Photo Credit: www.ianjphoto.com
Live from Daryl’s House gets a welcome dose of southern hospitality when it travels to Charleston, SC, the hometown of special guest Darius Rucker, who joins with soon-to-be fellow resident Daryl Hall on the show’s 68th and latest installment. The episode premieres on Viacom’s high-definition music channel Palladia on Thursday, May 15, before its online debut May 24 on VH1.com and the VH1 APP and then on Daryl’s dedicated LFDH.com website, June 15. The show takes place at an 1843 Greek revival house restored by Sarah Horton, a friend of Daryl’s, where they learn how to shuck oysters for a roast, courtesy of the Charleston Bay Gourmet.
Award-winning country music star Darius Rucker and Daryl combine on a seven-song set whose highlights include Darius’ smash country hit, “Wagon Wheel,” covers of Rucker’s previous band Hootie and the Blowfish’s “Let Her Cry,” the Grammy-winning second single from the band’s 10-million-plus-selling 1994 album, Cracked Rear View, and a soaring version of the Righteous Brothers’ 1965 smash and the Daryl Hall and John Oates 1980 smash, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.” Daryl and Darius trade verses on Daryl Hall and John Oates’ “Do It For Love,” the duo’s chart-topping 2003 Adult Contemporary hit from the album of the same name, then share a soulful exchange on “Laughing Down Crying,” the title track from Hall’s recent fifth solo album. They match harmonies on Rucker’s own #1 country hit, “Come Back Song” after Darius begins the performance by stating the episode’s theme in his own “Alright”: “Don’t need no concert in the city/I got a stereo and the best of Patsy Cline.”
Rucker, who revealed he’s getting back together to record and tour with Hootie, had the time of his life playing with his self-proclaimed “idol”: “Daryl is one of those singers that made me want to sing one day. I can remember laughing to his voice and crying to his voice. To actually get to perform with him was one of the highlights of my career. Daryl is a great artist and better guy! I loved the way he took the country songs I wrote and turned them into these great R&B grooves. I was in heaven.”
Added Daryl, laughing: “I’m used to singing with baritones…I’m just glad he was here. And, what a great baritone singer he is! I absolutely loved singing with him! It was great fun!”
Darius founded Hootie and the Blowfish at the University of South Carolina in 1986, releasing five studio albums, charting six Top 40 Billboard 100 hits. After releasing a solo R&B album, Back to Then, in 2002, for Hidden Beach Recordings, he signed with Capitol Records Nashville six years later, reinventing himself as a country star, the first African-American to chart a #1 Hot Country Song (“Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It”) since Charley Pride in 1983. He earned the Country Music Association’s Best New Artist Award in 2009, and his hit single, “Wagon Wheel,” was nominated for a Grammy for Best Country Solo Performance last year.
The past seven years have marked a steady stream of superlatives and recognition for Live from Daryl’s House, with Hall receiving a Webby Award for Best Variety series from more than 10,000 entries at the 14th annual ceremony at N.Y.’s Cipriani Wall Street before garnering an O Music Award from MTV.
Live from Daryl’s House executive producers are Hall and manager Jonathan Wolfson.
The 67 previous episodes of Live From Daryl’s House have featured a mix of well-known performers like Gavin DeGraw, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Jason Mraz,The Voice‘s Cee Lo Green, Shelby Lynne, Joe Walsh, Booker T and the MGs, Blind Boys of Alabama, Rob Thomas, Train, Smokey Robinson, The Doors’ Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek, Toots Hibbert, Nick Lowe, K.T. Tunstall, Todd Rundgren, Keb Mo, Dave Stewart, Goo Goo Dolls’ John Rzeznik and Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump, along with newcomers such as Brett Dennen, Grizzly Bear, Rumer, Allen Stone, the Dirty Heads, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Mayer Hawthorne, Chromeo, Matt Nathanson, Parachute, Plain White T’s, soul diva Sharon Jones, Diane Birch, L.A. neo-R&B party band Fitz & the Tantrums and Neon Trees.
Palladia, Viacom Media Networks’ high-definition music channel, launched in January 2006 and features original music-based programming for a variety of music genres, including hip hop, rock, country, pop, contemporary, classic rock, alternative rock, soul and more, as well as HDTV acquisitions and original content from Viacom Music Group’s MTV, VH1, and CMT family of services. The channel has grown to 32 million households and is available on major U.S. carriers including Comcast, Cox, Verizon FiOS, Time Warner, Dish, DIRECTV, Charter, AT&T u-Verse, Cablevision and Insight.
