Diamond Rio - Musical Stylings

Musical Stylings

In 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 country bands, as opposed to rock 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 actual 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.