Wednesday night at IBMA, we spent an hour or so at a special Rural Rhythm Records showcase, held to highlight a number of their top acts, and to announce a major initiative for 2010. Next year, they will celebrate 55 years in business recording bluegrass, Gospel and traditional American Music and will join with the Graves Mountain Festival of Music in Syria, VA for a one-of-a-kind, all day event.

We were treated to performances by Carrie Hassler & Hard Rain and Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out, and had just missed a set from Audie Blaylock & Redline, who had turned in a brilliant show the night before on the main stage. Michael Martin Murphey made a special appearance with Carrie Hassler, where they sang a duet on his biggest hit, Wildfire, which the pair has recently re-recorded for Murphey’s second project with Rural Rhythm, due in February of next year.

During the IIIrd Tyme Out’s set, 1970s country star Lynn Anderson joined them on stage for a rousing version of Rocky Top. She was lively and animated, and clearly enjoying herself.

All this music, however, was leading up to the announcement of Rural Rhythm and Graves Mountain collaborating for the festival in June. Six Rural Rhythm artists will appear on Friday, June 4, and the entire day will be given over to a 55th birthday party or the label. Kyle Cantrell of Sirius-XM will serve as emcee, with performances from The Crowe Brothers, Carrie Hassler & Hard Rain, Audie Blaylock & Redline, Lou Reid and Carolina, Lonesome River Band and Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out.

All of the day’s music will be recorded for a commemorative CD to be released later in 2010. Many of these artists will combine for special sets.

• Crowe Brothers with Russell Moore, Sammy Shelor
• Carrie Hassler & Hard and Brandon Rickman
• Audie Blaylock & Redline, Carrie Hassler, Russell Moore, and Lou Reid
• Graves Moutain Jam and Rural Rhythm all-star tribute featuring Grave Mountain Memories:  Carl Jackson, Mark Newton, Russell Newton, Lou Reid, Carrie Hassler, Andy Ball, Sammy Shelor, Mike Anglin, Justin Haynes
• My Home’s Across the Blue Ridge Mountains – Brandon Rickman, Crowe Brothers, Audie Blaylock, Mike Hartgrove, Wayne Benson, Steve Dilling, Edgar Loudermilk
• Instrumental Jam featuring many of the Rural Rhythm artists

You can find ticket and schedule information for the Graves Mountain festival on their web site. We’ll post with more details about the live CD as they emerge.

Here’s another gallery of Dean Hoffmeyer’s photos, capturing many views of Wednesday at IBMA 2009.

Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out grace the cover of the latest (Sept/Oct) issue of Bluegrass Music Profiles.

Russell is also the subject of a feature interview, where he discusses the group’s latest eponymous CD, his co-writing, how he spends his free time, and the new band name – which puts his name out front after billing themselves as a band for 18 years, a move suggested by the fact that Moore is the sole founding member remaining.

“I had been strongly advised by several people that this was something I needed to do. Either do it like that or change the name totally. I contemplated about that for a long time because I didn’t want anybody to feel like I was saying I was better than they are. It takes every one of us in this group to do what we do, and I’m the first one that’ll tell you that I can’t get up on stage and do it by myself. I sat down with all the guys in the group and we talked about  it, and I explained my position and asked their opinions. I didn’t tell them I was going to do something. I asked them what their opinions were, and we talked about it. Everybody was fine with it. They know where my heart is. They’re like brothers to me and I’m proud of every one of them. We all still feel the same way about each other. That hasn’t changed. The music hasn’t changed. We still go about it the same way. But now I have all the bills. They all come to me.”

Also included in this Fall issue include profiles on Jerry Butler and John Wade’s group The Blu-J’s and promoter Sheldon Frost, ShopTalk with mandolin legend Frank Wakefield, Dan Tyminski’s Bluegrass Favorites, a Songwriter Profile of Ray Edwards, and The Bluegrass Side of Michael Martin Murphey. This issue also includes a fold out, full color poster of Dailey & Vincent.

Find more details on BMP online.

The readers of The Bluegrass Blog have chosen a winner in our IIIrd Tyme Out Father’s Day photo contest. Congratulations go out to Scott Patrick, whose photo with his daughter Grace took the most votes from our readers.

And by a wide margin!

Scott, and all our finalists, can expect to hear soon from the folks at Hope River Entertainment with details about claiming your prizes.

They will each receive an autographed copy of the band’s new CD, Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out, and Scott also receives a band T-shirt, cap and tickets for he and Grace to attend a IIIrd Tyme Out concert of their choosing.

Thanks to everyone who sent in photos, and voted in the final poll!