Darius Rucker: Songs Of Summer Tour 2026

Flytjendur

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  Darius Rucker

  Darius Rucker first attained multi-platinum status in the music

  industry as former lead singer and rhythm guitarist of GRAMMY award-winning Hootie & the Blowfish.

  Since re-introducing himself to the world as a country artist, he has released four consecutive albums to top the Billboard Country albums chart and earned a whole new legion of fans.

  Rucker’s first two country albums,

  Learn To Live and Charleston, SC 1966 produced five No. 1 singles including “Come Back Song,” “This,” “Alright,” “It Won’t Be Like This For Long” and “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It” "—and earned him the New Artist award from the Country Music Association.

  A few events in the last couple of years may have helped him dig

  even deeper into his country roots, even in the face of new trends that have been pushing the music into a more pop direction.

  First was his induction into the Grand Ole Opry in 2012, after Brad Paisley broke the news to Rucker in the middle of a show.

  Then from his 2013 album True Believers came his triumphant version of “Wagon Wheel,” the Old Crow Medicine Show song initially based on a sketch by Bob Dylan (with an assist from his tour partners and label mates Lady Antebellum). The song hit No. 1 on the Country charts, and won the GRAMMY Award for Best Country Solo Performance.

  “‘Wagon Wheel’ was one of those great anomalies in a career—you have to just be happy with something like that and go on and try to make another record,” says Rucker. “But it did help me realize that fans really do want country music from me.

  With everything happening in the music, on the radio, ‘Wagon Wheel’ showed that you can still have big hits with real country songs.”

  Following his first Christmas album, Home for the Holidays, he released Southern Style, his fourth studio country album, featuring his most recent No. 1 single “Homegrown Honey,” co-written by Rucker, label mate Charles Kelley of Lady Antebellum and Nathan Chapman.

  Choosing a moniker for his 2016 headlining tour,“Good for a Good Time,” another personal favorite off of Southern Style seemed the perfect choice. “That was what I was looking for,” he says, “a big, old-fashioned, sing-a-long drinking song. I’m older now, I’m a dad, I don’t go out that much. But if it’s a good song, a song I really want to sing, I can still channel the old Darius, the one who’s always ready to party. I think that’s the signature song on the record.”

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  Evan Honer

  A cross-country move to Nashville. An international touring schedule. A record label with 25 artists and more than 100 releases, all operating out of his living room. A recording studio built into his four-car garage. Evan Honer spent 2024 in a blur of momentum, expanding his life in all directions, playing nearly 100 shows in support of his second album, Fighting For, while writing new songs for its follow-up.

  Only two years earlier, his cover of Tyler Childers' "Jersey Giant" had become a viral juggernaut, earning more than 200 million streams and launching his music career. He was busy then, too, balancing his college classes with nighttime gigs as a solo act and daily practices with the school's Division 1 swimming team. Things only intensified as school came to a close. Honer released the debut album West On I-10 on graduation day and quickly remade himself into a road warrior, balancing the challenges of early adulthood with an unbending commitment to music.

  Then, one day, he learned to look around him and take stock of the present. Everything I Wanted finds Honer planting new roots in Nashville, his adopted hometown after a multi-year stint in Southern California. Recorded over 18 days in a garage studio that he built himself, it's a homemade record with big-studio sparkle, its 13 songs emphasizing the indie and alternative-pop influences that have always lingered on the outskirts of his sound. Here, they're moved to the forefront, pushing Honer beyond his roots as an acoustic Americana act and into something more eclectic and electrifying. There are string arrangements courtesy of a talented neighbor, Kate Stephenson. There are horn arrangements, pedal steel swells, and contributions from his roommates, too. At the center of that sound is Evan Honer himself: an acclaimed songwriter, storyteller, and bleeding-heart vocalist who, after years on the move, has learned to slow down a bit and appreciate the moment.

  "My life completely changed this past year," he says. "I'm learning to be happy with where I'm at. I'm grateful that I get to stand onstage and sing songs I wrote in my bedroom, and people know the words and sing them back to me. How can you be upset about that?"

  It's true; there's a lot to be grateful for. 500 million streams, for starters. An RIAA gold certification for his "Jersey Giant" cover. Sold-out shows alongside headliners like Wyatt Flores. The ongoing success of his own label, Cloverdale Records. With Everything I Wanted, though, Honer turns his gaze inward, writing autobiographical songs about romance, resilience, roots, and his relationship with his audience.

  "When the going gets tough, I'll stick through the season," he promises during "Maybe For Once." On the surface, it's a love song to a woman he met on the road, her memory lingering in the rear-review mirror every time his van pulls away. For someone who's used to living life at 80 miles per hour, though, the song is something more: a self-made promise to focus not only upon the destination, but on the journey itself. "These songs are about me not getting in my own way," he clarifies. "I've stopped looking for reasons not to commit. I'm pushing myself to just let things happen." The rest of the record is similarly personal. On the cinematic piano ballad "It's a Home," Honer whisks himself back to childhood to unpack some traumatic family baggage. On "Place I Hate," he sings about a career filled with astral highs and bottomed-out lows. With the short-and-sweet "Waiting Room," he delivers a genuine love song in less than two minutes, showcasing just how concise his craft has become over the past three years. And with "Curtain," he sings directly to the fans who've supported him over the years, singing, "You guys bother showing up to hear me scream about my feelings… I don't know if you can tell, but I'm the one who really needs it."

  Honer's previous album, Fighting For, was recorded during his first national tour, slowly pieced together in the studio spaces, living rooms, and AirBNBs he encountered while driving from show to show. Everything I Wanted, on the other hand, was recorded at home with producers Garrett Hall, Shane Travis and a small handful of guests. From the start, Honer embraced those differences. "The last thing I ever want to do is make something I've already made," he says, naming artists like Andy Shauf, Medium Build, and Pinegrove as the album's touchstones. He sought outside opinions, too, by embracing Nashville's co-writing culture. "Writing with other people was exciting," he adds, "because some of these songs wound up going to places I wouldn't normally go."

  Longtime fans will notice those changes and more. There's the Beatles-inspired bridge of "Finally Commit." The noisy, full-band freakout that brings the final track, "Wonder," to a close. The drums kickstart "Lose a Friend," one of Honer's only tracks to begin with percussion. Now three albums into his career, Evan Honer has more than a signature sound — he has the guts to expand and evolve that sound, as well. There will be more shows to play… more horizons to chase down in a 15-passenger van… but as long as Everything I Wanted is playing, you can find Evan Honer at home, coaxing new sounds out of the garage, thankful for the moment even as it passes by.

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  Austin Williams

  singer/songwriter Nashville TN Broken Things Break Things EP OUT NOW!