The Swanee Presents: Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out with Grass Strings

“Playing music is the easy part,” says Russell Moore with an ever-so-slightly rueful laugh as he looks back on more than thirty years of doing what he grew up wanting to do. “By the time we put this band together”—he’s talking about IIIrd Tyme Out, his musical vehicle for over twenty-five years now—“I was realistic enough to know that bands come and go. Being able to stay together is the hurdle that everyone faces. So I didn’t have a preconceived notion that someday I’d be celebrating twenty-five years with IIIrd Tyme Out—but I did feel like I would be playing music for the rest of my life.”

As it turns out, while many bands have come and gone since that May in 1991, Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out have endured. In the process, they’ve managed to climb to the top not just once, but twice—winning a slew of IBMA vocal awards, including two Male Vocalist of the Year honors, in the mid and late 1990s, then persevering through rough times to see Moore recapturing the Male Vocalist trophy for the three more years. Along the way, they’ve made a whole new generation of fans, and with the release of Timeless Hits From The Past… BLUEGRASSED by Cracker Barrel Old Country Store and their latest self-produced album, It’s About Time, the quintet are poised to deliver their distinctive kind of music more widely than ever.