Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out are loading up the bus this morning and heading out on a two week tour that will take them from their home base in Georgia out to the west coast and back again.

Banjo picker Steve Dilling has agreed to send us updates and photos along the way, which we will publish here as often as they come in. Should be fun.

The tour will find them in Tennessee, Arkansas, California, Nevada, Colorado and Idaho doing a mix of club shows and concerts along the way.

• Fri April 3 – The Down Home,  Johnson City, TN
• Sat April 4 – GoodFolk Productions,  Fayetteville, AR
• Tues April 7 – Freight and Salvage,  Berkeley, CA
• Wed April 8 – The Maverick Saloon,  Santa Ynez, CA
• Thur April 9 – Don Quixote’s Music Hall,  Felton, CA
• Fri April 10 – Trinity Alps Performing Arts Center,  Weaverville, CA
• Sat April 11 – Willits High School,  Willits, CA
• Mon, April 13 – Brewery Arts Center,  Carson City, NV
• Tues April 14 – Special Event Center, Boise St. University Boise, ID
• Wed April 15 – The Swing Station,  Laporte, CO
• Fri April 17 – XM/Sirius Radio Special Taping,  Nashville, TN
• Sat April 18 – The Grand Theater,  Cartersville, GA

You can find more details on any of these tour stops on the IIIrd Tyme Out web site, including afternoon workshops for banjo and mandolin before the Boise State University show in Idaho on 4/14.

Steve Dilling and Wayne Benson will lead the workshops, and attendees get a free ticket to the concert that night.

We mentioned a few days ago that IIIrd Tyme Out banjoist Steve Dilling had assembled a band of his fellow bluegrass professionals to perform on a brief tour in early December. We just got word that one of the tour dates, which will also include a show by Lonesome River Band, will be recorded by WAMU for eventual broadcast over the air, and on BluegrassCountry.org.

The show will be held this Sunday, December 3, at The Cultural Arts Center in Frederick, MD as a part of their Sunday Bluegrass concert series. Two shows will be held that day, a matinee at 3:00 p.m. and an evening performance at 7:00.

Ticket information can be found on the Sunday Bluegrass web site for folks in the area who may want to attend the show. Everyone knows how much fun it is to be present at the recording of a live show, right?

BluegrassCountry.org’s Katy Daly tells us that they don’t have a clear broadcast date in mind for this LRB/Dilling concert, but she promised to let us know as soon as it is set.

Katy also passed along that she and Jen Hitt, BluegrassCountry.org’s Production Director, are planning a series of specials intended to introduce their listeners to the art and technology involved in producing bluegrass instruments. We’ll keep you posted as those plans solidify.

As a member of IIIrd Tyme Out, Steve Dilling is accustomed to having the month of December free each year. The band has long blocked the last month of the year off their tour schedule, both to allow for time with their families around the holidays, and to get rested and re-energized before starting up again in the new year.

A few years ago, Steve came up with the idea to put a group together with members of other groups, to perform shows during December. The idea has since grown into a mini-tour, with this year’s edition featuring Clay Jones from Mountain Heart on guitar, John Wade from The James King Band on bass, Ron Stewart from JD Crowe & The New South on fiddle, Darrell Webb from Wildfire on mandolin, and Dilling on banjo.

Steve says that the holiday tour grew from a single show, with interest in the band expanding as the word goes out.

“The idea of this band is something that I started a few years ago. Back then, it was just for one night on a local basis here around the Raleigh area. In 2005, I had the idea of seeing if I could take this on the road, and quickly booked a few gigs. After the success of last years shows, I thought that I would try it again. Now I am actually getting promoters wanting us to do a few festivals. I don’t know if that will happen, because we are all so busy with our individual bands… but it is kind of nice to be in demand.

I hope to record this band at some point, because I feel strong about the music that we are playing, and it would be nice to have something to sell on the road when we do play. Most of the guys have individual solo recordings, so we have worked up some material form each of those, we also do a few Christmas songs, as well as some standards, but most of all, we have a great time. It is a time to enjoy playing, and get out of the normal band routine situation. I hope that everyone will come out and see the band.”

They will do four shows over the next week or so in Galax VA, Grayson KY, Bradshaw WV and Frederick MD. You can find details on these shows on Steve’s web site.

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.