Diamond Rio - One More Day

Diamond Rio's first big hit was called "Meet in the Middle," but "caught in the middle" more accurately describes One More Day: they sound trapped between cookie-cutter pop-country material and the irrepressible individuality of their instrumental and vocal personalities. Jimmy Olander's unique guitar style and Gene Johnson's down-home mandolin do their best to fight through NutraSweet tunes like "'Til the Heartache's Gone" and "The Love of a Woman"; but, like Marty Roe's honest vocals and the group's high-lonesome harmonies, they reside more comfortably in the arms of clever good-time tunes like "Stuff" and "That's Just That." They can also make you believe a heartbreaking tune about a couple's struggle with alcoholism ("I'm Trying") or raise chicken-skin with a tender bluegrass version of J.D. Souther's "Hearts Against the Wind." The NashVegas stuff may get them hits but it's tunes like those and Roy Orbison-meets-Buck Owens-at-the-beach stuff like "I Think I Love You" that makes them interesting. --Michael Ross