Diamond Rio

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, acoustic guitar), Dan Truman (keyboards, organ, synthesizer), and Dana Williams (bass guitar, baritone vocals).. 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)....
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