Diamond Rio

Experience doesn’t announce itself loudly. It creeps up on you, and before you know it, you’ve developed into a distinctive group of individuals who know how to get things done. That’s the way it is with Diamond Rio. After 10 years, six “Vocal Group of the Year” awards collectively from the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association, and 19 Top Ten country hits, the group has created one of the most unique sounds in country music history. They have successfully combined stunning bluegrass harmonies with a driving beat, along with some of the most outstanding solo instrumental work this side of Chet Atkins.

Those qualities are on full display on their seventh album entitled One More Day, which contains 13 new tunes of startling variety. From the chilling tale of alcoholism, “I’m Trying,” to the rollicking, “Stuff,” vocalist Marty Roe, guitarist Jimmy Olander, keyboardist Dan Truman, mandolinist Gene Johnson, bassist Dana Williams and drummer Brian Prout have demonstrated that Diamond Rio have reached the pinnacle of their trade. In addition to the numerous awards, sales records and fan support, they were inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in April 1998, becoming the first band in 14 years to cross that honored threshold.

Acquiring such status gave the band the luxury of time to create their new album. Over the course of 18 months, they scoured the works of some of today’s finest songwriters, among them Trey Bruce, Neil Thrasher, Phil Vassar, Annie Roboff, J.D. Souther, Bob DiPiero, Skip Ewing and Al Anderson.

But the defining piece of the puzzle came from Diamond Rio. “We’ve just got to keep being ourselves,” says Dan Truman. “At the same time, we’ve got to be smart in our choices of songs. We just need to remind ourselves to be hard on each other, to not let a song slip by. In fact, there was a point where we thought we were almost done,” adds Dan, “and we went and cut four more songs!”

“We feel like we’ve got the best group of songs that we’ve ever had on record,” adds Dana Williams. “Every time we do a record, we feel that way – if you don’t, then there’s something wrong.”

The group made a conscious effort to conquer new musical territory with this project. “Part of what we set out to do on this record was to do something that we hadn’t done before, and try to approach things in a different manner,” says Gene Johnson. “Dana and I approached the harmony vocals differently. In fact, we did a lot of harmony vocals on this album; there’s not a whole lot of Marty by himself.”

Gene continues, “We have unique instrumentation, and we’re all distinctive players. So one of the things we didn’t want to do was get too much light material. We wanted it to be pretty serious.”

“People who have listened to Diamond Rio for 10 years know that we’re not going to do a bunch of ‘crying in my beer’ or ‘rowdy rampage’ types of songs,” laughs Dana Williams. “I think they expect to be touched emotionally, and I think they expect our songs to hit ’em where it counts. I can’t tell you how many people have told us that ‘You’re Gone’ is the light at the end of the tunnel for them. So I think they’ve come to expect positive message type songs. These people are really listening!”

That rich tradition continues with emotionally gripping tunes like “Hearts Against the Wind,” title track, “One More Day” and “I’m Trying.” However, the familiar Diamond Rio party sound comes to the fore on the jaunty title tune and the rapid-fire delivery of “That’s Just That.”

It’s a long leap from their origins as the Tennessee River Boys, a group that played at Opryland amusement park starting in the early ’80s. After numerous personnel changes, they evolved into Diamond Rio and settled into their current lineup in 1989. The following year they signed with the newly-formed Arista/Nashville label, and began a long string of hits that included “Meet in the Middle,” “Love a Little Stronger,” “Unbelievable,” and the multi-week chart-topping “How Your Love Makes Me Feel.”

Over the years, they have become known as musicians’ musicians who don’t depend on flash to get their due. “Nice guys don’t make for obvious media darlings,” says Jimmy Olander. “We’re not full of good rehab stories. We’ve got a super high work ethic, and people with high work ethics tend to have careers that seem to be relentless.”

That just about sums up Diamond Rio: a relentless pursuit of excellence. Perhaps Marty Roe describes them best. “I feel good about our sound, about what we’ve become and about what we can do to a song. I still feel like that’s a unique place in our industry, and that we have a niche. We’ve been around 10 years, which is a long time in industry terms. But when it comes to choosing material, learning how to work in the studio efficiently, and just doing what we do, we’ve just now started to come into our own. I feel like we just hit our stride!”

In other words, Diamond Rio breaks into a full gallop on their newest collection, One More Day – the sound of six masters at work.