Shenandoah stops at Revelry Room on 30th anniversary tour
Shenandoah, one of the most storied bands to come out of the Muscle Shoals, Ala., music scene, is marking a milestone few bands can claim: 30 years making music.
The band that formed in 1984 consisted of Marty Raybon, Ralph Ezell, Stan Thorn, Jim Scales and Mike McGuire. Raybon’s vocals and the band’s tight harmonies created a signature sound and identity.
Chattanooga fans can hear that original sound again on Friday night, March 17, when Shenandoah
“The Church on Cumberland Road” spent two weeks at No. 1, making history as the first time a country band’s first No. 1 single spent more than one week at the top of the chart.
makes a stop at Revelry Room as part of its 30th anniversary tour — with Raybon singing lead vocals. The tour marks 30 years since the band released its first self-titled album in 1987.
Shenandoah notched three consecutive No. 1 hits in 1989: “The Church on Cumberland Road, “Sunday in the South” and “Two Dozen Roses.” The band won a Grammy for its duet with Alison Krauss on “Somewhere in the Vicinity of My Heart.”
“The Church on Cumberland Road” spent two weeks at No. 1, making history as the first time a country band’s first No. 1 single spent more than one week at the top of the chart.
The band split up when Raybon left in 1997, but reunited in 2000 with Brent Lamb as lead singer.
Other frontmen followed before Raybon returned in 2014. The band has nine studio albums and continues to make new music, even releasing a Christmas album last year.
“We are really proud of the quality of the material that we have in our catalog and how it’s touched so any people’s lives,” says McGuire on the band’s website.
“As far as the future goes, I’m expecting more of the same. Marty still has the same voice he had back in that day and I still have the same harmonies that I sang on all those records.
“I expect the records we cut in the future are still going to sound like Shenandoah and the songs are going to be just as good if not better.”