Shining in Saratoga

"Come next year in January, in the year 2019, Diamond Rio will have been together-the same six guys have been standing beside one another for 30 years," Marty Roe, Diamond Rio lead vocal and rhythm guitar player, told the crowd during a break between songs when the band played on Saturday night at the Platte Valley Community Center (PVCC).

The band started their sets at 8 p.m. to the sold out crowd.

Diamond Rio has not only had the same members for close to 30 years, the group is known for its near exclusive use of only its own band members on recordings instead of session musicians. This is unusual, especially during the time when the band came together in 1989.

"At that point in time, it was kinda expected we would use studio people, but we refused and did it all on our own," Gene Johnson, who plays the mandolin, fiddle guitar and is the tenor vocal said.

Besides Roe and Johnson, Diamond Rio's membership is Jimmy Olander (lead guitar, banjo), Brian Prout (drums), Dan Truman (keyboards), and Dana Williams (bass guitar, baritone vocals).

When the group put out their album in 1991, their single "Meet in the Middle" went straight to number one. making Diamond Rio the first country music group ever to send its debut single to the top of that chart.

"We were on a brand new label, Arista, which had just come to Nashville and had signed Alan Jackson and his success opened the door," Johnson said. "Any group that puts out its first single hopes for a number one, but it was just a pipe dream."

Johnson humbly said the group was fortunate.

"We happened to have a really good song and the fact that we recorded everything ourselves, and didn't use studio musicians, the song didn't sound like everything coming out of Nashville at that time," Johnson said.

He said the band sounded a little different back then to the country music being put out because the members had backgrounds in all types of music.

"I was in bluegrass before country, we had rock influence especially from our drummer, we had jazz influence through our piano player and it all melded into something that worked well," Johnson said. "The first time all six of us all played together, we all kinda looked around and said it was good."

He said the group was also influence by country singers such as Merle Haggard and Conway Twitty.

"We are fans of old country, we did not to break into anything that would take away from that," Johnson said. "But country is going to change as new singers bring their influence."

Diamond Rio has recorded nine studio albums, four greatest hits compilations, and an album of Christmas music. Three of the band's albums have achieved Recording Industry Association of America 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 one Grammy Award. Altogether they have sold over 10 million albums.

The band has also won a Dove award for their Christian music. Johnson said the album was done because of the positive tones it represented.

Roe made a point of telling the audience the group was going to play as many of the songs that made them famous as they could. Diamond Rio not only did a medley of hits of their songs, but showed they could do renditions of rock songs with a country twist. "Carry On My Wayward Son," had the audience singing along with the band as they did the Kansas hit.

The audience sang along on several songs. Roe encouraged this when it happened.

"I enjoy being able to look out and see people's faces when we are playing," Johnson said about playing at the PVCC. "Especially seeing the ones singing and you can tell they have an appreciation for your music. When you play festivals with 20,000, you lose that personal touch, so playing for a smaller audience, especially in a western town, is what it is all about for me."