After making the transition from being the frontman of Hootie & The Blowfish to a bonafide country star, Darius Rucker has experienced quite a career in country music over the past 15 years.
Carolyn’s Boy marks the sixth country album from Rucker since he made the genre transition. Though it doesn’t reach the heights of his first few entries, the album is an enjoyable albeit safe mainstream country record.
Diving into the positives, Rucker’s voice is great as always here. He has one of those voices that are so distinct and powerful that it really doesn’t matter what he’s singing; he will still sound good. He could ultimately be singing a phone book, and it would still sound good with some instrumentation.
The clear standout on Carolyn’s Boy is the eighth track, Sara. From a writing standpoint, it’s easily the best song on the record. Rucker, along with co-writers, Joel Crouse, Kyle Rife and Ed Sheeran (yes, that Ed Sheeran), paints a tender picture of reconnecting with a lost love. The central lyrics in the chorus are an interesting perspective on essentially being in the friend zone thirty years later.
“I don’t wanna be your lover
I don’t wanna be your man
I just wanna sit and talk to you
‘Til the day is through
Like we’re thirteen again”
The production is extremely simple, with nothing more than an acoustic guitar and some percussion in the background. I could have easily seen this song getting overrun by some electronic percussion (snap tracks in particular) in the production room. That being said, I’m glad Rucker decided to keep this sound extremely bare-bones and let the storytelling shine here on Sara.
7 Days is also a fun track. It’s a bit gimmicky, but it does something that I really like about simple country songs. It has a clever chorus. If you’re not going to deliver an emotionally charged song, you have to make the structure and delivery of the song fun. Here, the song revolves around Rucker counting up from one to seven in the chorus, noting how he thinks about his ex seven days a week.
“One drink, one shot, there at the bar
I see two people dancin’ out in the dark
It’s that 3 in the morning telephone call
That I wanna make, staring at these four walls
Then it’s 5 o’clock, gettin’ off work all alone
Kick back with a six-pack but your memory ain’t gone”
The way Rucker delivers the count-up to seven is actually quite clever. It proves that good writing doesn’t just need to be emotional or introspective to ultimately be a good piece of songwriting.
That being said, I do wish the album was a bit stronger from a writing standpoint overall. Though I wasn’t expecting writing on par with Zach Bryan, Jason Isbell or even Eric Church’s records, I expected a little more depth throughout.
The pre-released #1 hit, Beers And Sunshine, as well as Same Beer Different Problem and Have A Good Time, are easily the weakest songs writing-wise. The fact that two songs on this album have “beer” in the title is a bit telling that this was going to be a bit of a cliché entry for Rucker. It’s not like you cannot talk about beer in a country song. I mean, it is a cliché for a reason, but you have to do something at least remotely interesting in between your mentions of the beverage. Unfortunately, both of the songs ultimately miss the mark.
Same Beer Different Problem is easily the worst song on the record. Here, Rucker laments on how there are new problems in the world with new technology and lifestyles before ultimately coming to the conclusion that he’ll keep drinking the same beer while dealing with the different problems. Lines such as “3G, 4G, 5G, getting even further from the OG” simply feel cringey and out of touch. I understand that country, at its core, is primarily about simplicity and appreciating an older style of living, but lines such as these still feel out of touch.
Overall, Carolyn’s Boy is a good enough outing from Rucker. It’s not breaking any ground lyrically or sonically, but it’s not an unpleasant listen by any stretch of the imagination. For a mainstream country album in 2023, it sounds pretty traditional. There are some solid inclusions of acoustic guitar, banjo and fiddle throughout without any distracting percussion/over-production present. If you’re a fan of Rucker or mainstream country, I recommend giving it a listen. 6/10
Listen to Sara, 7 Days and Fires Don’t Start Themselves here: