This past Friday, Special Consensus spent the day in Nashville doing radio spots and celebrating the release of their latest CD. Fearless leader Greg Cahill sent along this report.

The Station Inn in Nashville was the site for The Special C album release concert for the new Signs recording on the Pinecastle Records label on Friday, April 24. We enjoyed seeing friends, fans and family members and had a wonderful time playing songs from the new release and bringing up to the stage many of the great musicians in attendance (including Special C bass player alum Tim Dishman and his wife Tina Adair Dishman, Brandon Godwin, Nora Jane Struthers, Robin Roller).

There was plenty of delicious cake for all, supplied by our great friend Megan Lynch. and the best homemade cheesecake in the land made by Ashby’s Mom. A truly enjoyable and memorable evening for us and we greatly appreciate the support of so many friends and fans.

The Special C visited with XM Radio host Kyle Cantrell in the XM Nashville studio earlier that afternoon for a Track by Track review of the new Signs recording. Be sure to listen to the Bluegrass Junction show on June 10 to hear our very enjoyable visit with Kyle and to hear every track on the new recording.

The band also visited later in the afternoon with Nashville Public Radio Bluegrass Breakdown host Dave Higgs for an interview and live performance of several songs from the new Signs recording. We told stories about the songs and about ourselves, which of course included a good deal of laughter and (mostly) friendly banter.

Here are a few more photos sent along by Special C mandolinist Ashby Frank. 

              

The following article, originally titled Greg Cahill – Reflections From On The Road, appears in the current issue of British Bluegrass News (Spring 2009). He composed it upon returning from a three week tour by Special Consensus in the British isles earlier this year.

BBN has graciously allowed us to reproduce it here, believing it conatins valuable insight and information for other US bands considering a tour of the UK.

I have just returned home from a wonderful tour of Ireland, Scotland, England and back to Ireland with The Special Consensus. The band has completed this bi-annual tour since the early 1990s and we have developed many great friendships with promoters, friends and fans alike.

This tour was quite lengthy – we arrived in Dublin on January 13 and played shows every night from January 14 through February 3, and returned to the USA on February 4. Although we were pretty tired by the 21st day of concurrent performances, we truly had a wonderful time and greatly appreciate the support of everyone who came out to hear the band.

For travelling bluegrass bands, touring and performing to audiences in different countries is a most interesting and very enjoyable experience. Every town in every country has its own history and personal identity, which makes for a wonderful learning experience. Different cultural perspectives and habits, from types of meals served, food preparation, drinks indigenous to the region, political and religious opinions, etc., make each town and city a "brave new world" to explore before even arriving at the concert venue.

One of the first factors to consider when contemplating scheduling a tour of foreign lands is airfare. It is always very helpful to determine the best destination city that might be a "hub" of sorts to begin a tour, and it is also very cost effective to book round trip airfare whenever possible. I always check several airfare options to have at least a general idea of the major travel expense before scheduling any dates so I have an idea of how much money will be necessary to pay travel expenses and then pay the band. This information is invaluable in determining what fee to request per show and then how many bookings it will take to earn the desired amount necessary to make the tour feasible.

It seems that most "full time" professional touring bands in the US are used to long drives between engagements. It is not unusual for a band to play at a festival in Kentucky one day and, perhaps after an all-night drive, appear at a festival in Minnesota the next day. The Special C drives to about 70% of the shows and flies to the other 30%. Our impression of the scene in the UK and Ireland is that a three hour drive is considered quite long, whereas this is more the norm for US bands. It also seems to us that bands in mainland Europe fall somewhere between these drive time parameters; they may be comfortable with even a five or six hour drive but would also certainly balk at a 10 or 12 hour all-night drive. I would certainly suggest that bands planning a tour of different countries plot the drives when scheduling the shows to be sure they will be able to comfortably get to each show (and "comfortably" is relative to the usual band tour experience). (more…)

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.

Special Consensus‘ Greg Cahill will join Katy Daley on WAMU’s Bluegrass Country on Tuesday morning (2/24) at 9:00 a.m.

Katy tells us that Greg will be calling in from home in the Chicago area before they head down to Florida for the Everglades festival this coming weekend.

“We’ll talk about their recent UK tour, European bluegrass and their Traditional American Music program,  demonstrating bluegrass in schools.    Plus, listeners can hear the title cut, Signs, a Statler Brothers song, I’ll Go To My Grave Loving You, and Gone to Carolina, from their new Pinecastle CD, which will be released in March.”

You can listen to Bluegrass Country’s 24/7 bluegrass audio stream online at www.bluegrasscountry.org.