261. CRACKED REAR VIEW by Hootie and the Blowfish

A funny thing happened on the way to Austin this past weekend. My younger son and I were driving to the University of Texas for a campus visit. We have a rule when driving - whoever is behind the wheel gets to pick the music. So, since my son was driving, he put on a country music playlist from Apple Music because that's the genre of music he's currently heavily into. At some point a song by Darius Rucker came on and so I asked him if he knows who that is. Of course, all he knew was that it was Darius Rucker, a country music artist. So, I used the opportunity to educate him about Hootie and the Blowfish and how Rucker used to be part of a roots or heartland rock band that had one of the best selling albums of not just the 1990s, but of all time.

Full disclosure - I hadn't listened to this 1994 record for many many years but, on the drive back to Houston (and since I was the one driving and got to choose the tunes), I had him run through a Hootie Essentials playlist during which I pointed out how many of the tracks came from this - their debut record.

And that's why I'm covering Cracked Rear View today. In hindsight, it makes perfect sense how Rucker made the jump from roots rock to country - the clues were right there in front of our ears back then. Stream the following tracks from the link above or from either my Apple Music or Spotify playlists and get transported back to the future: 'Only Wanna Be With You,' 'Time,' 'Hold My Hand' and 'Let Her Cry.'