience singing because everyone knew a few of their songs. The older crowd was happy to hear Montgomery Gentry’s old stuff that they loved and their younger crowd was excited that they played their newest hits and not just their old stuff. Montgomery Gentry amazed the crowd because they played excellently and kept the crowd asking for more. Sugarland could have been the main performance they were spectacular. Sugarland played nothing but great music, and knew when to take it slow and play a few of their sadder, slower songs and when to kick it into high gear. Sugarland took the audience to the next level to where they couldn’t even stand still until they were too tired to dance anymore. Sugarland took their song “All I Want to do” and altered the chorus in the middle to have different songs within it to reach the few audience members that are more rockers than country listeners. If Kenny Chesney wasn’t in the concert Sugarland would have stolen the show they were so good.Kenny Chesney is one artist that no matter how many times he has performs at Detroit he keeps getting the same audience coming back and wanting more along with newcomers. This year Kenny Chesney entered the concert by floating in mid air over the crowd singing his music. Kenny Chesney gives off such great energy into his music that the audience doesn’t even notice that time is flying by. Uncle Kracker made a performance once again this year to sing When The Sun Goes Down with Kenny Chesney. The two of them singing together is a great thing to watch because it is like watching two best friends singing together like they are just goofing around. Kenny Chesney was so good that the audience kept clapping and cheering him that he came back out when he was done to sing two encore songs. Over all the concert was well worth the money no matter where you where seated. With those great artists all in one place the eight hour concert felt like it was only two. Any set of artist that can pull that off together is considered a concert that should go down in history was legendary.

Welcome to my blog

This blog is for people who love country music or just want to know more about it. My intention is to add something new each week either about a new artist, song, or activity that is happening within Michigan. Now when I say country music I am mostly talking about new country, but there may be a various number of older country music in here. In most cases the older music is better than the new generation of music. To move forward with something you have to know the past and make sure not to repeat something so the older artist or music may show up like Martina McBride, Garth Brooks, or Shania Twain. Each week there will be at least one post about good country music for you to learn about or remember. Do not be afraid to make comments whether you hate that topic or love it, opinions are welcome because we learn from each other and grow from others opinions. I hope you enjoy what you read.

Sincerely,

Erin