Diamond Rio

Diamond Rio in Concert

Saturday July 16, 2011

8:30 p.m.

Diamond Rio is an American Country music/Christian music band formed in 1984 in Nashville, Tennessee. Since its foundation, the group has comprised the same six members: Gene Johnson (mandolin, guitar, fiddle, tenor vocals), Jimmy Olander (lead guitar, Dobro, Danelectro, banjo), Brian Prout (drums), Marty Roe (lead vocals), Dan Truman (keyboards, organ, synthesizer), and Dana Williams (bass guitar, baritone vocals).

Diamond Rio was signed to Arista Records in 1988. Due to a series of health issues affecting three of its members, however, the band did not make its debut until 1991, with the release of the single "Meet in the Middle". It reached Number One on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts, making Diamond Rio the first country music group in history to reach Number One with a debut single. "Meet in the Middle" was followed by thirty-two more chart singles throughout the band's career, including four more Number Ones: "How Your Love Makes Me Feel" (1997), "One More Day" (2001), "Beautiful Mess" (2002), and "I Believe" (2003).

Diamond Rio has recorded seven studio albums, two Greatest Hits compilations, and an album of Christmas music. Three of the band's albums have achieved RIAA platinum certification in the United States. In addition, Diamond Rio has received four Group of the Year awards from the Country Music Association, two Top Vocal Group awards from the Academy of Country Music, and thirteen Grammy Award nominations.

Beginnings

Most of the members of Diamond Rio had previous experience in music. Marty Roe, who was named for country music artist Marty Robbins, began singing country music at the age of three, Gene Johnson had previously played with David Bromberg, Jimmy Olander was a former backing member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and Dana Williams was a nephew of the Osborne Brothers.

In 1984, Truman (who had just received a bachelors degree from Brigham Young University) and Roe met for the first time at Opryland USA, a theme park in Nashville, Tennessee. The two soon formed a bluegrass group, which was first named the Grizzly River Boys, and later changed to the Tennessee River Boys. Olander and Johnson, who previously worked with Keith Whitley, joined a year later, followed by Prout and Williams. The band's name was finally changed to Diamond Rio, because others had thought that the previous name made the group sound like a gospel music band. The name Diamond Rio came from the names of two truck manufacturers, Diamond T and REO (the latter of which became misspelled in the band's name).

After assuming their new name of Diamond Rio, the band was discovered by Tim DuBois (a record executive at Arista Records) in May 1989. DuBois, who had just opened the label's Nashville division, signed Diamond Rio to a record deal that same month. Shortly after the band received its record deal, however, three members came down with health problems: Olander had discovered that he had a tumor, Williams was seriously injured while boating, and Johnson was injured in a carpentry accident.

Awards

Diamond Rio received the Academy of Country Music's award for Top Vocal Group in 1991 and 1992. In 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1997, they also received the Country Music Association's award for Vocal Group of the Year (an award for which they received fifteen total nominations, more than any other country music group). In addition, Diamond Rio has received thirteen Grammy Award nominations. In 2010 they received 3 nominations for the GMA Dove Awards, and on April 22 won the award for Country Album of the Year. In 2011 they received their first Grammy Award in the Grammy Award for Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album category for The Reason.

Musical stylings

In the modern age of the country music industry, Nashville record producers hire mostly session musicians to record tracks for an album for solo artists. And contrary to popular belief, the same frequently applies even to self-contained bands, as opposed to rock and roll bands who record their own instrumental and vocal tracks on their albums. Diamond Rio has been one of few self-contained country bands to have followed the "rock band" route, each member playing their own instruments and singing their own vocals on all their albums themselves without any additional input from outside musicians; starting with the One More Day album, however, some of their songs have occasionally featured accompaniment from a string section, but the band members still perform their own parts nonetheless.

Their early music blended neotraditionalist country with occasional traces of country rock, primarily in the song's rhythm sections. A bluegrass influence has also been shown, primarily in the three-part harmonies among lead vocalist Marty Roe, baritone vocalist Dana Williams and tenor vocalist Gene Johnson. Bluegrass influences are also shown in the band's prominent use of the mandolin, as well as in the bluegrass instrumentals featured on many of their albums. The band's later material has tended towards pop-oriented ballads, such as "I Believe" and "One More Day" — songs which received critical acclaim for their often religious-themed messages, but were considered departures from the more traditional material of their first four albums.

Another trademark of Diamond Rio's sound is the custom-built B-Bender guitar played by Olander. He refers to this instrument as the Taxicaster because of its yellow body and black-and-white checkered pickguard, which give it the coloration of a taxicab.

Beer garden

will be open

each night!


Please no coolers.