True Believers

Darius Rucker is best known as the frontman of Hootie & the Blowfish—a gig that dogs him so thoroughly that, despite the group disbanding in 2008, he still can’t get people to stop calling him Hootie. The alternative rock group racked up tons of hits, with a staggering amount of them from their debut Cracked Rear View alone, but Rucker had different things in mind for his solo career. Following the separation of Hootie from his Blowfish, Rucker released a run of country music albums. True Believers remains his best, a love letter to his stomping ground of the Carolinas. His cover of bluegrass band Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Wagon Wheel” (penned by Bob Dylan!) is just as essential as any cut by Willie Nelson, for my money.