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

With the release of his new album, At His Best, Marty Raybon finds himself at a unique point in life. The CD, released Tuesday, is stocked with songs that grapple with the transitions one encounters as time moves ahead. On Saturday, he’ll travel back in time, a bit, when his old band Shenandoah performs together for the first time in a dozen years.

Much of the album adheres to the changing nature of life and the ways people try to cope. The first single, “Daddy Phone,” struggles with the realignment of a family after a divorce. Other songs recognize the maturing of a son into adulthood, the dreaded mid-life transition and the ultimate segue, the end of life.

Not that Marty intended for At His Best to have a transitional theme when he started working on it.

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Harold Reid, Jimmy Fortune, Jamie Dailey, Darrin Vincent, Don Reid and Phil Balsley. Photo by Randi Radcliff.

The venue drips with history, but for large parts of Wednesday, the Country Music Hall of Fame was filled with laughter. Dailey & Vincent performed a half dozen songs from their new Cracker Barrel album Dailey & Vincent Sing The Statler Brothers. The Statlers themselves were on hand for the event, and the quartet’s unrelenting humor launched Darrin Vincent into high-pitched yelps of laughter.

A sample of the one-liners between Statler members — and real-life brothers — Harold and Don Reid:

Don: “[Humor] was very much a major part of our career. We always included humor on stage because we had Harold, and people were gonna laugh when they see him.”
Harold: “I don’t know if people are laughin’ at me or with me. I never did figure that one out.”
Don: “But we intertwined that with the music, which was also funny sometimes, until [Dailey & Vincent] got a hold of it and made it serious.”
Harold: “Now we’re gonna have to get a hold of it and make it funny again.”

The support for D&V is serious. The turn-out for the performance — which included such Statler classics as “I’ll Go To My Grave Loving You,” “Flowers On The Wall” and “The Class Of ‘57” — included Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner, Oak Ridge Boys Duane Allen and Joe Bonsall, Hall of Famer Ralph Emery, gospel icon Bill Gaither and bluegrass players Ronnie McCoury, Rob McCoury and Ronnie Bowman.

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Matt Stillwell photo courtesy of Aristo Media.

Written by Bob Doerschuk

© 2009 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

Matt Stillwell has figured it out. On his debut album, Shine, produced by Mickey Jack Cones and released by Still7 Records, he walks that line where the gritty and commercial sides of life intersect. These 10 tunes, half of them co-written by Stillwell, are suited equally for radio listening and dance-club partying. And this Sylva, N.C., native sings each one with a voice that sounds both young and experienced. Continue Reading

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