Hootie And a Hollerin'

But Mike Dungan, the president of Capitol Nashville, wasn't worried about the specific band on Rucker's résumé. He was more concerned about his shift from rock to country, especially given how many other artists had been making the move, from Bon Jovi and Jessica Simpson to Jewel.

"I was never really sure it would work," Dungan says. "With somebody that big, you worry: Are you going to be kind of a joke coming into this format? But every time I'd see those guys on TV, I thought the black guy sounded like a country singer. I couldn't even remember his name, and I was really disinterested in those records. But Darius felt like a country singer to me, with the inflections he used. I thought that if you just tweaked this guy a little bit to the right, he'd be country."

Turns out Rucker was more country than expected: Most of the early songs he showed the label "sounded almost too country," Dungan says.

"They were Vern Gosdin-style tear-in-your-beer ballads or Texas two-step shuffles, neither of which is the flavor of the month. If we had to adjust anything in our thinking, it was to come back a little more to the pop side. I told Darius: 'You're a guy who sold 25 million in the rock format, you're doing Texas shuffles, which George Strait can't even get played on the radio -- and, gee, you're black! Don't handicap me too much here!' "

Ultimately, the album included only one shuffle, "All I Want," which features Brad Paisley on guitar and a perfectly Paisley-esque lyrical hook: "All I want you to leave me/Is alone." The lyric was written by Paisley's longtime collaborator, Frank Rogers, who produced "Learn to Live," an album that falls somewhere between traditionalism and modern country-pop.

"You'd think Darius Rucker would have a more pop-sounding record, with Rascal Flatts production," says Lou Ramirez, music director at KAJA-FM in San Antonio. "But you hear those guitars, that shuffle, Darius singing divorce songs, and you go: Where is this coming from? I was blown away. When you listen to some of the lyrics he wrote with Hootie, though, I think he's always been a frustrated country singer. He's always had that heart for country."

The country establishment quickly embraced Rucker. He has performed several times at the Grand Ole Opry, where, he says: "I didn't feel like an outsider who was trying to be there; I felt like a guy who was supposed to be there. Like: Man, I'm home."

Then came an invitation to sing at the CMAs, even though his music was released too late to be eligible for any awards. Rucker's rousing performance of "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" earned a standing ovation, a rarity at the industry event. Dungan, the Capitol Nashville chief, says he cried in the audience.

"We've skirted around the racial issue all along," he says. "I told my staff I didn't want this to be about the first black man to have a charted record in 20 years. That's demeaning to the music, that's demeaning to the man. This should compete on its own.

"But I think there was a collective pull from the community: 'Gosh, this is so great, a black man who has found success with us.' I had major superstars coming up to me after the performance -- Reba McEntire, Ronnie Dunn -- telling me he was awesome. Well, Darius has always been awesome. He just got the wrong songs."