INFLUENCED
INFLUENCED: Rascal Flatts and Shenandoah
In February, superstar group Rascal Flatts received a surprise at a party celebrating their 10 years as a hit-making group when Marty Raybon, former lead singer of Shenandoah, joined them onstage to sing a few tunes. Flatts’ lead vocalist Gary LeVox has often called Rayon his “favorite singer of all-time.” In fact, Shenandoah’s music played a very important role in the early beginnings of Rascal Flatts. The band’s number one hit “Church on Cumberland Road” was the very first song that LeVox, Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney ever sang together. Gary recalls that before they signed their record deal, they would play “every Shenandoah song over and over and over” at their late night shows. He adds, “It’s an honor to call him friend…[Marty] was a great learning tool.”
The road to the creation of Shenandoah began in 1984 in Muscle Shoals, Alabama when Mike McGuire and guitarist Jim Seales decided to start a band. By the following year, the pair had added keyboardist Stan Thorn, bassist Ralph Ezell and singer Marty Raybon, who had a background in bluegrass music, to the mix. They signed with CBS Records to kick-start their recording career and released their self-titled debut album in 1987 which included their first Top 40 hit “Stop the Rain.” But, it was their sophomore release The Road Not Taken that really made an impact with fans as its six singles all peaked in the Top 10 on the country charts. Three of those songs – “Church on Cumberland Road,” “Sunday in the South” and “Two Dozen Roses” – topped the charts, earning the boys three consecutive number one hits.
The hits kept coming as the group released their third album Exile which includes the number one “Next to You, Next to Me” and the powerful “Ghost in This House,” along with “Moon Over Georgia.” But, a lengthy legal battle over the band’s name placed a damper on their success and put a strain on their finances and their relationship with their record label home. Along the group got to keep their name, their ties with the label were permanently damaged and the guys ended their association with CBS after the release of their 1992 Greatest Hits package. Shenandoah moved on to RCA Records where they earned a number one hit with “If Bubba Can Dance” and continued to make an emotional impact with songs like “I Want to Be Loved Like That.” However, the group soon moved on to Liberty Records’ roster two years later.
It was 1994’s “Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart” which featured Alison Krauss that really brought Shenandoah’s its greatest achievement as the song earned them a CMA Award for Vocal Event of the Year and a Grammy for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. The song also aided the career of Krauss, who at the time was known purely as a bluegrass singer as well as an impressive fiddle player.
The following years saw members Stan Thorn and Ralph Ezell leave the group, but it was the departure of Raybon in 1997 that really hurt the band. After he left, Shenandoah’s well of hits on the country charts dried up. Today, the group lives on with its current lineup of Mike Folsom, Stan Munsey, Jimmy Yeary and original members Mike McGuire and Jim Seales and continues to tour. To find out more about Shenandoah or to check out their tour dates, be sure to visit the group’s official website.
Image courtesy of Beth Gwinn / Redferns
Nikita Palmer for Citadel Digital © 2010
