Darius Rucker is Alright by Me

Cracked Rearview by Hootie and the Blowfish broke when I was in college. As such, I hold a special place for “Hold My Hand” and other songs from that album much like my friend Dixon holds a special place in his heart for recordings off of Neil Young’s Rust Never Sleeps.

This week on the Cape my wife and had a heavy dose of modern country music, a fondness for which we have shared since we danced to Garth Brooks on our wedding day. The CMAs are the preferred award show in our home, but I digress.

Darius Rucker, former lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish, is now a solo country artist and his song “Alright” was in heavy rotation last week on the station we were listening to. If you have not heard this song yet, click here and give it a listen before reading the rest of this post:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p11jV8bo2oc

This is one of those songs when, listened to closely, that, to borrow a line from Bowie, hits you “like a sock on the jaw.”

If you don’t have the time to listen to the whole song, consider the refrain:

Cause I got a roof over my head

The woman I love layin’ in my bed

And it’s alright, alright

I got shoes under my feat

Forever in the eyes starting back at me

And it’s alright, alright

Yeah I got all I need

And it’s alright by me

How many times do we say to ourselves, “I would just be happy if I just had a…” fill in the blanks: new kitchen, new bathroom, iPhone, new computer, new house, more money, etc. etc. etc. But there is wisdom in this song as well as in an old Eagles lyric:

So often times it happens

That we live our lives in chains

And never even know we have the key

Most of us have all that we need in what we already have. I look at my kids and I really could not ask for more in life. They are healthy and happy (most of the time). I have a wife who puts up with my insanity and never lets me forget that I am human. So why do we always want more?

I often chalk that up to where I live; Fairfield County, CT is very competitive on a social level. People drive fancy cars, send their kids to fancy schools, and oftentimes judge each other based on the clothes they wear and the company they keep. So the solution, of course, would be to move away from it all. Right?

Wrong. This shallowness can be found anywhere. Letting it affect you is a choice. Darius Rucker reminds us, in a way that only country music can do, that we may not have all that we want, but we usually have all we need. I look forward to your thoughts on the matter.