Prime Tyme (Rural Rhythm RUR-1085) was released on 25 October 2011, in the year the band marked its twentieth anniversary. Instead of the usual twelve songs, the band put fourteen on the CD at the same price. Russell Moore and IIIrd Tyme Out produced it themselves and recorded it at Greg Luck’s Riverside Audio, as they had several times before. Moore sings lead and plays guitar, with Wayne Benson on mandolin, Steve Dilling on banjo, Justen Haynes on fiddle and Edgar Loudermilk on bass; Dilling and Loudermilk are credited with harmony vocals.
The songs range from the Delmore Brothers’ “Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar,” which Benson arranged at a faster tempo than the duet versions to leave room for instrumental breaks, to new songs such as “Old Kentucky Farmers,” “Pretty Little Girl from Galax” and “Whippoorwill.” Loudermilk sings lead on “Hooverville.” “Carroll County Blues” is an instrumental, and the album ends with “What’s the World Coming To.”
In February 2012 the album stood at number 1 on the Bluegrass Unlimited Top 15 albums chart, and its single “If Your Heart Should Ever Roll This Way Again” was number 1 on the magazine’s Top 30 songs chart. At the time of release the band had won the IBMA Vocal Group of the Year award seven times, in the years 1994 to 2000.
Tracklist
- 1 Old Kentucky Farmers 2:43
- 2 Good Old Missoula 3:48
- 3 Pretty Little Girl From Galax 2:54
- 4 If Your Heart Should Ever Roll This Way Again 2:59
- 5 Moon Magic 2:54
- 6 Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar alt version 2:39
- 7 Whippoorwill 3:40
- 8 Dusty 3:00
- 9 Hooverville 3:18
- 10 Big Muddy 2:31
- 11 Carroll County Blues 3:16
- 12 Little Magnolia 3:23
- 13 Sugarfoot Rag alt version 1:50
- 14 What's The World Coming To 3:06
