Diamond Rio In A Giant Watermelon--It's 'Unbelievable!'

06/21/1999 4:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(6/21/99, 1 p.m. PDT) - The gentlemen in Diamond Rio had something to celebrate last week--taking third place in the booth competition at Fan Fair. It seems they all climbed into a giant wooden watermelon, in a scene reminiscent of the cover of its current album, Unbelievable.

Diamond Rio guitarist Jimmy Olander says that he has learned to love the whole Fan Fair experience. "I think about my second or third year of going to Fan Fair, I started to get a little jaded and kind of dreaded it, because it was a lot of work...but I have become a little wiser as I've gotten older and I've realized that these people really like to come to Fan Fair, and I really enjoy seein' 'em," he says. "Early on, I didn't have all that many friends that were fanclub members, but now here we're celebrating 10 years of doin' this. This is the one time of the year where they're all together. I had to get my stuff together a little bit to be able to really appreciate it and to celebrate it like [the fans] are. It'll take the crust off of even the most jaded performer, that's for sure."

After a short recuperation over the weekend, Diamond Rio is headed back out on the road for the next six consecutive weeks as its current single, "I Know How The River Feels," climbs the country charts.

-- Margy Holland, Nashville

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