Diamond Rio splits with Arista

A Diamond Rio Christmas: The Star Still Shines

Few of this year's Christmas albums discs are as truly country as Diamond Rio's. It doesn't get any better than the bluegrass-y instrumental interplay of "Sleigh Ride," which clicks along like a fast train with banjo plucking and acoustic guitar picking. Better still is Gene Johnson's speedy mandolin work, which is all over the place. And if that's not enough, these guys also harmonize tremendously well together. Furthermore, it's easy to warm up to the ...

Greatest Hits II

It's been 16 years since Diamond Rio's first single "Meet in the Middle" went straight to the top of the charts, which is an eternity in today's country world. They've had their ups and downs along the way, of course, but just the fact that they're still together and still making music together makes them worthy of our attention, even though they've been overshadowed in recent years by Rascal Flatts and other bands that followed in their footsteps. Part of the reason they're still around when so ...

Completely

Diamond Rio has always had a broad stylistic range, but on their latest, the sextet has come up with an assortment of cuts that cut an even wider swath through the country mainstream. It may not have much in the way of artistic coherence, but this more than makes up for it by offering a collection that has something for just about every kind of country music fan. Though the band does a typically polished job on big ballads ("I Believe" and the title track among them) and peppy country-rockers ...