Hootie Lends a Homegrown Hand

Look out Charleston, Hootie's havin' a hootenanny!

Hootie & the Blowfish frontman and current country singer/songwriter Darius Rucker will continue a tradition he started with the Blowfish back in 2003 with his just-announced "Homegrown Concert Series." The series consists of an annual concert in a city in South Carolina, which is the band's home state. This year, that city is Charleston and Dierks Bentley will be co-headlining the show.

The hope with Rucker's Homegrown concerts is to collect school supplies for Charleston County Schools. All guests who attend the concert are encouraged to raid their office supply closets and bring pens, pencils, paper, art supplies — along with their cowboy boots and ten-gallon hats, of course.

"Many years ago, back when Hootie and the Blowfish was popular, we were into a lot of charities in South Carolina," Rucker said at the press conference announcing the concerts. "We asked educators what their biggest problem was and it was amazing to us because all of the rural schools said they didn't have enough school supplies."

"Teachers were having to go with their meager salaries and try to buy supplies for these kids who weren't bringing them to school. So we started this Homegrown thing. When we've played in Charleston for about 9,000 people, we end up filling about four school buses with just school supplies."

Darius Rucker released a solo country album, titled Learn to Live, which features guest artists like Allison Krauss, Brad Paisley and Vince Gill. But Hootie fans shouldn't worry — the band is just on a short hiatus while bassist Dean Felber recovers from surgery.

Supporting education while rockin' out to some good ole country music? Sounds like a hoot to me.

Photo courtesy of Nancy Ostertag/Getty Images.