For the past 20 years, Steve Dilling has been playing banjo, singing harmony and, while sharing the duties since joining the band, for the last six-plus years, has been IIIrd Tyme Out’s prominent emcee during our live shows. This past weekend, while the band was on the road together performing, Steve told us of his intention to leave the group, citing health reasons as the main catalyst. Although his announcement was a bit of a surprise, we, within the group, have known of Steve’s health issues and battle with focal dystonia for several years now and we all realize the toll that the ‘road’ can take on a body’s well-being. It takes a lot of hard work and focus just to maintain the health you have when you start traveling extensively, and, sometimes, even that’s not enough. As Steve’s friend(s), I/we understand and have pledged our support for him with his decision and hope that retiring from the road proves beneficial to his needs, wants and desires.
As for ‘Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out’, we will soon have a new banjoist in place and, as we have for the past 23 years, we look forward to entertaining all who will lend an ear as we go forward! We are currently reviewing demos and hope to get in the studio soon to record a new CD that will be available sometime in 2014! Also, we would like to publicly apologize to all our loyal fans and constituents for not being the first to report the news about Steve’s departure. Our intentions were to make a ‘flagship’ statement today from our own camp, but the story was made public yesterday before we had the opportunity to put it all together.
Lastly, I would like to, personally, thank all of you who have followed the band, at one point or since its inception, and have given us the opportunity to do something we love to do to pay our bills, raise our families and, basically, support ourselves! We look forward to seeing YOU somewhere on the ‘bluegrass trail’ in 2014!!
RUSSELL MOORE