Black Country and Candied Cowboys

Back in the 90's, Hootie and The Blowfish was the shit. Their debut album is one of the best selling albums of all time, going platinum sixteen times. During their career, they put sixteen singles on various Billboard singles charts.
Then came the dry spell. Hootie and The Blowfish became the punchline to many jokes and those millions of fans who followed them now deny having ever liked them.
But now things have changed. Hootie lead singer Darius Rucker just made history as the first African American to win CMA's New Artist of the Year, as well as the first black artist since Charley Pride to win a major individual award. To be honest, I haven't heard any of his new solo work yet, but I have been a longtime Hootie fan. Congrats Darius!

I enjoy Rucker's prescient choice of attire in this 2005 Burger King commercial.


In unrelated cowboy news, at battlebunny.com my friend Carmen recently covered her discovery of JW Caldwell's new take on 'cowboy art'. Growing up on the western part of this country, I have seen lots of awful cowboy art - often in my own home. But this stuff is pretty fun. Looks like Caldwell showed these last year at Trifecta Gallery in Las Vegas.

"Yellow Slip"

"My Hat"