Review: Darius Rucker pilots pontoon country at Mystic Lake

Darius Rucker was a ball cap act before ball caps were cool in Nashville. Not one of those bro-country backward ball cap guys. Just a sports-loving, beer-and-sunshine dude who became world famous.

The way Rucker explained it Friday night at the packed Mystic Lake Casino amphitheater in Prior Lake, he was merely a singer in a cover band who got lucky twice. Well, his sunset-kissed, 100-minute performance suggested there's a lot of talent and charisma to go along with the luck. It's just that he makes it look so easy.

Rucker's T-shirt, jeans and ball cap casualness fits his lazy sunny afternoon personality. That approach worked in transforming his former cover band, Hootie & the Blowfish, into one of the bestselling rock groups of the 1990s. It also worked in transitioning him into country stardom even though the odds were against him. Who kicks off a career at age 42? Let alone a Black singer in a genre that hadn't had a Black star since Charley Pride.

Thirteen years later, Rucker is hosting country awards shows, sending songs to the top of the country charts and filling America's amphitheaters.

Rucker has one of the most distinctive male voices in country — a rich-as-molasses baritone with a hint of unshowy soulfulness. In addition, he is one of Nashville's most appealing dancers. He may not shake it like Luke Bryan or shimmey like Dwight Yoakam. But when Rucker undulates those hips in slow motion, it purrs S-E-X-Y.

Those moves fit his easygoing nature. On Friday, he came across as modest, friendly and eminently likable.

When he mentioned how his son and daughter changed their minds about joining him on the road for Father's Day weekend, he scored points as an understanding if forlorn father. "I love my kids, but I want to strangle them both right now," he joked. Then he crooned "It Won't Be Like This for Long," a quiet ballad about the glowing father of a newborn baby who contemplates how quickly his daughter will grow up. The ad-libbed setup couldn't have been more apropos.

Rucker's songs typically examine relationships or celebrate the little things in life with a prideful Southernness. Like sweet tea instead of Dom Pérignon, driving with the radio on instead of going to a concert in the big city. But the South Carolina native is worldly enough to tout Picasso and the Sistine Chapel in his new single, the hopeful ballad "My Masterpiece," which earned a warm reception on Friday.

In his first roadshow since 2019, Rucker, 55, sometimes sounded hoarse, a little pitchy here and there, perhaps victim of a frustratingly inadequate sound system. From my seat more than 50 rows from the stage, the variable sound seemed about 20% louder when standing vs. sitting.

Nonetheless, Rucker connected with an amiable élan and a gentle twang from his six-man band. With its reggae lilt, 2020's "Beers and Sunshine," his ninth No. 1 country tune, brought a beachy mood to Mystic Lake. Three Hootie songs received rapturous response at their beginnings and ends — the uplifting "Hold My Hand," the jangly "Only Wanna Be With You" with its dobro and banjo jam, and especially the gorgeously stripped down "Let Her Cry."

Disparate versions of Hank Williams Jr.'s rollicking "Family Tradition" and Blackstreet's groovin' "No Diggity" fortified Rucker's cover-band bona fides. His encore of Prince's "Purple Rain" allowed the singer to step out of his laid-back persona, with dramatic movements and emphatic vocals. That was a stark contrast to the penultimate "Wagon Wheel," Rucker's singalong smash that has turned into country's answer to "Sweet Caroline."

Like many of his hits, "Wagon Wheel" has a breezy, feel-good vibe. It's almost as if Rucker has forged a new strain of country music — Nashville's equivalent of yacht rock. Let's call it pontoon country.

Twitter: @JonBream • 612-673-1719