And here’s to you, Darius Rucker.
The rock-turned-country star offered a toast to Minnesota and to the sold-out crowd at Mystic Lake Casino Hotel Friday night, and the crowd had many reasons to toast him back.
The first is unannounced opening act Jake McVey. With a slight resemblance to a mid-2000s Blake Shelton, McVey and his guitar player introduced the crowd to his brand of country with songs like “Redlined and Wasted,” “California Sun,” and “Carry On,” which landed him at the top of the CMT Video charts.
McVey was convincing and showed passion, and the only thing that took away from his performance was the large amount of people in the audience on their phones – presumably trying to figure out just who was on stage in front of them.
A second toast to the lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish comes as Rucker emerged from the center of his stage setup in a trademark ballcap (which he autographed at the end of the show and tossed into the crowd) and a Mickey Mouse T-shirt. How can anyone not love that?
Rucker’s six-piece band, with several musicians on an elevated riser for better visibility (other artists take note – it is nice to actually see the drummer instead of just hearing them), brought Rucker to the stage with “Heartbreak Road.”
Yes, it is another Carolina/California song, but it led nicely into Rucker’s energetic, “y’all ready to have some fun?” performance.
An impressive string of six number-one country hits has followed Rucker into his seemingly seamless transition into country music. He even admits that if a lot of Hootie and the Blowfish material were released today, it would be most at home on the country airwaves.
All six of his country number ones – “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It,” “It Won’t Be Like This for Long” “Alright” “Come Back Song” “This” and “Wagon Wheel” were heard Friday night, peppered in with some Hootie classics and the country staple “Family Tradition.”
Other toasts to Rucker included “The Craziest Thing,” his current single “Radio,” and the song “Southern State of Mind,” which reminded him just where his was as video screen images of Minnesota Twins, Timberwolves, Wild, and Vikings logos flashed behind him, concluding ultimately with an image of the American Flag.
Rucker acknowledged he has many friends in Minnesota, including some professional football players with the Vikings.
Hootie and the Blowfish hits like “Only Wanna Be With You,” “Hold My Hand,” and “Let Her Cry,” were the perfect reminder of Rucker’s roots. He called the hit “Let Her Cry,” which reached the top-10 in the mid-1990s, the first country song he had ever written. “Only Wanna Be With You” seemed “countrified” a bit more as it featured banjo.
Charleston, South Carolina native Rucker kept the capacity crowd on its feet a majority of the night, which can sometimes be challenging for an artist to do with the comfortable seats at the Mystic Showroom. Many times it is easier to kick back and enjoy a show, but Rucker didn’t let that happen as he encouraged audience sing-alongs and participation the entire night.
His band, the Carolina Grey Boys, were featured a number of times throughout the night, but perhaps shined the brightest on the fun “The Joker” AKA Space Cowboy.
Fun fact: band member Sasha Otrovsky (dobro, steel guitar, lap steel), who hails from Russia, was part of the band Bering Strait that attained prominence and a Grammy nomination in the early 2000s.
“True Believers” led into the encore of “Wagon Wheel” and the Minnesota-born “Purple Rain,” which is the perfect finale for Rucker.
Plenty of country music continued flowing at Mystic Lake after Rucker left the stage, including a follow-up performance by McVey on the casino floor, and a musician performing current country favorites at The Meadows Bar and Grille at Mystic Lake, a perfect place to grab late-night appetizers after the show.
• A complete schedule of events for Mystic Lake Casino Hotel can be found HERE.
– Contributing Writer: Ryan Gueningsman
– Photos by: Adam’s Travel Photography (Adam Grim)