Musical Chairs

Performer: Hootie & the Blowfish
Artist: Peter Holsapple; Susan Cowsill; Boyd Tinsley; Leroi Moore
Engineer: Doug Trantow; Don Gehman
Producer: Don Gehman
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Hootie & The Blowfish: Darius Rucker (vocals, guitar, mandolin); Dean Felber (acoustic guitar, bass, background vocals); Mark Bryan (guitar, banjo, background vocals); Jim Sonefeld (bass, drums, percussion, background vocals). Additional personnel includes: Susan Cowsill, Gena Rankin (vocals); Peter Holsapple (guitar, mandolin, dobro, accordion, piano); David Immergluk (slide & pedal steel guitars); Boyd Tinsley, Joel Derouin, Bruce Dukov, Armen Gahabedian, Rachel Purkin (violin); Robert Becker (viola); Suzie Katayama, Larry Corbett (cello); John Nau (harmonica, piano, Wurlitzer, Hammond B-3 organ); Leroi Moore (soprano & alto saxophones); Patrick Warren (chamberlin); Gary Greene (percussion). All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology. MUSICAL CHAIRS finds Hootie and the Blowfish ready to take some musical risks. On their first two albums, Hootie and company latched onto what turned out to be a wildly popular formula, testing out various styles of music by sticking just their little toes in, but always gravitating back to the comfortable soup of easy-on-the-ears perky pop. MUSICAL CHAIRS is unmistakably Hootie, with Darius Rucker's warm baritone leading the way, accompanied by rich vocal harmonies and jangly guitars, but it takes chances on songs like the undeniably bluegrassy "Desert Mountain Showdown," with Peter Holsapple guesting on dobro and Rucker strumming a mandolin with aplomb. With its abundance of guest musicians and the band's joint efforts at songwriting, this album comes across as eminently collaborative, and it is all the better for it--the richest, most honest Hootie and the Blowfish offering thus far.

Rolling Stone (10/1/98, pp.66-68) - 3 Stars (out of 5) - "...it's a far more relaxed and engaging effort than JOHNSON....they just sound as though they're having fun again....each song is eminently listenable..."

Hootie & the Blowfish burst out of the grass-roots southern rock scene in the mid-1990s, but their panoramic, All-American pop-rock sound was more influenced by John Mellencamp than by Lynyrd Skynyrd. The band's distinguishing feature was the robust, booming voice of Darius Rucker (no, he wasn't "Hootie"), and their sunny, straightforward sound connected in a big way with audiences weary of grunge bleakness.

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