Fans respond as Rucker/Pickler sing from the heart

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August 27, 2010

By Ryan Smith MEADVILLE TRIBUNE The Meadville Tribune Fri Aug 27, 2010, 07:00 AM EDT

WEST MEAD TOWNSHIP — WEST MEAD TOWNSHIP — Darius Rucker’s been the frontman in a Grammy-winning rock band that had one of the best-selling albums in history.

Having gone country, his solo debut has sold close to a million-and-a-half more, and last year he was named the Country Music Association’s best new artist.

But, performing before a crowd of 4,500-plus fans at the Crawford County Fair’s grandstand stage Thursday night, Rucker sang a song that celebrated the simple life: “I don’t need no concert in the city,” he country-crooned, and with a roof over his head, the woman he loves and some shoes under his feet, “I got all I need ...”

Rucker “writes a lot of songs about moments, important stuff. Everybody can relate to it,” said fan Mason Keys, a 20-year-old from Erie who went to see the show with a few of his friends.

One of those friends, 20-year-old Amanda George, agreed and said both Rucker and his opening special guest, Kellie Pickler, bring their fans music that’s “good to dance to.”

“It’s the fun kind of country. I love it,” Keys added. “I waved at Kellie, and she waved back.”

In fact, Pickler’s set was punctuated by plenty of waves to fans, and quite a bit of talking to the crowd, too.

“I grew up in a small town in North Carolina,” she said, and now “I might be on the road doing all this crazy stuff, living on a tour bus, but at the end of the day, I’m still that small-town girl. And I know I’m not the only small-town girl here tonight ...”

With what sounded like thousands of screams affirming she was right, Pickler and her band launched from there right into “Small Town Girl,” the title track of her debut album, which was certified gold by the RIAA and produced three Billboard Hot Country Songs.

She ended her set with one of those three, “Red High Heels.”

“We’ll come back any time ya’ll will have us,” she said. “I love ya.”

A former “American Idol” finalist, Pickler has also toured with Rascal Flatts, Brad Paisley, Sugarland and Taylor Swift. She’s also won Country Music Television’s Breakthrough Video of the Year and Tearjerker Video of the Year for “I Wonder,” as well as the award for Performance of the Year for her performance of that song at the CMA Awards.

Rucker’s first three country singles, “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It,” “It Won’t Be Like This for Long” and “Alright,” all reached No. 1 on the U.S. Hot Country Charts. “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It” spent a total of 23 weeks on Billboard’s top country songs charts.

In 2009 — a year after leaving Hootie & the Blowfish — the Capitol Records star became the first African-American performer to win a major individual Country Music Association award, best new artist, since Charley Pride in the early 1970s.

Ryan Smith can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at rsmith@meadvilletribune.com.

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