CHEROKEE — With his gruff-but-comforting low-baritone voice, charisma galore and a “live-and-let-live” laid-back attitude, Darius Rucker, former frontman for Hootie and the Blowfish, sent much of the crowd into ecstasy with his mid-1990s-style mainstream rock songs during his April 22 concert at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino

In somewhat of a surprise, he got decidedly mixed results from the casino crowd when he interspersed some of his more standard country songs into his repertoire midway through the show. The more traditional, country-inflected tunes seemed to suddenly subdue the otherwise cheering, standing and swaying audience.

To his credit, Rucker took notice and later found a groove in the country genre with a mix of highly romantic and sing-along-style drinking songs that actually revved-up his fans.

The Charleston, S.C., native, who (according to his biography) grew up in poverty — at one point living in a three-bedroom home with his mother, her two sisters, his grandmother and 14 children — was greeted with adoration by much of the crowd as he took the stage, before he even sang a word.

In some ways, such as his attire, Rucker appeared unpretentious, wearing a T-shirt, worn blue jeans and a ball cap. He also appeared to possess considerable self-confidence and openly described himself during the show as a head-over-heels romantic when it comes to women, connecting effectively with the female-majority crowd on many levels.

He also said more than once that he is happily married, noting at one point that he once moved to New York City to chase the woman who was to become his wife. After winning her over, Rucker said they moved back to this region, noting his love for the South in general and the Carolinas in particular

Rucker, who is close friends with golfer Tiger Woods, also seemed to benefit from his status as a true maverick — as does Woods. The two African-Americans seem to march to the beat of a different drum in breaking racial stereotypes.

While he was attending the University of South Carolina, Rucker was a co-founder, lead singer and rhythm-guitarist of Columbia-S.C.-based Hootie & the Blowfish, one of the most popular mainstream pop-rock bands of the mid-1990s. He was the black frontman for an otherwise all-white group that began by playing at many fraternity parties.

After leaving the group and turning to country music, on Nov. 11, 2009, Rucker won the Country Music Association New Artist of the Year award, making him the first African-American to win the award since it was introduced in 1981. The only other black to ever win a CMA award was Charley Pride, who won as entertainer of the year in 1971 and male vocalist of the year in 1971 and 1972.

It has not all been smooth sailing, though, as Rucker was spoofed by TV’s “Saturday Night Live” as “not black enough” in a sketch where Rucker was depicted as leading beer-drinking, white fraternity members in a counter-march to Louis Farrakhan’s Million Man March. In real life, Rucker reportedly faced death threats for singing the Hootie song “Drowning,” a protest song against flying the Confederate flag above the South Carolina statehouse.

In an unusual twist, Rucker almost nonstop throughout the 75-minute Cherokee show (even in the middle of songs) slapped “high-fives” — or shook hands briefly — with the comely young women who jammed the area in front of him below the stage, presumably seeking to experience the thrill of touching the man in the spotlight. 

One woman, who stood out because she was so rotund (unlike the lithesome lovelies around her), managed to slap hands with Rucker and then amused many in the crowd when she staggered back to her seat, with a huge grin — and her body twitching as if she had been struck by lightning.

A few of the women in the crowd were dressed in mid-’90s female rocker attire, a la Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac, featuring off-the-neck tops, with capes that draped dramatically at the elbows.

Surprisingly, Rucker and his current band reportedly only drew slightly more than 1,600 people to the 3,000-seat casino Event Center. However, the concert’s late starting time — 9 p.m. — may have played a role in the concert turnout at the casino, where gambling, especially later in the evening, is the main game. (The concert was scheduled later than usual because of events related to celebrating the casino’s recent expansion, one casino official told the Daily Planet.) 

The concert began about 15 minutes late, with the band suddenly taking the stage, along with Rucker, “How y’all doin’?” he asked, in greeting the cheering crowd, as the band launched into “Love Will Do That.” 

His talented six-piece backup band included a guitarist, bassist, two keyboardists, drummer and a multi-instrumentalist, who, at various times, played guitar, violin and banjo, among others.