Songoftheday 3/4/24 -Every now and then soft as breath upon my skin, I feel you come back again...

 

 

"I Believe" - Diamond Rio

from the album Completely (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #31 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 4

 

Today's song comes from the country music group Diamond Rio, who scored a third top-40 crossover hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart in the autumn of 2002 with "Beautiful Mess".  The second single pulled from their Completely album was "I Believe". Written by industry pros Skip Ewing (a successful country artist himself in the late 1980s) and Donny Kees, the song has lead singer Marty Roe mourning the loss of a loved one (presumably a wife). It leans heavily on the belief in the afterlife, as he sings how the spirit lives on in heaven as well as in those they've touched. It's hopeful without being too hokey, and the production from the band with Michael Clute sweeps in an orchestra in the beginning but does dial it back a little to let the mandolin and piano shine. But its the harmonies from Gene Johnson and Dana Williams that make it so sweet. In return, fans and radio gave the band their first back-to-back country #1 hits...

"I Believe" reached the top-40 on Billboard's Hot 100 in May of 2003, while spending two weeks at #1 on the Country Songs airplay chart. At the Grammy Awards in 2004, the song was nominated for Best Duo/Group Country Vocal (their third straight nod), losing to Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder for the non-hit "A Simple Life". 

The third release from Completely was the sugary-cute parable on aging, "Wrinkles", which peaked at #16 on the Country Songs chart and "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #107. That was followed by "We All Fall Down", which stopped under the Country Songs list at #45. 

Diamond Rio was intending to put out a new album later in 2003, but after two preview singles missed the top-40 on the Country Songs chart, Can't You Tell was shelved. Instead, Arista Nashville put out a second Greatest Hits II set, including a new single, "God Only Cries", which is their most recent chart hit at #30. That collection, which went to #62 on the Billboard 200 sales tally and #12 on the Country Albums list, ended their stay on the label where they had been from the start. 

The band veered towards religious music after that, signing on with gospel label Word Records, where they put out two studio albums. The second, The Reason, climbed to #41 on Billboard's Country Albums chart. The record won them their first Grammy Award for Best Southern/Country/Bluegrass Gospel Album (in the last year of being a separate category). In 2015, Diamond Rio released a secular country album I Made It, which it their most recent studio release. Although Johnson and drummer Brian Prout retired, the band continues to tour. Last year, they returned with a new single, the rollicking instrumental "The Kick". (I wish the Grammys still had a country instrumental category this would've definitely made the cut).

(7/10)

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Here's the band performing "I Believe" for an awards show...

Up tomorrow: The pop power-couple of the millennium announce themselves.