A 'Southern Style' works for Darius Rucker

From the time he signed the deal to make his first country record, Darius Rucker has wanted to make more traditionally country albums than his record label thought it could sell.

"I wanted every song to either be a shuffle or a waltz ballad," says the singer, 48, who'll release his next album, Southern Style, on Tuesday.

"Every record that he's made, when I tell him how much I like the record, he'll come back within a day and say, 'You know, next time I'm going to make it really country,' " says Universal Music Group Nashville CEO Mike Dungan. "We're waiting for that Texas two-step shuffle, tear-in-your-beer album from him, but we haven't seen it yet."

Rucker and Universal seem to have found a solid middle ground. His three previous studio albums for Universal's Capitol Records Nashville label have all gone at least gold and yielded a half-dozen No. 1 country hits, including Don't Think I Don't Think About It and 2013's Wagon Wheel.

Homegrown Honey, the first single from Southern Style, could follow in their footsteps. Written with Nathan Chapman and Lady Antebellum's Charles Kelley, it was No. 3 on USA TODAY's Country Airplay chart last week.

Southern Style comes close to Rucker's ideal, with the sweet Dobro intro to honky-tonk shuffle Good for a Good Time and a title song that extols the virtues of Billy Graham, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Lil Wayne against a leisurely paced slide guitar. On Baby I'm Right, a playful duet with Mallary Hope, the mandolin is so high in the mix it's almost like an extra lead voice.

"When we were talking about the record, I kept saying, 'Let's make a country record,' " Rucker says. "When the whole record came together, I was like, 'That's a lot of mandolin, but that's exactly how I wanted it to sound. So I'm cool with that.' "

Two years ago, Wagon Wheel proved Rucker's instincts right. A cover of a song originally recorded by Old Crow Medicine Show, it had all the fiddles and banjo Rucker could want, and it sold more than 3 million downloads and won him a Grammy.

"Wagon Wheel did kind of make it OK to do a country song — a really, really country song," Rucker says.

However, Rucker didn't chase Wagon Wheel's contemporized string-band sound on Southern Style or try to find another hit in that vein. He learned about moving on from massive hits during his experience 20 years ago as frontman for Hootie & the Blowfish with songs like Hold My Hand and Let Her Cry.

"Wagon Wheel was one of those things I don't expect to ever happen, to have a song that big," he says. "After Hootie, I've been really good at letting that go: 'Great song, I'm going to have to play it the rest of my life, that's awesome.' It's probably never going to happen again."

But Rucker's label chief thinks Wagon Wheel did have an impact on Southern Style.

"Wagon Wheel was such a phenomenally great experience,'' Dungan says. "Darius got to see everybody in the audience losing it over that every night. He got letters from little kids in hospitals saying it made them happy. He was having fun every time he performed it, every time he was involved in it. I think that rings through on this record — the whole album is just fun.''

For now, Rucker's found a place where he's comfortable musically. "The hits come or they don't come," he says. "I wanted to start making records that are a little more country. I really hope I have hits — I'm not saying I don't. But let's put out Good for a Good Time. Let's see what happens."