In 1982, Matt Davenport and Danny Gregg founded a band at Opryland USA, a former country music-based amusement park in Nashville, Tennessee.

[2] The group "swapped lead voices, told jokes, and balanced old-school country concert shtick with a contemporary sound".

[1] Herndon left the group in 1983 to compete on the talent show Star Search,[3] and became a solo artist for Epic Records between 1995 and the early 2000s.

[4] Herndon was temporarily replaced by Anthony Crawford and then Virgil True before his role was taken over by Marty Roe, who had originally toured nationally with the Christian band Windsong,[5] and worked in the park by doing impersonations of Larry Gatlin.

Beard quit shortly afterward and ultimately became a session musician, and former Mel McDaniel sideman Jimmy Olander took his place.

[7] The band, through the assistance of Bill Anderson's drummer Len "Snuffy" Miller, submitted demos to various Nashville record labels with no success.

[10] Frustrated by the sporadic touring schedules, Whiteside quit the group and was replaced by Brian Prout, who previously performed in Hot Walker Band and Heartbreak Mountain.

[11] They initially chose to operate as a quintet, with Davenport as the sole lead vocalist and Roe and Prout singing harmony; when this arrangement proved unsuccessful, they found mandolinist Gene Johnson, a former member of the bluegrass group Eddie Adcock's IInd Generation, which Olander was a fan of as a child.

Also at this point, the band members supplemented their incomes with outside jobs: Johnson continued to work in carpentry, Olander and Roe mowed lawns, and Prout drove tour buses.

Stegall produced demos for the Tennessee River Boys, but noted that Davenport could not record the lead vocal and bass parts at the same time, as they would be difficult to separate in the control room.

They finally chose Dana Williams, a nephew of the bluegrass group Osborne Brothers and former sideman for Jimmy C. Newman, who had been a fan of the Tennessee River Boys since Herndon was a member.

[19] The band members also decided to choose a new name, as they thought that Tennessee River Boys sounded more suitable for a bluegrass or gospel group than a country one.

On September 6, four weeks after Johnson's accident, Williams was water skiing with his family in Cookeville, Tennessee, as his boat came forward at high speed when his wife was picking him up.

"[36] Johnson spoke positively about "Mama Don't Forget to Pray for Me", which was written and originally recorded by Larry Cordle, and the impact that it had on fans.

"[37] Diamond Rio was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipping one million copies in the United States.

"[5] Olander was also critical of the novelty factor of "This Romeo Ain't Got Julie Yet", which he co-wrote, saying that it was "by far not my favorite Diamond Rio recording – but that's at the time when I'm thinkin', 'Oh, this is easy, let's write this.

'"[43] Brian Mansfield of Allmusic was also critical of the song, but described the rest of the album with favor, saying that its "strongest material emphasizes the virtues of God, family and honest living – traditional stuff, no doubt influenced by the members' bluegrass background",[44] while Jack Hurst of the Chicago Tribune thought that "In a Week or Two" and "Sawmill Road", "which is about the diverse trails some rural schoolmates follow in adulthood", were the strongest tracks.

Because the band had taken a longer period of time to choose songs for Love a Little Stronger, they considered it a superior album to its predecessor;[5] Mansfield shared a similar opinion in his review of the album, stating that "Spurred by the relatively lackluster performance of Close to the Edge ... Diamond Rio explored the musical possibilities of its talents rather than digging for easy commercial success.

Contributing songwriters to the album included Paul Williams, former NRBQ member Al Anderson, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, and Huey Lewis.

[29] The song was originally intended to be the title track to their sixth studio album, which would have been released on August 22 of the same year, but according to Truman, "Certain radio stations, for some reason, didn't want to play 'Stuff'.

[63] It also included a cover of "Hearts Against the Wind", originally recorded by JD Souther and Linda Ronstadt for the Urban Cowboy soundtrack.

Chris Neal of Country Weekly thought that the album showed a greater musical variety than its predecessors, specifically noting the "spoken-word verses" of "Here I Go Fallin'", the "Hearts Against the Wind" cover, and the Wright duet as standout tracks.

She determined that Roe was over-compensating for a small degree of hearing loss typical of musicians who have performed live for long periods of time, thus tightening muscles in his throat and diaphragm and causing him to lose pitch.

[72] Chrissie Dickinson of the Chicago Tribune was less favorable, commending the "masterful musicianship" and Roe's "light vocal timbre", while criticizing the song selections as "mostly a paint-by-numbers trip around the musical block, from the predictable power balladry of 'I Believe' to the saccharine sentiments of 'We All Fall Down.

[77] In 2014, Olander told The Arizona Republic that the group was no longer signed to Word Records and planned to release new material independently.

This rendition, which featured guest appearances from Lee Roy Parnell and Steve Wariner (both of whom were also signed to Arista Nashville at the time), was credited to "Jed Zeppelin".

Roe sang duet vocals with then-labelmate Pam Tillis on "Love Is Only Human", a cut from her 1992 album Homeward Looking Angel.

[92] Olander was featured along with bluegrass musicians Carl Jackson and Mark O'Connor on the track "Hap Towne Breakdowne" from Steve Wariner's 1996 instrumental album No More Mr. Nice Guy.

Diamond Rio has been one of few self-contained country bands to have followed the practice of each member playing their own instruments and singing their own vocals on all their albums themselves, without any additional input from outside musicians.

The sole exception has been the inclusion of string sections on some of their later work, starting with "I Know How the River Feels"[57] and continuing through certain tracks on One More Day and Completely.