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Diamond Rio plays it tough |
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Written by Dan England
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Monday, 23 June 2008 |
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After 15 years, successful country band Diamond Rio found itself without a record label. Being dropped by Arista shook the band a bit.
But it didn’t kill the desire.
It wasn’t a surprise, then, when Word picked up the band. The guys figured they would get a record deal, given their success selling millions of records and winning group of the year from both country music organizations numerous times. What was surprising was Word’s business — Word is a Christian label — and the generosity it showed in signing Diamond Rio to a long-term deal.
The move to the label, in 2007, inspired Diamond Rio to find a new direction, said Dan Truman, the band’s keyboardist and one of its founding members. Longtime fans won’t hear much of a change in the band’s sound, a mixture of country rock, bluegrass and three-part harmonies. But most of the songs will be about God.
“There were a lot of acts looking for deals,” Truman said. “They came to us with an offer that blew us away. So what we decided to do was record some Christian stuff. It’s a huge experiment to see if it will work. I wonder if radio will accept it.”
That will be Diamond Rio’s first album of new material — the band’s first was a Christmas album — for the label, and the first single will be released in September, with the album coming out next February.
“Some of the tunes will work for both radio formats,” Truman said, “but we don’t know if either one will accept us.”
The band didn’t have to make that drastic of a change to survive. Diamond Rio had always included inspirational songs that talked about God on its albums, and the label didn’t require the switch.
Even so, it is a way to survive in a tough climate for recording artists, and surviving is what Diamond Rio does best.
The band got its first record deal in 1989 after five years of playing what gigs it could scrape together as the Tennessee River Boys. Just when it seemed like all that hard work would pay off, three of the band members got hurt or sick. Jimmy Olander, the band’s lead guitarist, got a tumor, Dana Williams (bass guitar, vocals) was in a boating crash and Gene Johnson (mandolin, vocals) nearly chopped off his thumb in a carpentry accident.
As serious as the other health problems were, Johnson’s came at a time when the band was planning a tour in Brazil and was just starting to break out. The band had to hire another singer for the tour.
“That was just strange,” Truman sad. “We had to be out there and he was just in his home, suffering.”
Though all three recovered and are doing well, some scars remain. Johnson’s still a great mandolin player but can’t play as fast as he was able to in the past, Truman said. Williams occasionally has trouble with his knee. Olander, however, hasn’t had another tumor in 17 years.
“Life is like that,” Truman said. “It’s always super bittersweet. There’s all this great stuff with all this horrible stuff.”
But the past struggles helped make the band stronger and is one of the reasons the band has kept all six original members since they debuted in 1991. They still enjoy talking about the old days, when the guys practiced in drummer Brian Prout’s garage in the winter and had no heat, so Prout would occasionally turn on the dryer.
“That’s a big reason we’ve hung together,” Truman said. “We’ve never really been in a situation we couldn’t handle.”
TO GO:
• Diamond Rio performs after the Xtreme Bulls Tour at the Greeley Stampede
• 7 p.m. Thursday, June 26, at the Island Grove Arena.
• Tickets are $31-$37.
• Call 356-7787 or go to www.ticketswest.com or www.greeleystampede.org.
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