Rascal Flatts' Gary LeVox (l) and Marty Raybon at the 2010 Country Radio Seminar on February 24 in Nashville, Tenn. Photo by Wendy Newcomer.

A mass of performers descended on downtown Nashville last week during the Country Radio Seminar to thank programmers for playing their music — and to remind the radio folks that there’s more music on the way. One guy who benefited greatly from that opportunity was former Shenandoah vocalist Marty Raybon, who not only got a last-minute moment on a big stage but also picked up some unexpected appreciation in the room.

Marty’s got a new album, At His Best, slated for release this spring, so he showed up at the Renaissance Nashville Hotel to do interviews and greet people at the record company’s suite. But CRS also turned into a sort of old-home week as he ran into a bunch of executives that he worked with regularly when Shenandoah was on RCA in the 1990s. One of those execs, Dale Turner, told Marty that his buddies in Rascal Flatts were doing a tenth-anniversary show, and the wheels started turning.

“You know, they used to end their show with ‘Church On Cumberland Road,’” Marty notes. “I said, ‘I tell you what. You know what I need to do, about the time [Gary] LeVox goes into that second verse, I need to go up there and get that microphone and then pop that second verse on him.’ I acutally kinda said that in a jest — like I wanted to, but also not knowin’ whether it would be OK if I did. [Dale] looked back at me and said, ‘Would you?’ I said, ‘You’re dad-blame right I would.’”

At show time, Rascal Flatts had no idea Marty was taking over that second verse. And Marty had no idea he’d be taking over any longer than that. But the audience, made up of radio and music-industry employees, started calling out old Shenandoah hits — including “Sunday In The South” and “Next To You, Next To Me” — and guitarist Joe Don Rooney insisted that Marty stay on stage long enough to run through “Ghost In This House.”

It was an off-the-cuff moment, but it ended up generating a lot of attention for Marty.

“I didn’t wanna interrupt,” Marty says. “I just wanted to go up there and maybe do the second verse and get outta the way, just to aggravate ‘em, to be honest with you, ‘cause they are buddies of mine. Anyway, then when they did that, before it was all over, man that’s an awful good feelin’ to know that here’s the supergroup of today and… havin’ people yell out some of the past hits that we had and gettin’ a chance to do a second song.”

Gary LeVox is, in fact, one of Marty’s biggest fans. He’s called Marty “hands down my favorite singer of all-time.”

“He’s easily impressed,” Marty laughs. “And I appreciate that about his personality.”

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