Word had reached us about a banjo player being featured in a number of recent episodes of The Jerry Springer Show - the notorious “reality TV” show based in Chicago. The banjo picking was intended not as a performance, but to add a flavor to a hillbilly-themed episode.

When we further learned that the banjo player in question was Greg Cahill, founder of Special Consensus, President of the International Bluegrass Music Association and long-time Chicago resident, I knew there had to be an interesting story behind the Springer appearances.

When I reached him a few days ago, his first reaction was “I was hoping to keep this under the radar, but it seems the word is definitely out.” Knowing Greg to be a serious musician and a truly dignified gentleman, I asked him to fill us in on the back story, which he has graciously agreed to do.

“I have been involved in the Chicago studio scene for about 30 years – which is a primary reason for not moving to Nashville years ago (in addition to having family here). I have played on countless commercial jingles, recordings and radio and television shows in Chicago studios over the years, but the majority of commercial studio work began moving to Los Angeles at the beginning of the New Millennium (as it had moved from New York City to Chicago in the 1990s). There remain a small number of quality studios in Chicago and I am very fortunate to continue to maintain my position as a first call banjo player (in spite of spending about 150-160 days a year on the road with The Special Consensus). My studio connection has afforded me the opportunity to play the banjo on various television show soundtracks (including the Oprah show); it is because of this connection that I was contacted to play the banjo on the Jerry Springer Show, which appears on the NBC network.

I was very reluctant to accept the offer at first because I find it extremely offensive when people make fun of people publicly (and I never watch the show for that reason). But a producer of the Springer show contacted me personally to assure me that the folks who appear on the show are fully aware of the presentation of the show and are happy to be part of it; the purpose of the show is simply to have fun. My primary concern was that I would jeopardize my studio connections, especially with NBC, if I refused to appear on the show so I agreed to make an appearance. Part of my agreement with the producers was that I would wear a hat and that my name would not be listed in any show credits. (more…)

Who says you can’t go home again?

Special Consensus mandolinist Ashby Frank is profiled in his hometown paper, The Lexington Dispatch, in Davidson County, NC. Ashby was raised in nearby Tyro, and is given the hero’s welcome in the this lengthy piece to mark his return to the Doyle Lawson festival in Denton next weekend.

Anyone who saw Ashby Frank’s first public performance about 12 years ago as part of the Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver’s Bluegrass Music Festival in Denton would remember him as an awesome up-and-coming young mandolin picker who had a bad case of shyness.

On that stage tucked between towering oak and maple trees, he performed with a band he threw together to be a Thursday night opening act for the weekend-long festival. The band featured his older sister, Jeannie Frank, on vocals. Then, she was known as the singer in the family and he the musician.

But when the 25-year-old Frank comes home next weekend to perform in the same bluegrass festival on the same stage, he won’t be that quiet young man standing on the side of the stage tearing up the mandolin. He’ll also be the new lead singer for the legendary bluegrass band Special Consensus.

You can read the full article by Jill Doss-Raines, which includes an interview with Ashby, on The Dispatch web site.

Tonight is a special night for Greg Cahill and the guys in Special Consensus.

When they perform tonight at The Livery in Benton Harbor, MI they will not only throw down some solid bluegrass for the listening audience, they’ll also be throwing down a few of the venue’s newest offerings. The Livery is both a micro brewery and a music room, and they have just debuted a special brew called Special C.

It’s a dark Czech lager in honor of Special Consensus’ long career in the bluegrass business.

“For over 30 years banjo player and good friend Greg Cahill has led the world famous Bluegrass band Special Consensus. Always featuring the best up and coming talent, this beer is named in their honor! Deep mahogany in color, this lager has a rich malt flavor balanced by an assertive hop character.”

Mandolinist Ashby Frank also passed along that they will start work on a new CD as soon as they return from this weekend’s trip.

Ashby Frank is a talented musician who, despite his youth, has already been a part of several notable ensembles. At 24 years old, Ashby - who is the current mandolinist with Special Consensus - has toured with Marty Raybon, Alecia Nugent and Ronnie Bowman.

He lives in Nashville, which necessitates a lot of travel since Special C is based in Chicago, but Ashby feels that Music City offers him a great many opportunities for session work and musical interaction that he can’t find elsewhere.

One of those offshoots is Mashville Brigade, a loose-knit group of sidemen who get together on Tuesday nights at Nashville’s fabled Station Inn. Members include Frank on mandolin, Darrel Webb on guitar, Jim Van Cleve on fiddle, Greg Martin on bass and Aaron McDarris on banjo. They typically perform bluegrass classics, but have developed a strong following based as much on their quirky, irreverent sense of humor as for their prodigious musical abilities.

One of those special talents is vocal impressions, and a recent YouTube video demonstrates that Ashby and Darrell have the goods to give such stalwarts of the genre as Tim Stafford and Steve Gulley a run for their money. The video is a bit shaky but the audio is fine, and their take on John Conlee and Willie Nelson is hilarious.

Ashby tells us that this side project has been a blast for all concerned, allowing the members to have some fun outside of their primary gigs. Webb now tours with Rhonda Vincent, Van Cleve is a part of Mountain Heart and McDarris plays with The Grascals, so a Tuesday night playing bluegrass favorites is a welcome weekly diversion.

We’ve been doing the Mashville Brigade thing for over a year, and we’re all really happy that it’s turned into one of the biggest nights of the week at the Station Inn. Every Tuesday is kind of like a party/family reunion.

So many people have requested some kind of recorded music from us, and fortunately the great folks over at Rural Rhythm found a way for us to do that. (more…)

We heard yesterday from Greg Cahill, banjo player and road manager with the well-traveled Special Consensus - and in his spare time, President and Chair of the IBMA Board of Directors.

Greg has long been out in front when it comes to getting bluegrass music before audiences of young people, and school performances are a regular feature of Special C tours.

Just a brief note to let everyone know bluegrass music is alive and well in the wilds of WY and MT.

The Special C completed our annual visit with WY students and community members in Casper and Thermopolis last week and it was very rewarding to see so many young people so enthusiastic about bluegrass music. We presented our in-school program (with two student fiddler members of The Casper Fiddle Club) last Wednesday afternoon at Southridge Elementary School and then met with the Fiddle Club members after the presentation.

The Fiddle Club membership includes many Southridge students and other community members, ranging in age from about 8 to 83 (playing all of the bluegrass instruments). We had them perform a few songs with us during our evening concert. The next day we visited Hot Springs County High School in Thermopolis and presented another program to the student body before meeting with the Bluegrass Academy members (sponsored by the Lights On program).

The Bluegrass Academy is an annual 12 week program that includes teaching students and community members of all ages how to play and sing bluegrass music. We asked them to perform a song with us during our evening concert as well and received a very enthusiastic response from the audience.

We headed to Polson, MT, on Friday to do a concert at Polson High School, with proceeds donated to the local youth home, and then to Red Lodge, MT on Saturday to play a benefit concert for the Search and Rescue program. A very rewarding and enjoyable tour for us - even in spite of the below-zero temperatures and snow!

Wishing everyone a very safe and enjoyable holiday season…

In my own limited experience, I have found that middle and high school audiences respond quite warmly to bluegrass music. Hats off to Greg and Special C for making this so much a part of their tours.

Brance posted on Tuesday about the special Station Inn performance this week by Mashville Brigade and friends.

The band was initially formed late in ‘06 by Ashby Frank and a number of other hot young pickers when Frank was living in Nashville and working with Alecia Nugent’s band. It included Jim Van Cleve on fiddle, Darrel Webb on guitar, Greg Martin on bass, Aaron McDaris on banjo and Frank on mandolin. Their plan was to play at Nashville’s Station Inn on occasional Tuesday evenings, much as a group know as The Sidemen had done a few years ago, assembled from members of other Nashville-based bluegrass bands.

Now that Ashby is off touring with Special Consensus, the membership at Mashville Brigade shows fluctuates wildly, and the show this past Tuesday was set to feature a number of high-profile guests, including Scott Vestal and Josh Williams.

We hear that even more unexpected special guests were on hand, and before the evening was concluded, country star Dierks Bentley joined the band for a song, as did Shawn Camp and Tina Adair. Sounds like a night of good fun and great music.

Ashby actually emailed from the Salt Lake City airport, to say that he had hated to miss that show, but had an interesting one of his own.

“Special Consensus did a show with the Idaho State Civic Symphony in Pocatello, Idaho last night in their beautiful new symphony/performing arts center. It went over amazingly well!

The crowd gave us such a warm reception, and called us out for an encore. It’s not every day that a symphony plays a full set with a Bluegrass band (we played a few new songs by ourselves, but did most of the set with the symphony), and its not every day that a bluegrass band plays in Pocatello, ID!”

If you tune in (log on) to WorldWideBluegrass.com at 6:00 p.m. EDT this evening (7/31), you can hear an interview with Greg Cahill, banjo player with Special Consensus, and Board Chair for the IBMA. He will join WWB host Uncle Billy Dunbar for discussion - and surely some music as well.

Greg has plenty to talk about these days, with a new CD from Special C, The Trail Of Aching Hearts, and a new member of the band Ashby Frank, having recently joined them on mandolin.

To listen to the 24/7 WWB audio stream online, just visit their streaming page, and choose a connection speed and file type.

We just heard from Greg Cahill, founder and fearless leader of Special Consensus.

Greg tells us that Ashby Frank has been hired as mandolinist and vocalist with the band, taking the spot to be vacated when Ron Spears departs to join Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. Ashby had been working with Alecia Nugent, and had previously spent time with Ronnie Bowman and Marty Rabon.

Says Greg of their most recent member:

“We are very excited about having such a superb musician and friend join our ranks!”

A specific date for the switch has not been announced, but Ashby is expected to begin touring with Special C sometime this summer.

Yesterday (5/15) was also the official release date of the newest Special Consensus CD, The Trail Of Aching Hearts on Pinecastle Records which Brance previewed in a brief interview with Cahill this March.

You can find audio samples from The Trail Of Aching Hearts on the Special C MySpace page, or on the Pinecastle site. The CD is also available (with samples) in the iTunes Music Store.

UPDATE 4:10 p.m.: Ashby just emailed to tell us that his first gig with Special C will be June 13 at Bean Blossom.

The video is now up of the recent appearance by Special Consensus on Michael Jonathan’s Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour. Special C shared the bill with folk/country singer Elizabeth Cook, and performed songs from their upcoming Pinecastle CD, The Trail Of Aching Hearts, due for a May 15th release.

You can see the video from this show as a Windows Media Video.

Woodsongs airs every week on dozens of public and community radio stations all over the world, on XM Satellite Radio’s The Village, and via live video streaming from the show’s web site. Each episode is also maintained in their online archive, where you can watch the video, listen to the audio, or download the MP3 for each broadcast. Other recent shows that may be of interest to Bluegrass Blog readers include:

The Kruger Brothers and The Chocolate Drops
The Infamous Stringdusters and Martha Scanlan
Tony Joe White and Dale Ann Bradley
J.D. Crowe & New South
Chris Thile & How To Grow A Band
The John Cowan Band and E Muzeki
Tony Trischka and Crooked Still
Cindy Bullens and Uncle Earl

The Trail Of Aching Hearts is the newest recording by Chicago based bluegrass band, Special Consensus. Led by banjo player Greg Cahill, current IBMA President, Special Consensus has been producing great bluegrass music 12 albums, and this lucky number 13 is no exception.

Due to be released May 15, 2007, The Trail Of Aching Hearts is sure to earn the band some well deserved accolades. Even with his busy schedule, Greg took the time to answer a few questions about this new recording via email.

Brance: Where was the CD recorded? And what was the process like?

We are very pleased with this recording, although it was a bit stressful to complete because we toured so much in 2006 that we had to pop into and out of the studio many times to get it done (we usually just sit in Nashville for a week and do the entire recording all at once). But our good friend and master producer/engineer/studio owner Brent Truitt kept us on track (pun intended) and we had some great guest musicians (Tim Crouch, Rob Ickes, Phil Ledbetter and former Special C members Tim Dishman and Tres Nugent) helping us out as well.

Brance: Tell us about the songs on this recording. Special C has a reputation for finding great songs from other genres, primarily swing tunes, or old country songs. What have you got on this CD for us?

The format is similar to all Special C recordings: original songs (two by Ron, including a gospel quartet, and several from friends); a swing tune (Blue Skies by Irving Berlin); an Irish song (Josie’s Reel, co-written by Nashville songwriter Keith Sewell and our friend in Ireland Niall Toner); and old country song (The Shoe Goes on the Other Foot Tonight, from the Marty Robbins repertoire) and a good but obscure song recorded by Flatt & Scruggs (Branded Wherever I Go).

Brance: One last question, where did the title cut come from?

The title song, Down the Trail of Aching Hearts, is one that Ron heard on his car radio some 15 years ago but could never track down. When we played in Ft. Collins, CO this past summer, we visited Conway Gandy, an avid collector of old country music and radio personality for KRFC, and he found the song in his collection, as performed by Hank Snow. We sped it up a bit and made it more grassy sounding and then decided it would be a great title song because of the fine harmonies the boys laid down.

If you have ever been a fan of Special Consensus in the past, you’re sure to love this CD. If you’ve not heard Special C before, then you’ve got quite a treat waiting for you when you hear this CD. Samples can be found online at the band’s Myspace page.

Special Consensus is getting ready to cross the ocean just after the new year, spending two and a half weeks in the British Isles during January. They have stops in Ireland, Scotland and England, including a performance and workshop at the East Anglian Bluegrass Day in Steeple Morden, Cambridgeshire.

The band is made up of Greg Cahill on banjo, Ron Spears on mandolin, Justin Carbone on guitar, and David Thomas on bass.

You can find all the dates on Special C’s UK tour on the band’s web site.

This week we start a roughly month long focus on issues relating to bluegrass education, and bringing bluegrass music to young people in the schools. We start with Greg Cahill, who in addition to his work as banjo picker with Special Consensus, has been credited with helping launch IBMA’s official Bluegrass In The Schools program. Greg discusses what he has been up to with the band, his recent Huber Banjos endorsement, and how he got started making bluegrass presentations to school children.

This GrassCast is 13 minutes in length and the file download size is 13 MB.

Below is an mp3 file for you to listen here or download. The GrassCast is also available in the iTunes music store as an enhanced podcast containing photos and hyperlinks relative to the subject matter being discussed in the interview.

Listen now:
Direct Download: ep35_greg_cahill.mp3
Subscribe with:
Free Download: The GrassCast iPodder software

To subscribe with your own podcatching software, copy and past this url into the appropriate entry box in your software: http://www.thegrasscast.com/rss