Darius Rucker

Couldn't find a topic so here goes. Not surprising I guess, as Mr. Rucker is now a bone fide Country star so I wouldn't expect him to have a topic here.

Anyway. I took the opportunity to catch him and his band in Hamburg last night. Good decision. He said it had been 15 years since he was in Europe and that seems right. I saw him with Hootie and the B's in London around that time.

Time might have knawed at his range a bit but nothing has dimmed the tone of his fabulous vocals. One of those voices from the gods. Instantly recognisable and unforgettable.

Some might accuse him of having 'sold out' and I have to say his new single did sound a bit tacky, even by country standards, but his old songs, of which he treated us to a few, sit real well alongside his newer country stuff which just shows that musical lines of genre are often pretty close enough to blur.

But music is music. He loves playing it and we love hearing it and when you have a band like this to put it over what is not to like. He called them 'The Carolina Greyboys', but nothing about their playing is grey. They gave the full show of assorted electric and acoustic guitars as well as fiddle, banjo, pedal steel, some marvellous slide on a Resonator and some imperious Hammond B3 and other keyboards.

Hard to keep a smile off your face with such a show and to be surrounded by so many women! Country sure seems to bring them out and it makes for a real friendly atmosphere.

A lot of his new songs are well crafted, albeit with a slight commercial edge, but it was no surprise that the best material on show last night were still 'Time' and 'Let her be' from his old Hootie days.

We rocked up and we Hoe-downed and to finish it off what should a bone fide Country star play as his second encore?

I don't know, but he floored us with a brilliant version of Oasis' 'Champagne Supernova'.

Sold out? He hasn't.......but the venue was