SOUTHERN EXPOSURE

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The band's goofy name-which comes from Rucker's nicknames for two of his buddies, one with owl-like glasses (Hootie) and another with big cheeks (Blowfish)-belies the serious themes dealt with on Cracked. One cut, Running from an Angel, is a countrified stomp about a wayward brother. "Your lying and cheating really tore us apart," go the lyrics. Two of the album's best and most melancholy tracks-the folksy I'm Goin' Home and the moody Not Even the Trees-are about the death of Rucker's mother in 1992. "I'm not really sure what my dad does; he left before I was born," says Rucker. "I don't really care. But my mom supported us [Darius and five siblings] on a nurse's salary. She was my best friend." Hootie's music may be deeply personal, but it's not wimpy. The band's sound is big and guitar stuffed, and Rucker's voice is always bluesy and confident. Although the group's songs often seem dour, band members say their outlook, all things considered, is essentially optimistic. Says Bryan: "I think every song of ours that's depressing also says, in some way, that you can learn from your mistakes."

Aside from the occasional Confederate-hat-wearing heckler, South Carolinians have been wildly supportive of their homegrown rock stars. Hootie is the most prominent band ever to come out of Columbia and one of the most successful Southern rock groups since R.E.M. broke out of Athens, Georgia, in the early '80s. "I used to dream of being one of the members of R.E.M. when I was growing up," says Bryan. "We used to cover 10 R.E.M. songs every concert." The thought of a hard-rocking, blues-based band like Hootie breathing life and fire into such R.E.M. classics as Radio Free Europe and Don't Go Back to Rockville may quicken the pulse of many music fans, but don't look for it to happen again soon. "We don't do their songs anymore," says Rucker. "We've got our own now." They sure do, and now there are, no doubt, college kids-black and white, north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line-who dream of performing tunes by Hootie & the Blowfish.