CMT Blog: Archive

With a little bit of downtime at the office this week, I finally had a chance to read Beautiful Mess, an autobiography by Diamond Rio that was released a few months ago. It's a quick read and an insightful look at all six guys in the award-winning band, famous for hits like "Meet in the Middle," "How Your Love Makes Me Feel," "I Believe" and "One More Day." I was lucky enough to see them play a county fair in the early 1990s when they were just getting started, and it might even have been my first country concert. However, much of the storyline of the book involves their live performances over the last seven or eight years when Marty Roe just wasn't cutting it vocally. It got so bad that their longtime sound engineer quit the job after repeatedly getting jeered by nearby audience members.

Fortunately there's a happy ending -- and an unexpected one, at that. Plus, there are plenty of anecdotes about Grand Ole Opry stars like Roy Acuff, the Osborne Brothers and Porter Wagoner, as well as more contemporary country singers like Ty Herndon, Marty Raybon and Keith Whitley. Written with journalist Tom Roland, the book also discusses the band's extensive charity work for Big Brothers Big Sisters and some of the secrets to their longevity -- a "no women on the bus" rule, for example. Maybe it's because I have Thanksgiving vacation on my mind, but this book provides several excellent examples of what it means to be grateful. It also makes me want to go back and listen to some of their music. Might as well, I have some time on my hands today.