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Hootie & the Blowfish may be available for your next special event!
Which one is Hootie? Not one of the four members of Hootie & The Blowfish is known as "Hootie."
 It's the summer of 1998 and Hootie & the
Blowfish are about to step on stage downtown in New York City's
Battery Park as part of the opening ceremonies of the Goodwill Games. On
the surface, you wouldn't think all that much had changed with the band.
It's still the same four unassuming guys who introduced themselves in
the summer of 1994 with the release of their Atlantic Records debut; the
same band that went on to sell more than seventeen million albums across
the U.S. and earn a pair of Grammy Awards along the way. Not to be
overlooked, they're also the same South Carolinians who, when they find
themselves with a day off on the road, might just as well book
themselves into a club for a surprise show...for the fun of it.
The Hootie family has been enlarged by marriage and the late nights out are not quite so frequent.
"Having input on a song from all four people is
key," says Mark Bryan. "I can write what I might think are fantastic
lyrics, but if Darius doesn't vibe on them, then they're not making it into a Hootie song."
 In a review of the band's three-hour performance at
Boston's Avalon, The Boston Globe praised the group's set of ten new
songs for revealing a "greater depth and expanded songwriting
chops," adding that "the band has matured and is not afraid to
take chances. The increased song variety, and its lyrical richness,
suggested that the Blowfish is not resting on any laurels..."
Sonefield stated in Rolling Stone,
"Everyone says we're one black guy in an all-white band, but that's
not true – we're actually three white guys in an all-black band."
Bryan and Rucker played together in a soft rock duo as the Wolf
Brothers. Following an aborted contract with J.R.S. Records they put out
a self-financed EP, which contained "Hold My Hand." They sold
it at gigs and after a short time it had sold more than 50,000 copies.
Their spectacularly successful debut, 1994's "Cracked
Rear View," was a slow burner on the US charts, climbing into
the Top 10 after seven months on the chart. Rucker was a strong live
performer on their vast 1994 tour (of more than 300 dates), presiding
over a clutch of songs about emotional isolation and yearning. Part of
the "buzz" surrounding the band followed U.S. television talk
show host
David Letterman's
pronouncement that Hootie And The Blowfish were "my favorite new band."
 "Cracked
Rear View," took its title from a
John Hiatt lyric and was
produced by R.E.M. /
John Mellencamp associate Don Gehman. It documented
the band's career, and included the single "Hold My Hand," one
of several numbers to address ecological concerns and human frailty,
which featured guest vocals from
David Crosby. The album became
one of the most successful rock debuts of all time – sales in its
homeland surpassed 15 million (by February 1997). Strong sales over the
rest of the world indicated that theirs would be the most
"difficult second album" in rock history.
At the 1995 Grammy Awards, however, they picked up two
statuettes, for Best New Artist and Best Pop Performance By A
Group. It was inevitable that the follow-up proved to be
anti-climatic. Having performed songs from "Fairweather
Johnson" onstage, they were now familiar to their loyal fans. It
debuted in the U.S. at number 1, and by anybody's standards it was a massive success.
"Musical
Chairs," debuted at number 4 in October 1998, and sales have not
harmed the band's popularity as a live act. They re-affirmed their
college rock credentials with the enjoyable cover versions collection,
"Scattered,
Smothered & Covered," which features both live and studio
recordings.
Hit songs include --
- I Go Blind
- Only Wanna Be With You
- Time
- Hold My Hand
- I Will Wait
- Let Her Cry
- Old Man and Me (When I Get To Heaven)
- One Love
- Tucker's Town
- Hey Hey What Can I Do
- Get Out of My Mind
- Drowning
- Goodbye Girl
- Innocence
- Only Lonely
- Sad Caper
Hootie & the Blowfish may be available for your next special event!
Genre: Rock 1
Styles:
.Jam Bands. / JamBands
.Adult Alternative Pop/Rock. / AdultAlternativePopRock
.American Trad Rock. / AmericanTradRock
Years active:
x90s,
x00s, x10s
Formed: ..in South Carolina / formed nSouthCarolina
Formed: ..in Columbia / formed ColumbiaSC
Formed: in 1989
Based: ..in US
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