Beautiful Mess: The Story of Diamond Rio

"It's the journey, not the destination".

"It's the journey, not the destination". This saying by country music group, Diamond Rio's Jimmy Olander, is the summation of their book, Beautiful Mess. The book takes you through the formation of the group as the Tennessee River Boys, a performing group in the Opryland theme park, through 20 years of metamorphosis. Author, Tom Roland, a Nashville-based entertainment writer, introduces you to each of the Diamond Rio band members individually,and shares their history with you. He also takes you step by step through the formation of the band into where they are today.

The book, Beautiful Mess, The Story of Diamond Rio, is a well-written and thoughtfully laid out book. I do not know if it is something that will attract people who are not avid followers of the band or of the country music genre. There were parts of the book where I could feel the emotion and the pain of the band members, such as when the lead singer, Marty Roe, was having vocal difficulties and was having night after night of horrible performances. I think there were a couple of times I actually winced at the descriptions being able to picture them in my mind. Likewise, when the book talked about their song, "One More Day", and I started seeing everywhere it was used during 2001 including post 9/11, there were actually tears in my eyes.

I will admit, there were parts of this book that were extremely slow for me, not being a huge fan of biographies. However, for the country music aficionados out there, this book will show you a side of Diamond Rio that you probably have not seen before. They are a good group of guys that have worked together, played together, and served together in their community. There is a humanitarian side of them that I did not know, but was impressed to read about.

Although this is not a book that I gained great Biblical knowledge from, it was a book that I was glad to have read. I have liked Diamond Rio's songs and will continue to enjoy them even more in the future knowing what stand-up guys are behind the songs.


Thomas Nelson Book Review Blogger
http://brb.thomasnelson.com/

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A must read for country music fans!! This group stands out from the rest!!

I have loved Diamond Rio since the first time I heard their famous song "Meet in the Middle." I loved the harmony of the group and the words of their songs. When I saw this book I knew I had to read it.
It is a little slow to start off with but soon you are delving into each member's journey on not only how they became members of Diamond Rio but their lives leading up to it. The original name of the band was the Tennessee River Boys and each of them had their own fears and doubts about the success of the band. It was their faith in God and in each other that has kept them together all this time, even when it looked like their lead singer had lost his ability to sing. I learned things that I never knew about this wonderful group such as all their charity work. What a great example these guys have set by helping others and staying away from the typical pitfalls of being a superstar. The pictures in the book are great also! You get to see how each member has changed over the years and get to relive the "big" hair days. I highly recommend this book for an uplifting story and also to get to know each member on a more personal level.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

For fans of Diamond Rio or those seeking a realistic picture of the music business

Beautiful Mess is the story of Diamond Rio, their history, their problems, and the individuals that make up the band. Although I enjoy their music, I'm not a big fan, but I do have a son who plays guitar and is seeking to be successful on his own in the music business.

This book helped tremendously to put things into perspective and learn that the music business is not just glossy and perfect. I've read a couple of other music-oriented books in the past year, and was so frustrated with the amount of sex and drugs discussion that I didn't feel comfortable sharing those books with my son, but this one presents a different side of a band that has been together a long and has grown both individually and as a group.

Diamond Rio fans and young people wanting to enter the music business should have plenty to take away from this book. It presents the members of Diamond Rio as real people who support each other no matter what. That is the real secret of their success.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A Great Read!

I am a huge country music fan, and I couldn't wait for this book to come out! I have always enjoyed Diamond Rio's music. I had no idea what was going on behind the scenes. Things are not always the way they seem. This book was such an inspiration to me because it showed me how there is always hope, and if you are at the bottom, you have no place to go but up. I also liked this book because it is packed with the history of country music. If you are a country music fan, I would recommend this book. Beautiful Mess is a great read! Beautiful Mess would also make a great holiday gift!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Beautiful Mess

Beautiful Mess is the story of the country group called Diamond Rio. The group has been around for a little more than 20 years now and this book chronicles their journey in the music business. The book shares how the group was started and the ups and downs and hard work that it took to get them where they are today.

I enjoyed the book as it lays out a chapter for each member to give their own personal history. The reader is able to see each member from their birth and growth in music, their journey with Diamond Rio, and other outside interests they are involved in. As the book is written in part by the group and it gives a more personal touch to the book to hear their story in their own words. The book allows the reader an inside look to see that musicians are human and the journey to success is often not what most fans think it is. The book contains a plethora of pictures and an appendix listing the groups hits and accomplishments.

If you're a cynic, that's unfortunate.

This book tells the good, bad, and ugly of Diamond Rio. If you're a fan of their music you'll truly appreciate this tell all story of their lives before they became so well known as Diamond Rio. It may surprise you to know just how many bumps along the way there were and just how major some of the trials they each went through. I suggest you get "The Reason", their CD that goes along with this book. It's their first CCM release and I hope it's just the beginning. If you're not a fan, read the book. You may become a fan afterward. A very inspiring read. If you're a cynic, that's unfortunate. A great gift for someone who has everything and don't forget to add in the CD.

Sorry Diamond Rio.

I've got to be honest. BookSneeze (formerly Thomas Nelson book review bloggers) sent me this book MONTHS ago to read & review for my blog. I've tried. Really, really tried. I love biographies that tell a "God story". I love to see the testimony of God's grace & divine leadership in a person's life. Seriously, those are some of my favorite books. But no matter how much I tried I could not get "into" this book.

I tried to read it in bed & in the bubble bath (my two favorite reading spots). I tried to sit upright & recline on the couch. Location didn't seem to change a thing. The book was very boring to me.

Perhaps it's a "guy" book & my being a non-guy effected my acceptance of a wonderful story. But the on & on & on details just seemed to drag for me and I couldn't get excited about finishing it.

I'm sorry Diamond Rio. I liked you as a band, but your book was not my favorite. Maybe someone else will enjoy it. I'll just keep looking up your old songs on youtube.

To learn more about the book review program I am in, go to www.booksneeze.com.

Boring

I like country music. It's OK. And I like a good story about someone conquering life's challenges. So, Diamond Rio's "Beautiful Mess" seemed like a choice read for me, even though I'd never heard of the country group before. The title captured my attention, along with the interesting title. However, once I began reading, the my attention span was cut short and it took me several months to finish reading the book. It was not the choice read I expected.

"Beautiful Mess" tells Diamond Rio's story, starting with the band as a whole, going into chapters about individual members of the band and their histories, and ending with the band as a whole. While the band's stories do sometimes contain touching, beautiful messes, some chapters are beautiful messes in themselves. The beginning and end are the most interesting parts of the book, especially the ending, which turns a beautiful mess into a beautiful whole.

Getting to the end was difficult for me, though. Maybe it's just because I don't normally read or enjoy biographies. Maybe it's because I'm not a fan of the book. Or maybe it's because the book was poorly written. The point is, while fans may enjoy this book, I did not. "Beautiful Mess" is a mess. It fails to connect, and it's focus could easily be narrowed down to a book on the band alone without any histories of band members.

On the bright side, the photos are nice, and the audio version that comes with the book (downloadable online) was the only reason I was able to finish the book.

Beautiful Mess by Diamond Rio

Beautiful Mess is the story of the band Diamond Rio. Each members history, from childhood to the present, is recounted. The story includes the "beautiful mess" called adversities and trials along with the happiness of making their dreams become reality.

The band is an inspiration to the fact that bands do not have to get into trouble with alcohol and drugs before or after becoming a success in the music industry. Diamond Rio's journey has been filled with struggles, but they were committed to their families and each other which helped them come out on top.

I really liked learning about each member and how they were bonded to each other by their music, faith and drive for making a difference with success. I found this book extremely inspirational and motivating. It gave me a renewed boost to believe in myself and never give up!

The Story Behind the Music

Beautiful Mess is the story of the band Diamond Rio, starting with each member's story from a child up, and finishing with "where they are now," and including their rise to fame, triumphs and struggles in the middle. It is a comprehensive look at six different (very different!) men and how they became not only a group, but a wonderfully committed, thoroughly bonded group of family men.

I've never been a country music fan, nor very up-to-date on CCM, so I had never heard of Diamond Rio before receiving this book from Thomas Nelson publishers to review. Nevertheless, the book was well written and even as an introduction to the band, it was an engaging read and enjoyable. Each man in the band had a unique story, and other than music, they had little in common before joining the band together. Nevertheless, their music and their faith cemented their bond. I loved seeing how they supported each other through thick and thin (and there was plenty of both!), and how they worked together throughout the many years during which they sang together.

If you like reading the story behind the music, this is an excellent book for you!

Great Book!

This was a really interesting book! I have always enjoyed Diamond Rio's music but I had no ideal of the history and all they went through to get where they are now. This book is a well written and chock full of tales regarding the groups highlights and challenges as well as each of the members individual stories. I found this book to be entertaining and heartwarming; an overall good read!

An OK book about a great band

I'm a country music fan, and in fact, I'm a Diamond Rio fan. Ever since the early 90's, when my H.S. boyfriend, Brad, played country all the time in his toyota truck. I lived in Seattle, and Brad is Korean, so even though country in a truck are stereotypical, neither of us were stereotypical country fans.


However, despite my enjoyment of country music, I don't really know much about bands in general and less about band members. So were it not for my work in reviewing books for Thomas Nelson, I would not probably have heard of, let alone read, this book.


"Beautiful Mess" is a memior about how Diamond Rio got started as a group, how each individual member came to be a part of the band, and how the group rallied after lead singer and frontman Marty Roe began to have trouble carrying a tune.


Right up front, I'll tell you that I'm giving this book about a 2 1/2 mandolins out of 5. If I were a huge Diamond Rio fan and knew the band members and had gone to all their concerts, then I'm sure this book is a 4. I am not that person. So as an average reader who likes their music, but isn't really sure why they're putting out a book, its just average. High points: learning about the various paths that people take to become a band, reading funny stories about Opryland, and gaining insight into how the group communicated and rallied to regain their old form. Low points: after reading the book, I still can't really tell you who is who and who is married to/divorced from whom - and I'm not that worried about figuring it out.


Ultimately, if you are a big Diamond Rio fan, you will be encouraged and entertained by this story. And if you attended their shows in the late 90's and wondered why they sounded bad, this book will answer those questions for you and make you buy tickets for any upcoming show to see them redeem themselves. However, if you are not any of the above type of people, I'd say avoid it and read the biographies/memiors that have inspired me including: "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller and/or "Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur" by Frank Houghton.

Beautifully written biography about the messy history of Diamond Rio

Beautiful Mess is a beautifully written biography about the messy history of the band, Diamond Rio. Tom Roland assists the Country band in telling the details of their years together. A common theme throughout the book is unity and commitment within and to Diamond Rio. This is proven repeatedly through the course of their 20 years together and the band tributes their longevity to these two qualities.

The book begins with Diamond Rio in the middle of a crisis that jeopardizes their careers in 2005. The first chapters recount the days leading up to each member joining the group. While this is a key element in the story, it is a bit tedious. There is a lot of music industry lingo, places and people. With an overabundance of names and people with the same first name it was difficult, at best, to keep everyone straight in my mind. Thanks to Roland's writing style, this setting-the-stage section is fast-paced. He leads the reader through quickly and keeps the reader focused on the plot.

Each band member has a chapter devoted to telling his personal story. This portion of Beautiful Mess is slower reading but transforms each man from a superstar into a real human. Later in the book an update is given of their current personal lives, which gives readers a chance to learn how the band members grew from the struggles they encountered professionally.

Beautiful Mess is a good choice, even if you do not like Country Music. Avid biography readers will enjoy Beautiful Mess because of the multiple storylines-the band's story and the individual stories. People who know the music industry well will enjoy making connections with the people and places in Beautiful Mess. And, of course, Beautiful Mess is a good book for those who simply want the inside scoop on the life of celebrities.


I received a complimentary copy of Beautiful Mess: The Story of Diamond Rio from Thomas Nelson Publishers as a participant in their BookSneeze.com book review blogger program.

Beautiful Mess: A book meant to get inspired and motivated

"Diamond Rio is an American country music band formed in 1984 in Nashville, Tennessee. Since its foundation, the group has comprised the same six members: Gene Johnson (mandolin, guitar, fiddle, tenor vocals), Jimmy Olander (lead guitar, Dobro, Danelectro, banjo), Brian Prout (drums), Marty Roe (lead vocals), Dan Truman (keyboards, organ, synthesizer), and Dana Williams (bass guitar, baritone vocals)."

Firstly the book deals with the rise of the band and then the band bios and lastly the bands topping of the charts up to current day. The book was written by the band in conjunction with Tom Roland, who is a Nashville area entertainment journalist.

I would recommend reading this book by every one especially by students and entrepreneurs who would like to get motivated and inspired and get to know what is the true meaning of 'Devotion' and 'Hardwork' and by everyone who would like to get successful in their lives.

great insight into the music industry

I didn't actually know a great deal about the band members themselves or their history, but I was hoping to find out some of the stories behind the lyrics, as they seem so heartfelt they must surely be based on real-life experiences. Well, the book doesn't offer any insight into the lyrics - so maybe they are just pure fiction. But the group's story is fascinating enough in itself that it doesn't matter.

We're so used to reading about big stars and their diva-esque behaviour that it's really rare and comforting to hear about a bunch of genuinely nice, down-to-earth guys who made it big. Even if you know nothing about Diamond Rio, their story is the classic American dream and is a heartwarming tale that's as wholesome and typically American as a slice of homecooked apple pie. (I love the fact that there's a theme park based on country music ! Try transporting that outside of the States !)

The book is packed full of pictures and anecdotes from the band members' public and private lives and you feel like you really get to know them, so you feel for them and are really rooting for them when they face hardships and difficulties. It takes a lot of humility and honesty for one of America's top groups to admit that they went through a rough patch and performed badly for a couple of years, but they rode out the storm, keeping the values of friendship and loyalty at the forefront, and are back on top form now.

If you like Diamond Rio, you'll love it, but even if you don't know them, it's a fascinating slice of Americana that offers an insight into the trials and tribulations of a bunch of nice guys trying (and succeeding) to make it big in the music industry.

Beautiful Mess: The Story of Diamond Rio, by Diamond Rio with Tom Roland

I was recently given the opportunity to review the book "Beautiful Mess", written by the band Diamond Rio along with Tom Roland. I can sing along to any Diamond Rio song that comes across my radio, but never before had I known the stories behind the songs. This book looks into the lives of each of the six band members, from their childhoods to their entrances into Music City. It was so fun to read how their paths were entertwined. From the beginning, the story of their career has had ups and downs, yet they've stuck beside each other through thick and thin. Many other well-known names are sprinkled throughout the book, giving the reader an inside scoop at trivia most wouldn't know.

Being a Nashville girl and a major country music fan, this book was right up my alley. Pick this up if your own life looks like a "Beautiful Mess" and you're looking for a real life story of inspiration.

A complimentary copy of this book was provided for review by Thomas Nelson.

Beautiful Mess

That little known secret the publisher mentioned was news to me. For the group to be so open about sharing their failings, as well as their reliance on God, was refreshing. This is a story of Diamond Rio's journey, from the beginning of the band through their most recent release. It also includes a lot about their individual family histories. The book ends with an offer to join their "Team Rio" marathon fundraiser for Big Brothers and Big Sisters. If you are a fan, you will enjoy this book. I am a member of Thomas Nelson's Book Review Blogger Program.

Beautiful Mess

Can a band comprised of six very talented but very different musicians make a difference with their music?
Beautiful Mess is a book about the hit country music band Diamond Rio. It starts out at a 2005 Fourth of July concert that went terribly wrong for the band and tells about the struggles they were having after the huge success they enjoyed in the 1990's and early 2000's. The book goes on to outline the band's start as the Tennessee River Boys and then a chapter is dedicated to each member's story, from childhood to how they came to join the band. The final few chapters tell the story of Diamond Rio as a band; their rise to fame and how they have dealt with the obstacles that faced them.

As a fan of the band, I enjoyed this book. The stories told seemed like honest glimpses into the lives of these musicians. I liked the individual chapters that gave each member a chance to tell his story without disrupting the flow of the book. The pages are peppered with pictures, from family snapshots to promotional images, which help bring the stories to life. Another great thing about this book is that when you purchase it, you also get access to a free ebook copy and a free audiobook copy read by the band! If you're a Diamond Rio fan, this is a must read, but I think anybody could enjoy the look into the music industry that this book offers.

I am a a member of Thomas Nelson's Book Review Blogger program http://brb.thomasnelson.com/

What a Beautiful Mess !!

It's not that I'm a big fan of biographies, but Beautiful Mess is with a difference. This is the story of creation of a country music sensation, Diamond Rio. Tom Roland takes us to the deepest part of the band. In the beginning, it might appears slow, but as the story unfolds, we learn that how the six people came from totally different background calling themselves as Tennessee River Boys, playing at the Opryland amusement park became one of the most successful band in country music.
This book contains a chapter on each of the band member, viz., Marty, Dan, Jimmy, Brian, Gene and Dana. Making us understand each of them on individual level and also showcases the variant point of view of each of them regarding the doubts & beliefs of the success of the band. Unusually, this group had been together for around 20 years without changing any member, even at the times when their lead singer had some vocal problems causing the failure of their performances, they lived up like a family, entirely supporting each other.
They never got affected by the cutthroat competition of the showbiz and neither fallen for any pitfalls like drugs or other addiction. This book also enhances on their involvement with Big Brother and Sisters, supporting the society in their own way. This book contains lots of pictures of the band members, their families, their movement of achievements, etc. It also has appendices including the Top 20 Country Hits & the Major Awards & Nominations they won.
This book is a must for every fan of Diamond Rio. And even if you are not one of them, it still teaches to keep faith in God and your colleagues to overcome through any dreadful times.

DIAMOND RIO: A BEAUTIFUL MESS

A Beautiful Mess by Diamond Rio and Tom Roland.and published by Thomas Nelson Publishing Co.

Can a band comprised of six very talented but very different musicians make a difference with their music?

What made it possible for Diamond Rio to weather the storms inherent in the fickle world of fame and fortune and go more than two decades without a single lineup change? Any reader in search of transparency and a behind-the-scenes look into the life of the band as a unit as well as the individual lives of the players and singers will be well satisfied. Can true loyalty exist within the competitive, seemingly unforgiving music industry? In Beautiful Mess Marty Roe, Dan Truman, Jimmy Olander, Brian Prout, Gene Johnson, and Dana Williams each has an entire chapter devoted to his personal and professional life. The book's tone is a welcome rarity-not written from one player's perspective, but from all six as they "meet in the middle." Beautiful Mess is a wild ride from the edge of disaster and a little-known secret to an ongoing heart-warming revival.



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If you are a Diamond Rio and country music you will love this story. The book features Marty, Dan, Jimmy, Brian, Gene and Dana and features lots of picture of their childhood and their families. It tells of the many problems they faced in their personal and private lives and their career. It shows how a group of musicans can work together and face many problems can still be friends and turn a mess in to a Beautiful Mess. The book for me took me a few tries to get into but once Idid it kept me reading on and on. It was very informative and made me realize I did not know as much about Diamond Rio as I thought. I learned so much about a wonderful country group who has made Beautiful music for years and has a large group of fans all around the world. I as many have always loves their music and will continue to do so and this books makes that experience so much better. My suggestion is to read this great book and find out for yourself, I am a reviewer for the Thomas Nelson Publishing group.