Diamond Rio Release New Album, ‘I Made It’

Diamond Rio are back, and they're better than ever. The six-man group released their latest album, I Made It, on Sept. 18, on their own Rio Hot Records label.

“As artists producing music as long as Diamond Rio has, fresh subject matter tends to get more and more difficult to come by,” band member Jimmy Olander says in a statement. “As a writer on the title track "I Made It," simply telling our story is freeing. This is a very specific story, the autobiographical melding of the migration stories my partners and I share about moving to Nashville. Collectively, we have achieved the amount of success that dreams are made of, but at the end of the day have learned having someone to share this amazing life with – ‘love’ and ‘be loved by’ is the real measure of success. It's true, "I Made It.""

Their last album, The Reason, was released in 2009 on Word Records, allowing Diamond Rio plenty of time to focus on the new set of tunes.

“We were fortunate to not be rushed with this project," Gene Johnson notes. "Over the past few years we've taken the time to work on several projects that were on our bucket list; a Christmas album and our first-ever Christian and live albums."

"Instead of cutting the album in a two-week period, or two-month period, we'd cut a few songs every year," Dan Truman continues. "What that allowed us to do is be very selective about what we cut and to take the time to live with these songs, making the proper edits and decisions."

“We've always had a sense of excitement when a new CD was being released," Brian Proutt adds. "However, since this is our first ‘new music' from Diamond Rio in many years, it almost feels like it did when our very first record came out 25 years ago. At least for me, there is some nervous tension anticipating what our new and long-time fans think about it. We are proud of this CD and we hope that our fans will enjoy listening to it as much as we did recording it.”

The Grand Ole Opry members self-titled debut album was released in 1991. I Made It, which includes songs by Ashley Gorley, Craig Wiseman, Chris Stapleton, Jeffrey Steele and others, is available for purchase on their website.