Shenandoah (band)

Shenandoah
General information
Genre (s)	Country music
founding	1984
Founding members
guitar	Jim Seales
Drums	Mike McGuire
Electric bass	Ralph Ezell (until 1996 and 2002-2007)
Vocals , guitar	Marty Raybon (until 1997)
Keyboard	Stan Thorn (until 1995)
Current occupation
guitar	Jim Seales
Drums	Mike McGuire
Vocals, guitar	Curtis Wright (from 1997)
former members
Electric bass	Rocky Thacker (1996-2002)
singing	Brent Lamb (1996-2002)

Shenandoah is from Muscle Shoals , Alabama native country music formation.

Career

In the early eighties, musicians Jim Seales, Stan Thorn and Mike McGuire got together in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. All three are from southern US states and had experience in other groups. In 1985 they became the house band of the MCM Club and accordingly called themselves MGM Band . They were reinforced by the singer Marty Raybon and the bassist Ralph Ezell. One day they invited their songwriter friend Robert Byrne to a performance. He was impressed and brought her together with Rick Hall , the head of the famous FAME Studios . He produced a seven-song demo tape that eventually led to a record deal with the Columbia label.

Career

First, the group name was changed to Shenandoah by the record company . In 1987 their debut album of the same name was released, which mainly consisted of the demo band's seven songs. Some singles released reached middle positions in the country top 100. They achieved their first top 10 placement a year later with Mama Knows , which was taken from the second album, The Road Not Taken . In 1989 they had three number 1 hits: Church On Cumberland Road , Sunday In The South and Two Dozen Roses .

The next singles were also successful. In 1990 they were named "Group of the Year" by the Academy of Country Music . A year later there were legal disputes over the name "Shenandoah", which was claimed by several other bands. The lawsuits brought them to the brink of ruin, as they lost their record deal at the same time, but could ultimately be won. But their down-to-earth country music, which was pleasantly different from the mainstream of its competitors, was still in demand, and so the RCA label was able to continue in 1992.

From her first album for the new record company, Long Time Comin ' , two top 20 singles were released. In 1994, If Bubba Can Dance (I Can Too) was another number one hit. In the same year the band switched to the Liberty label. Although there were some initial successes, sales soon waned. A joint production with Alison Krauss earned a CMA Award and a Grammy in 1996 . A little later, lead singer Marty Raybon left Shenandoah.

Marty Raybon and his brother Tim founded a country duo with the obvious name Raybon Brothers . With their single Butterfly Kisses they reached number 22 in the country charts in 1997, but they were not granted any further success, so Marty took care of his solo career again. In addition to the mixture of New Traditionalist and Rockabilly that is typical for Shenandoah, he also mastered the bluegrass subject and soon made a name for himself in the Christian country scene. Since separating from Shenandoah, he has released three albums that have received critical acclaim.

The remaining band members hired Brent Lamb as lead singer and guitarist Rocky Thacker for new recordings. Brent, who comes from the Christian music scene, had already recorded a chart-relevant country album with No Excuses, No Regrets in the mid-1990s and has repeatedly worked with various country groups. For a smaller record company they produced the album Shenandoah 2000 , which mainly contained country pop ballads. The single What Children Believe hit a chart. In 2002 guitarist Ralph Ezell returned and with Curtis Wright a new lead singer was engaged.

Curtis Wright, who had also tried a solo career in the early 1990s, previously wrote the hits Next to You, Next to Me and Rock My Baby for Shenandoah and was a background singer a. a. worked for Vern Gosdin . The band toured across the States and released the 2006 studio album Journeys

On November 30, 2007 bassist Ralph Ezell died at the age of 54 as a result of a heart attack in South Dakota .

Discography

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		US	Country
1989	The Road not Taken	US- gold US	Country6 (138 weeks) Country	Columbia
1990	Extra mile	US186 gold (4 weeks)US	Country11 (84 weeks) Country	Columbia
1992	Long time comin '	-	Country34 (24 weeks) Country	RCA
1993	Under the kudzu	-	Country38 (53 weeks) Country	RCA
1994	In the Vicinity of the Heart	US182 (4 weeks) US	Country31 (30 weeks) Country	Liberty

more publishments

• 1987: Shenandoah
• 1996: Shenandoah Christmas
• 2000: Shenandoah 2000
• 2006: Journeys
• 2014: Christmas Comes Alive (EP)
• 2016: Good News Travels Fast

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		US	Country
1992	Greatest hits	-	Country43 (24 weeks) Country	Columbia
1994	Great hits	US- gold US	Country65 (2 weeks) Country	Columbia
1996	Now and Then	-	Country54 (7 weeks) Country	Capitol

more publishments

• 1995: The Best Of Shenandoah
• 1999: 15 favorites
• 2002: Certified Hits
• 2003: All American Country
• 2018: Reloaded

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		US	Country
1987	They Don't Make Love Like We Used To Shenandoah	-	Country54 (7 weeks) Country
	Stop the Rain Shenandoah	-	Country28 (18 weeks) Country
1988	She Doesn't Cry Anymore Shenandoah	-	Country9 (24 weeks) Country
	Mama Knows The Road Not Taken	-	Country5 (21 weeks) Country
1989	The Church on Cumberland Road The Road Not Taken	-	Country1 (21 weeks) Country
	Sunday in the South The Road Not Taken	-	Country1 (24 weeks) Country
	Two Dozen Roses The Road Not Taken	-	Country1 (26 weeks) Country
1990	See If I Care The Road Not Taken	-	Country6 (26 weeks) Country
	Next to You, Next to Me Extra Mile	-	Country1 (21 weeks) Country
	Ghost in This House Extra Mile	-	Country5 (20 weeks) Country
1991	I got you extra mile	-	Country7 (20 weeks) Country
	The Moon Over Georgia Extra Mile	-	Country9 (20 weeks) Country
	When You Were Mine Extra Mile	-	Country38 (11 weeks) Country
1992	Rock My Baby Long Time Comin '	-	Country2 (20 weeks) Country
	Hey Mister (I Need This Job) Long Time Comin '	-	Country28 (18 weeks) Country
	Leavin's Been a Long Time Comin ' Long Time Comin'	-	Country15 (20 weeks) Country
1993	Janie Baker's Love Slave Under the Kudzu	-	Country15 (20 weeks) Country
	I Want to Be Loved Like That Under the Kudzu	-	Country3 (20 weeks) Country
1994	If Bubba Can Dance (I Can Too) Under the Kudzu	-	Country1 (20 weeks) Country
	I'll Go Down Loving You Under the Kudzu	-	Country46 (11 weeks) Country
	Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart In the Vicinity of the Heart	-	Country7 (20 weeks) Country	with Alison Krauss
1995	Darned If I Don't (Danged If I Do) In the Vicinity of the Heart	-	Country4 (20 weeks) Country
	Heaven Bound (I'm Ready) In the Vicinity of the Heart	-	Country24 (20 weeks) Country
	Always Have, Always Will In the Vicinity of the Heart	-	Country40 (20 weeks) Country
1996	All Over But the Shoutin ' Now and Then	-	Country43 (12 weeks) Country
2000	What Children Believe Shenandoah 2000	-	Country65 (1 week) Country

more publishments

• 1996: Deeper Than That
• 2000: The Booger Song
• 2001: Building a Home
• 2017: Noise

Web links

• Shenandoah (English)

swell

1. ↑ The Tennessean: Shenandoah bass player dies  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dated December 3, 2007  
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: [1]
3. ↑ Music Sales Awards: US