Several years ago they were just faces in the crowd -- six guys who'd wandered into Nashville with big dreams like thousands of others. Today, those six guys now make up Diamond Rio and they have so many hits they can hardly squeeze them all into one show. They won't all fit on a single Greatest Hits package either. But some of them will; and that's the album that you hold in your hand. Here are nine tunes that raised the bar for country musicians everywhere, two that send a bolt of new electricity through the band and a sentimental favorite that has been pleasing the act's audiences for years.

"We've had so many dreams come true," agrees lead singer Marty Roe. "It wasn't that long ago that we were doing club dates and didn't have enough songs to fill up a set. Now we have a wonderful problem: Too many hits to fit in an hour show. That's what makes playing live such a blast."

"I've got a roll call of emotions when I look back at these songs," continues bassist and low harmony vocalist Dana Williams. "When I hear these things, I think back to the beginning of this trip. It's been a wild ride and it still is! I have more fun performing now than I ever have in my life."

These are sounds that helped to define the whole "young country" movement of the 1990s. More than that, they are ear melting demonstrations of the unbelievable vocal and instrumental skills that these six men "brought to the table" when they came to Music Row. Diamond Rio is a group so accomplished that it's almost too good to be true.

The six guys who make such beautiful noise straggled into Nashville from all points on the compass. All six paid their dues on the lowest rungs on country music's ladder before they got to bask in the sunshine of eight Group-of-the-Year honors, five Grammy nominations, four million-selling albums and adoring multitudes of concert attendees.

"I used to dream while I was sitting on that tractor back in Ohio," recalls Marty, "singing at the top of my lungs, and imagining myself saying thank-you speeches for awards. I was going to come to Nashville and change the world."

The reality was somewhat less glamorous. Marty chugged into town from the Buckeye State in a 1972 green Pinto he bought with $320. He lived in a bug-infested basement apartment and was once so hard up for cash he had to scrape spare change together to make the $70 rent.

Drummer Brian Prout was behind the wheel of a 1975 Buick with 130,000 miles on its odometer and a hole in the floor so big that his heel poked through every time he put on the brakes. He roomed with his four fellow members of Heartbreak Mountain in a two-bedroom duplex with rental furniture. The other four got the beds, Brian got the couch. It was a far cry from the lucrative Florida club scene and even farther from his New York State boyhood home.

Mandolinist and high harmony vocalist Gene Johnson motored into Music City in a 1972 Ford pick-up that was packed Ü "Beverly Hillbillies" style Ü with everything he and his family owned. Sentimental Gene has since completely restored the vehicle and still drives it.

Keyboardist Dan Truman limped into town from Utah in a Volkswagon Rabbit that he drove until it literally fell apart under him. When it was on its last legs, he took it to a repair shop and left it there permanently. For a time, home was the apartment Marty had with his new wife Robin (paid for with her salary). Dan couldn't afford to help with the rent, but he'd leave jars of jelly on their kitchen table as thank-you gestures.

Lead guitarist Jimmy Olander had made a good living teaching banjo back home in California. He came to Nashville in style in a fully restored 1953 Chevy. Within months of his arrival, the car was totally in a wreck.

Dana was waiting for the other five, because he'd been living in Music City since childhood. He was riding around town in style in a 1960 Pontiac LeMans he'd bought with the $625 he'd made entertaining tourists at the Music Valley Drive campgrounds.

None of the six knew their way around the music industry as they filtered onto the Nashville scene in the mid 1980s. Jimmy enrolled in Belmont University's music program; Marty attended David Lipscomb University to study business management. Dana worked as a sideman for country stars Jimmy C. Newman, Jeanne Pruett and Carl Smith. Brian stayed with Heartbreak Mountain until it dissolved and its lead singer Marty Raybon formed Shenandoah. Dan played keyboards in church.

As a summer job, Marty began operating rides at the Opryland theme park. In 1984 he joined the park's resident country group The Tennessee River boys. Jimmy auditioned for the same band and met Marty when he joined in 1984. Dan came on board in 1985. All three dreamed of far bigger things than singing country oldies summer after summer.

"I was on a time table," Marty recalls. "I was going to have a recording contract by the time I was 30 or I was going to let go of the dream completely. I made a commitment to go for it all or not do it, period." He, Jimmy and Dan quit the park in 1986 determined to attract the attention of Music Row with the sound they were developing."

"I never lost my focus either," says Brian. "I never wanted to become a studio musician or any of that. I mean, I love making records with this band; but, when it gets right down to it, I am still a take-it-to-the-people kind of guy. He became the fourth member of the band in 1987. Gene brought the country expertise he'd acquired with Keith Whitley in J. D. Crowe's New South to the emerging group later that same year. After Dana rounded out the lineup in 1989, the act officially changed its name to Diamond Rio.

They were operating purely on faith and musicianship in those days. At one point, Jimmy was mowing lawns to make ends meet. When Dana joined the band, they had only one performance date booked on its calendar. But a showcase for Arista Records changed everything. In 1990 Diamond Rio signed with the label and recorded its debut CD. In 1991 "Meet in the Middle" became its first No. 1 hit. "Mirror Mirror," "Mama Don't Forget to Pray for Me," "Nowhere Bound" and "Norma Jean Riley" all followed it to the top of the charts from that first album. By 1992 Diamond Rio was Gold and a year after that it went Platinum.

Their lives turned utterly upside down. Life became a blur of media interviews, award shows, photo sessions, video productions and 200 concerts a year. The pressures were intense, but the boys proved they were made of tough stuff. They had the character, the strength and the humor to weather whatever came along. Seven years down the road, Diamond Rio has never bickered, never faltered and never failed to deliver flawless music. Close to the Edge (1992), Love a Little Stronger (1994) and IV (1996) have made them one the best selling country bands of their generation.

"In those early years, it was never ending, grueling," Dana recalls. "But here it is, 1997, and we've been through all this and never hardly had a spat. I've heard horror stories of other bands fighting. Idon't know why. All we ever fight about is leaving the TV set on in the bus."

"It's because everyone in this band is so into it for the music," Marty suggests. "'Mama Don't Forget to Pray for Me' still does something to me. It just always hits home. When 'Love a Little Stronger' came out, people just screamed for it. Then they started requesting 'Bubba Hyde' months before it was a single. I was beginning to think we'd get our tires slashed if we didn't put it out soon.

"People have sent us wedding videos where they used 'Meet in the Middle' as their wedding march, walking down along fence posts and everything. And you know what? We watch 'em."

"For me, 'Walkin' Away' was the top," adds Dana. "We did everything right on that. Musically, it just soars. I like every aspect of that one. Nobody fought harder than me not to record 'Norma Jean Riley.' But, from the day we started doing it live, that song had a life of its own. People started yelling like it was a hit or something. I turned to Dan and said, 'You know how I feel about this song, but you know what? It's really fun to play live.'"

"'In a Week or Two' and 'It's All in Your Head' can still get me going," Brian remarks. "And both of them continue to get such strong crowd response."

"Every new song that comes out makes me feel like I'm going into the World Series," says Dana. "When we get done with that music in the studio and we hear it played back, man, there ain't nothing that pumps you up any more."

"I'm the same way," adds Marty. "I'll lie in bed with the headphones on, just blaring the new stuff."

In this case, the "new stuff" is some of the freshest sounding materials that Diamond Rio has ever recorded. "How Your Love Makes Me Feel" is a rocking rampage of sound that is more aggressive than anything the band has done before. "Imagine That" snaps with a taut vibrancy that is practically whiplash inducing. And the return to the tender sentiment of "She Misses Him on Sunday the Most" reminds us that Diamond Rio can whisper as well as it can crow.

"We still have a whole lot of drive," says Marty. "I think that's what helps us to continue to put out fresh music, do different things and experiment with our sound. Let me tell you, the acts that have been around for as long as we have and longer, they're not in it for the money. They're in it because they're doing something that they love."

That's what brought six unknowns to Music City in the first place. And that's what keeps them at the forefront of country music today.

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