Darius Rucker To Release “Charleston, SC 1966″ October 12th

According to the Associated Press, Darius Rucker will release the follow up to his platinum selling album debut country album on October 12th. The album, titled Charleston, SC 1966, will feature 12 brand new tracks…even though Rucker wrote a total of 77 songs for the album.

One would think it would be tough to choose just 12 songs out of 77, but Darius says it was simple.

“We just listened to them and saw what was rising to the top,” Rucker said. “When I say that, people say to me, ‘Man, that must be a hard decision.’ No, not really. The best songs really rise to the top.”

The album’s title plays homage to Rucker’s hometown and birth-year and is also a tribute to Radney Foster’s first solo album, Del Rio, TX 1959. Rucker credits Foster’s music for helping him realize he could sing country music.

“It was his voice,” Rucker said. “It was really the first time where I had heard country music where I thought, ‘Man, I could sing that.’ I always liked it, but it was always, I never really knew I could play it. But then I heard Radney and it was like, ‘Wow, that guy’s amazing.’”

So what can fans expect from the new album?

“I don’t think it’s going to be light-years different [from Learn To Live],” Rucker said. “I don’t think we set out to reinvent the wheel or do a new sound. I think this record is more of an expansion of the last record than anything else. It’s like picking up where the last record left off.”

“Come Back Song,” the first single from Charleston, SC 1966, is at country radio now.