Next Tuesday (March 24) is the release date for Signs, the latest Pinecastle release from Special Consensus. It’s a very good album, showcasing one of the strongest editions of Special C in some time.

Founder and banjo player Greg Cahill will be interviewed online today on WorldWideBluegrass.com, where he’ll talk about the songs and surely spin a few tracks with Tim Cahall, who is sitting in for Gracie Muldoon today (3/20) at 1:00 p.m. (EDT).

We were in touch with Greg a few days ago ourselves, and he shared a few words about three of the songs from Signs, which we present here, along with audio samples.

Footprints – Listen now:   

Having the song Footprints on this recording is what we might call a “‘triple whammy:’ it is a beautiful gospel song, it was written by some of Nashville’s finest songwriters (Ronnie Bowman, Don Cook and Curly Putman) and it features the fantastic harmony singing of Sonya Isaacs (the first ever ‘guest’ female vocalist on a Special C recording). Ashby asked Ronnie if he had any songs he might consider letting us include on the recording and Ronnie graciously gave us this top-notch selection. We feel privileged to have the song on our recording.

Leaving This Old Town – Listen now:   

Justin, Ryan Roberts and Special C alum Ron Spears co-authored Leaving This Old Town and we all liked the song and the story it tells. We felt that it has a good traditional song feel to it with lyrics about dealing with the decision to leave ‘this old (home)town’ that many listeners may encounter at some point in their lives.

I’ll Go To My Grave Lovin You – Listen now:   

We always include a quartet selection on Special C recordings, usually a gospel song. But this time we decided to try something a bit different and Ashby brought the Statler Brothers I’ll Go To My Grave Lovin You (written by Don Reid) to the table. Justin was a bit skeptical at first (he has a new nickname as the result of singing the bass part ‘bums’) but he now agrees with the rest of us that this was fun to sing and record and we already receive requests for the song at our live performances.

Look for Signs next week wherever you find bluegrass CDs or downloads for sale.