We just heard from our friend, Greg Cahill, founder, banjo player and chief everything officer with Chicago-based Special Consensus. He was just back from a week teaching at NashCamp and filled us in on a personnel change in the band.

Our tenor-singing bass player for the past 2.5 years, Tres Nugent, decided he would like to move back to his home state of LA to spend time with his mother and grandparents. He relocated to Nashville with his father, Dickie Nugent, about 10 years ago and now would like to spend time with the rest of his family. He gave us plenty of notice and we of course parted company good friends. Tres knew it would be too difficult to attempt to stay with The Special C when living so far away from the band and from most of our performance regions so he gave his notice and helped us find his replacement. Once settled in LA, he will be working on an off-shore drilling rig – a mighty big lifestyle change from playing bass in a touring bluegrass band!

We hired a great tenor singing bass player from Elkmont, AL – David Thomas. He actually plays mandolin, guitar and bass and sings the high parts effortlessly. David made his Special C debut at the ROMP festival last Friday in Owensboro, KY and did an outstanding job – he learned most of the band repertoire and then some. He also shined at the Summersville, WV fest – in the pouring rain and flooded campground conditions – and he is already settled into the band sound. We look forward to working with David and will include him on the new Special C recording that we have started for the Pinecastle Records label (our sixth on that label).

Look for Special C’s performance schedule online to find a chance to catch them in person this season.