We are very pleased to announce that The Special C will once again be included on the Rhonda Vincent Bluegrass Cruise in 2011. The newly revised arrangements are with the Royal Caribbean line. The ship will depart from Port Canaveral, FL on February 20 and will visit ports in Grand Cayman, Haiti, Jamaica and Cozumel, returning to Port Canaveral at 8:00am February 28. We had a fabulous time on the cruise in 2007 and look forward to this adventure; there are concerts, jam sessions and workshops throughout the week on the ship and plenty of good sightseeing in the port cities. Make reservations soon as there are only 300 tickets for this cruise. www.bluegrasscruise.com  800/953-8803

We were very saddened to learn of a fall that subsequently put Pinecastle Records owner and president Tom Riggs in the hospital. Fortunately, he is recovering but will no longer be able to continue the label due to health issues and Pinecastle Records has closed the doors. The Special C released seven recordings on the label (those currently in print will continue to be available from the band and the Music Shed) and we thank Tom and the Pinecastle staff for "a good run." Negotiations for another label affiliation are in progress - look for the release of a new Special C recording (most likely titled "35th Anniversary") this spring.

We spent the last week (Dec 14-19)in Brent Truitt's Nashville studio recording 6 new songs for an 18 song Special C 2010 release on Pinecastle Records simply called "35th Anniversary." The new recording will feature 12 songs from previous Special C releases along with the new songs - all original compositions performed by the band that now includes Greg on banjo, David on bass, Ryan on guitar and newest member Rick Faris (formerly of the KS-based Faris Family Band) on mandolin. We are looking forward to performing the new songs and some of the Special C "stalwarts" at our 2010 engagements.

Mandolin player/singer/songwriter Ashby Frank will be leaving The Special Consensus in January 2010. He has been with the band for 2 ½ years and has decided to work as a free-lance musician and to play select tour dates with the Mashville Brigade, the excellent aggregation of class-A musicians from various nationally renowned bands that plays at The Station Inn in Nashville on Tuesday nights. Ashby wrote the title song of the most recent Special C release Signs, which has been on the bluegrass charts since it’s release in March. Be sure to look for Ashby and The Mashville Brigade at a festival near you and of course at The Station Inn on any Tuesday when in Nashville.

The Special C welcomes Faris Family Bluegrass Band veteran musician Rick Faris on mandolin and vocals. Rick has toured throughout the US and Canada singing and playing guitar and dobro with the family band since 1998. The Faris Family band won several SPBGMA awards over the years and Rick was awarded SPBGMA Midwest Guitar Player of the Year in 2005 and 2008. He is also an excellent luthier, building guitars, dobros and mandolins when not on the road. We are very proud to have such a consummate musician joining our ranks and look forward to working with Rick in the New Year.

2010 is a banner year for The Special C; the band will celebrate the 35 year anniversary of the formation of the band as a touring and recording unit. To celebrate this milestone, the band will be in the Nashville studio of veteran producer/engineer Brent Truitt in December to record a new “special” anniversary release for Pinecastle Records, scheduled for a spring 2010 release. Brent has produced and recorded the past six Special C recordings and this “35th Anniversary” recording will include numerous songs from previous (now out of print) Special C recordings. The new band motto echos the words once written by Buck Owens: “where does the good times go?”

A 35 year anniversary concert is scheduled for October 23, 2010 at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago and will feature performances of songs from The Special C repertoire with the current band along with numerous Special C alums that have appeared on band recordings. Other Special C news is that the band will begin a new agency representation with Maria Nadauld’s California-based Above the Bay Booking agency in January; we look forward to working with Maria, who has recently booked a January 2010 tour of California for the band.

Our tour of Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Czech Republic was very successful and enjoyable; we played to very enthusiastic audiences, made music with many of the European musicians and enjoyed the cuisines and company of all our friends and fans in these countries. However, we stayed out far too late in Jicin, CZ, after our last performance of the tour, slept through the alarm clock the next morning and actually missed our flight home from Frankfort on Monday! This was definitely a "first" and (hopefully) will be the "last" for that to happen - it was quite costly to rebook flights, rent hotel rooms and keep the rental car an extra day but we finally made it home Tuesday evening.

Special C guitar player/vocalist Ryan Roberts won his fifth concurrent Songwriter of the Year Award and first Best Bluegrass Album of the Year Award at the Eastern Canada Awards last week. We are so fortunate to have Ryan in the band and look forward to recording with him very soon. Go Ryan!!!

We are very proud and honored that Signs remained on Top 15 Bluegrass Albums chart of the National Bluegrass Survey in the November issue of Bluegrass Unlimited. The album is #10 after six months on the chart. Gone To Carolina climbed to #8 and Signs climbed to #17 on the Top 30 Song chart of that same survey. Gone To Carolina also climbed to #10 on the Top 30 Hot Singles chart in the November issue of Bluegrass Music Profiles. We very much appreciate the airplay the DJs have been giving the recording and our friends and fans who have purchased the CD.

Ryan Roberts will make his Chicago debut performance as the new Special C guitarist/vocalist at the Chicago Country Festival on Sunday, Oct 4. The band will perform from 2:00pm-3:15pm on the Americana Stage in Grant Park and then visit the Best Buy tent located near the stage to sell band CDs and sign autographs. We hope our Chicago area friends and fans will come out to welcome Ryan to the band.

Justin Carbone is leaving the band at the end of September! His final performance as a Special C member will be at the Denton, NC festival on September 25.

Justin Carbone has performed with The Special C as guitar player extraordinaire, lead and harmony vocalist and songwriter for nearly six years. He has recently made some life changing decisions; in the last month, Justin became engaged, relocated from Nashville to Sellersville, PA and resigned his position with the band. We will miss his presence greatly and wish him the best with his new endeavors that will include his work with partner Troy Engel in their Unplugged Demos company. We encourage any songwriters who need excellent demos of their work to contact Justin and Troy at info@unpluggeddemos.com .

We now welcome the multi-talented Canadian Ryan Roberts to the band. Ryan is an award winning singer/songwriter/guitar player well known to Canadian audiences and we are fortunate that he has agreed to relocate to Nashville to join The Special Consensus. Ryan and Justin have co-authored and recorded songs together and Ryan has performed with his wife Roxeen and the Janet McGarry band for several years in addition to writing and performing music for countless commercial jingles, recording projects by numerous bands and film scores.

We invite everyone who plans to attend the IBMA World of Bluegrass Music gathering later this month to welcome Ryan to the band at one of our several after hour showcases and our Friday Fan Fest performance.

Ashby Frank was one of approximately 40 contestants to enter the 2009 Galax, VA Fiddler's Convention Mountain Dulcimer contest. Although he had not played the instrument in three years, Ashby was notified on Saturday, August 8, that he won first place and is now the reigning champion. This contest features the best players from around the country - quite a feat to win. We wonder if Ashby will now be playing the mandolin with a stick and a light weight pick for continuity... 

Sirius XM Radio Program Director for the Bluegrass Junction and The Roadhouse programs Kyle Cantrell released the charts for Most-Played Tracks and Most-Played Albums on the Bluegrass Junction show for the month of June. We were extremely pleased to see that our new release Signs is #1 on the Most-Played Albums chart and also #1 on the Most-Played Tracks chart!!! Thanks for the airplay, Kyle!

We are very pleased to announce that The Special C and each individual band member have reached the second and final round of balloting for IBMA awards in 11 categories. This is the greatest number of potential nominations we have ever received. We are being considered for the following nominations: Entertainer of the Year, Vocal Group, Instrumental Group, Instrumental Performance of the Year, Gospel Recording, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Guitar Player, Mandolin Player, Bass Player and Banjo Player of the Year.
We sincerely thank all of our friends and fans for this honor and would greatly apprerciate your votes in the final balloting. THANKS!!!

We are very proud and honored that Signs climbed from #11 to #7 on the Top 15 Bluegrass Albums chart of the National Bluegrass Survey in the July issue of Bluegrass Unlimited. Gone To Carolina climbed to #21 and Signs entered at #27 on the Top 30 Song chart of that same survey. The recording is also #10 on the Top 10 Bluegrass CDs chart in the July issue of Bluegrass Music Profiles and Gone To Carolina is #24 on the Top 30 Hot Singles chart in that same issue. We very much appreciate the airplay the DJs have been giving the recording and our friends and fans who have purchased the CD.

The Special C will be featured in a Track by Track interview with our good friend Kyle Cantrell on XM/Sirius Radio on June 10, June 11 and June 14. We visited with Kyle in the Nashville studio in April, talking about and then playing each song on our new Signs (Pinecastle Records) recording. Listen to the interview on Sirius channel 65 at 9:00PM Wednesday, June 10 and again at 11:00AM on Sunday, June 14. Listen on XM channel 14 at 11:00AM Wednesday, June 10; at 9:00PM Thursday, June 11 and again at 11:00AM Sunday, June 14.

Visit the Pinecastle Records web site at www.pinecastle.com and click on "Giveaways" on the home page for a free download of Gone To Carolina, the song from our new Signs recording that was recently featured on a Prime Cuts of Bluegrass release and is already climbing the bluegrass charts.

Gone To Carolina has already climbed to #25 on the National Bluegrass Survey chart in the June issue of the venerable bluegrass music periodical Bluegrass Unlimited after being released in stores only two months ago (March 24). The Signs album debuted on the Top 15 Bluegrass Albums chart in the same publication at #11. We are very excited about this chart activity and thank all of our DJ friends for the extensive airplay the recording has been receiving - and our friends and fans for purchasing the recording! 

The Special C performed songs from the new Signs recording at the Chicago area album release concert on May 30 at the renowned "listening room" club FitzGerald's, one of the very few places the band has played since the venue opened in the 1980s. This was a very enjoyable and successful event and we sincerely thank so many of our friends and fans for their continued support over the years.

On Wednesday, May 6, The Special C offered two presentations of our traditional American Music (TAM) Program at the Abel Maldonado Community Center in Santa Maria, CA, to a total of 1200 student members of the ASES after-school program. The presentations were sponsored by the Bluegrass Music Society of the Central Coast in conjunction with their wonderful Parkfield Bluegrass Festival in Parkfield, CA, where we appeared May 8-9. It was our privilege to introduce these underprivileged young people (primarily of Hispanic descent) to the sounds of bluegrass music - they were very responsive and receptive and several told us after the presentations that bluegrass was now their favorite music.

The Special C performed as part of the Kentucky Derby festivities at Churchill Downs on May 1-2. The was our first time to actually be part of the official Derby programming and we had a great time. Since this was a somewhat last minute booking, Ashby had already made a commitment to perform in NC for the weekend and Special C alum Josh Williams joined us with his fabulous singing and mandolin playing. Our good friend and Special C alum Tim Wilson was visiting Greg and joined us for the trip - he took the only performance photo we have posted on our photo page. Justin bet on the one big race on Saturday. We were hoping he would win big and take us to dinner, buy a new bus for the band, plan for a paid band vacation in Hawaii, etc. But he lost and we at fast food on the way home.

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). 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 on Friday, April 24, 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 with Nashville Public Radio "Bluegrass Breakdown" host Dave Higgs for an interview and live performance of several songs from the new Signs recording on April 24. We told stories about the songs and about ourselves, which of course included a good deal of laughter and friendly banter.

The new band recording Signs (on Pinecastle Records) was officially released to stores on March 24. Album release concerts are scheduled for Friday, April 24 at The Station Inn in Nashville, TN and Saturday, May 30 at FitzGerald's in Berwyn, IL.

Speaking of The Station Inn, be sure to catch Ashby there every Tuesday (when not on the road with Special C) playing mandolin with the Mashville Brigade. The core group of the band also includes Darrell Webb (Flamekeepers band) on guitar, Aaron McDaris (Rhonda Vincent band) on banjo, Jimmy Van Cleve (Mountain Heart) on fiddle, and Randy Barnes (Josh Williams Band) on bass. You can order their Bluegrass Smash Hits (Volume 1) recording on this site.

Justin and multi-instrumentalist Troy Engel have created a new Nashville-based company called Unplugged Demos (www.unpluggeddemos.com). You can send them any songs or tunes you have written and they will create a demo recording according to your specifications. You can also order Justin’s solo recording Take Some Time on this site.

Greg continues to serve as the Nashville-based International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) President and Board Chair. He will teach a banjo workshop in the Chicago area (Down Home Guitars, Frankfort, IL) on June 6 and at several music camps this year, including Sore Fingers in England (April 13-17) and NashCamp in Nashville, TN (August). You can order Greg’s instructional DVDs and two compilation banjo recordings that he appears on (Ultimate Banjo on Pinecastle Records and Cuppa Jo by the Huber Banjo Company) on this site.

David moved to Nashville – the first time he has ever lived outside of his home state of Alabama. He enjoys spending time with the bluegrass community musicians when not on tour with Special C.