IIIrd Tyme Out will be stopping by the studios of WNCW in Spindale, NC on Saturday (3/1) for a live performance, plus some discussion with Dennis Jones, host of the popular Goin’ Across The Mountain show.

The guys will be on at 2:00 p.m., and since the show is simulcast online, many folks will have their first chance to catch the most recent IIIrd Tyme Out lineup. Founding member Russel Moore still holds down the guitar and lead vocal chair, with Steve Dilling on banjo, Justen Haynes on fiddle, Edgar Loudermilk on bass, and recently returned former member Wayne Benson on mandolin.

WNCW can be heard in the Charlotte, NC area at 88.7 FM and is streamed live from WNCW’s website.

Americanaroots.com posted a Q&A type interview with Russell Moore of IIIrd Tyme Out yesterday.

During the course of the interview they discuss the new Rounder release Footprints: A IIIrd Tyme Out Collection, the song selection for that compilation, recent band member changes and what it’s like trying to keep a band together over the years, Russell’s duet with Rhonda Vincent on her new CD, IIIrd Tyme Out’s plans for 2008, and Russell’s listening recommendations for new bluegrass fans.

At one point the interviewer asks Russell if he plans to continue touring when he is Ralph Stanley’s age. Russell responds saying that he does hope to do so, and then gives his reason.

…as a performer and as a singer that’s what I enjoy doing and that hasn’t changed from going from being a sideman to being the owner of a band, that part never changes even though everything else around you does.

That’s what makes bluegrass great folks, the love and passion poured into the music by the musicians over the course of their lifetime.

Thanks Russell, and the rest of you, for making this music worth listening to!

The many fans of IIIrd Tyme Out can now order their live concert DVD from the band’s web site. Entitled Round III at the MAC - Live, it was filmed at the same concert performance in November 2005 as their recent live audio CD, Round III at the MAC.

In the DVD, you’ll see the live stage performances of the same 16 songs as the CD, plus backstage footage and interviews with the members of the band.

Orders can be placed in the band’s online mall.

Kyle Cantrell at XM Satellite Radio’s Bluegrass Junction (track 14) tells us that he has a number of interesting interviews airing over the next two days.

Later today (11/20), Cadillac Sky will be featured in the 3:00 p.m. hour. On Wednesday (11/21), Kyle will have IIIrd Tyme Out, discussing their new Footprints CD, and spinning a few cuts. That IIIrd Tyme Out feature will run sometime between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m.

Then at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Kyle will replay his visit with legendary bluegrass singer Curly Seckler.

The long-awaited concert DVD release from IIIrd Tyme Out is finally available. The video is the companion to their recent live CD, Round III at the MAC, filmed during the same concert performance in November 2005 at the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonburg, KY.

You can pick up the DVD at any of their live shows, but the band doesn’t yet have it in their online store. If you would like to order one directly, they ask that you contact them from their web site for ordering details.

There will also be a IIIrd Tyme Out compilation CD from Rounder Records in the near future, Footprints, which will include tracks from their several Rounder releases, and a couple of new ones as well. Among them, unsurprisingly, will be Russell Moore’s rendition of Bill Monroe’s Footprints In The Snow, the song he performed on last Thursday night’s IBMA Awards show.

The complete track listing for Footprints includes:

IIIrd Tyme Out has just announced that Edgar Loudermilk will be joining them on bass, starting July 28. We had reported in February that founding member Ray Deaton would be leaving the band at the end of 2007, but he recently announced that he would depart this month, doing his last show with 3TO on July 26 at the Musicians Against Childhood Cancer festival in Ohio.

Edgar had been performing with Marty Raybon and Full Circle, and had worked before that as a member of Rhonda Vincent & The Rage.

That makes the new lineup of 3TO Russell Moore on guitar, Steve Dilling on banjo, Wayne Benson on mandolin, Justen Haynes on fiddle, and Edgar on bass.

Ray Deaton sang and played bass with IIIrd Tyme Out since the band broke away from Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver in 1991. He also was the band’s booking agent, chores that will now be assumed by both Russell Moore and Steve Dilling.

Russell Moore, guitarist, vocalist and band leader of IIIrd Tyme Out, will be interviewed tonight (6/11) on WorldWideBluegrass.com. He’ll join WWB host Jonathan Estep on his Runnin The Ridge program at 8:00 p.m. (EDT).

I’m sure that Russell will talk about the return of former 3TO mandolinist Wayne Benson to the fold, as well as the upcoming release of their live DVD.

WWB streams bluegrass 24/7 online. Catch the show tonight at WorldWideBluegrass.com. 

BluegrasCountry.org is running an interview segment this next week with Russell Moore and Steve Dilling of IIIrd Tyme Out. Bob Webster, one of the hosts of BluegrassCountry’s Bluegrass Overnight show, talks with Russell and Steve about how the band got started, and how much they enjoy getting to meet and greet with their many loyal fans.

They also talk about their upcoming concert DVD, shot in 2005 at the time they recorded their most recent CD, Round III at the MAC.

The show will also include some live audio from a festival performance this past February.

The first airing of the interview was today (5/16) at 2:00 p.m. with rebroadcasts scheduled daily through the end of the month. You can check their schedule online, and look for the time slot each day for Special Programming.

IIIrd Tyme Out has just announced that mandolin player Wayne Benson will be returning to the band later this month. Wayne was in the band from 1992 to 2004. After leaving the band in 2004, Benson joined The John Cowan Band where he has been ever since. Benson now returns to IIIrd Tyme Out as Alan Perdue leaves to concentrate on two businesses that he owns.

We are sad to see Alan leave, and have cherished the time that we have gotten to play music with him, but are as equally excited to have Wayne re-joining the band.

Benson’s first show back with the band will be at Bass Mountain Park in Burlington, NC on May 25, 2007.

The latest issue of Bluegrass Music Profiles is in the mail, and subscribers should see it in their mailbox soon - if they haven’t already received it. The cover feature is an interview with Russell Moore of IIIrd Tyme Out, in which he covers his long career in bluegrass, starting with his days as a member of Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver.

Other items include an interview with Steve Gulley and Phil Leadbetter about their new venture, Grasstown. Paul Williams discusses his favorites off-stage pursuits, and Rob Ickes talks about his resonator guitars. Interviews with Cadillac Sky’s Bryan Simpson and The Grascal’s Terry Smith are found in the March/April ‘07 issue as well.

Publisher Kevin Kerfoot was especially proud of this announcement:

This issue also includes the debut of BMP’s Top 20 Hot Picks singles chart and its Top 10 Bluegrass CDs chart. Both charts are based on songs receiving the most radio play from BMP reporting stations.

Find out more about BMP on their web site.

And the band news just keeps swirling…

We just got a note from Russell Moore of IIIrd Tyme Out with the news that Ray Deaton, original member, bass player and singer - and primary booking agent for the band - will be leaving at the end of 2007. Russell said that the band will take their customary month of December vacation - though somewhat truncated this year - and reemerge in January with the new bass player in tow.

Ray is leaving to work full time with The Anita Fisher Band, with whom he has been performing on a part time basis. Anita and Ray are engaged to be married, and it seemed that this move was inevitable. They have completed a Gospel recording that is expected to be released in May 2007.

Russell said that Ray gave his notice a few weeks ago, and that he is sorry to see his friend and band mate leave.

“Ray has been standing beside me on stage for over twenty years and he will be missed by myself and all the other members of IIIrd Tyme Out. We look forward to the rest of this year’s show dates, where our friends and fans can expect to hear the songs they’ve come to know and love over the past fifteen years. We all wish Ray the best in the future and in everything he does. The rest of us are committed to continuing on and look forward to the opportunities that lie ahead, and to sharing those opportunities with everyone across the country.”

Russell also mentioned that they are hard at work completing the edits for their live concert DVD, and hope to have it ready for the table this spring.

Here’s an update on the status of the concert DVD of IIIrd Tyme Out’s Round III at the Mac. When the CD was released last August, we posted that the DVD was expected to be released not long afterwards.

The August ‘05 performance at the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonburg, KY - site of two previous IIIrd Tyme Out live recordings - was captured for both audio and video release. After experiencing several delays, the band has obtained the services of a new video production company to complete the editing and DVD mastering, and expects to see the finished DVD within a matter of weeks.

Russell Moore added this note on the band’s web site:

“I want to mention that neither Keith Caudill (director at the MAC) nor any of the staff at the Mountain Arts Center were responsible for the delay in the production of this DVD. They have always been, and continue to be, our friends and a joy to work with!”

We’ll be sure to update here when the DVD is available.

W just saw a note on the IIIrd Tyme Out web site that fiddler Justen Haynes and his wife Melanie celebrated the birth of their daughter, Natalie Jean Haynes, on September 11, 2006.

Congratulations to the happy new parents!

We told you last week that the new IIIrd Tyme Out CD, Round III at the MAC, was due for release in a matter of days. It has made its debut on the band’s web site, with audio samples and online ordering enabled.

This is, as the title suggests, their third live recording from the Mountain Arts Center (the MAC), in Prestonburg, KY. The performance, recorded last November, was also filmed for a future release on DVD. The material includes some bluegrass favorites (John Henry, The Moonshiner, Think Of What You’ve Done), some new songs, and even live cuts of songs from previous studio releases (John & Mary).

Find all the detail, hear the sample audio, and order a copy from the IIIrd Tyme Out web site.

The third live release from IIIrd Tyme Out, Round III At The Mac, should be available soon from the band at live shows, or from their online store.

As we reported late last year, this performance was recorded at the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonburg, KY, commonly known as “The Mac,” in November of 2005. The show was captured for both audio and video, and while the DVD release seems to be a few months off, the audio CD is expected any day now.

Like the band’s past few projects, the new live CD is released on their own label, Chateau Music Group. Radio promos will go out as soon as they are received from the duplicators, and show hosts can contact Chateau to be make sure they are on the distribution list.

Two previous live shows have been successful audio CD releases for IIIrd Tyme Out, both recorded in this same venue. It looks like they are following a similar formula with the latest MAC CD, mixing older bluegrass favorites with some new songs, and even re-cutting a couple of 3TO tracks from earlier releases.

The band hopes to not only complete editing and post-production for the live DVD this year, but start in on a new studio project as well. We’ll post more details as we find them.

We got a note from IIIrd Tyme Out bassist and Deaton Agency founder, Ray Deaton, which will surely be of interest to our readers.

Hello everyone! I just wanted to let you all know that I am still very much a member of IIIrd Tyme Out. However, I am excited to announce that I am also a full time member of The Anita Fisher Band. I have joined the band as a bass player and vocalist. I would like to invite you to visit our website and come see us in person whenever you can. This band is very talented and it is a great honor to be a part of it.

One imagines that since The Deaton Agency books both acts, Ray should be able to handle the double duty schedule just fine.

Fans of the award-winning bluegrass group IIIrd Tyme Out can now interact with one anther and get up-to-date info on the band’s activities on their Yahoo Groups site. There is no cost to join the group, and members can read and reply to bulletin board posts (or start their own threads), view and share photos, and participate in polls among other Yahoo Groups features.

Members of the band also join in online chats with the group, and many other features are planned for the future. This group is only just getting started, and activity on the site is sure to mushroom as more fans find out about it.

IIIrd Tyme Out banjo picker Steve Dilling has just notified us that he has his own website, www.sdilling.com. Note that the URL is “sdilling” as opposed to “stevedilling,” and there’s a good reason for that. The web site is actually divided into two parts: half for Steve, and half for his 15 year old daughter, Stephanie, who designed and built the site (and is also a Guest Contributor here on The Bluegrass Blog).

Steve’s portion of the site focuses on his professional life (bio, discography, endorsements, tour dates, etc.) while Stephanie’s is mostly dedicated to reprints of her articles for Bluegrass Now.

Steve also reports that the upcoming IIIrd Tyme Out concert DVD is nearly finished. He said that the live show footage is pretty well edited, but that they are still assembling some additional “behind the scenes stuff” - riding the bus, sound check, and the like. A spring ‘06 release for the DVD - and a companion audio CD - is still their goal.

We have word from Steve Dilling of IIIrd Tyme Out about a number of new releases from the band expected in 2006.

They filmed a live show last month at the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonburg, KY - the venue where they recorded two previous live CDs: Live At The Mac, and Back To The Mac. They plan to release both a concert DVD and a live CD from this performance.

Like the two earlier MAC CDs, this one will combine bluegrass favorites like Bill Monroe’s Footprints In The Snow and Ralph Stanley’s Swingin’ This 9 Pound Hammer along with some new songs and a couple of instrumentals. Steve reports that they have two new contributions from Bill Castle, and two songs they had recorded in the past, Daydreams and Bobby and Millie, re-recorded for this live release.

It was alot of fun making this recording. We have a great fan base in Kentucky. That is how the trend of doing a live recording there every 4 or 5 years has evolved. Everyone was psyched for the show, and I think that the finished product will be great.

The band is also planning to start work on a studio recording project early next year.

Yes, plans are to start on a new studio recording in January, or February. This studio project is looking to be one of the strongest for the band. It reminds me of some of the mid 90’s recordings that we have out. Lots of new material, with some exciting arrangements.

The live DVD and CD, along with the studio recording are all expected to be available by early summer on the band’s own label, Chateau Music Group. Sounds like a prolific year coming up for IIIrd Tyme Out.