The Bluegrass Heritage Foundation recently held its inaugural event, a fund raising benefit concert featuring Special Consensus and Blue Moon Drive, on May 3, 2008. The venue was the his­tor­ic Sons of Hermann Hall near downtown Dallas, Texas. Current IBMA Presi­dent Greg Cahill (founder of Special Consensus) and his band entertained the crowd throughout the fun-filled musical evening.

“The plea­sure was truly ours. We were honored to be featured for the Found­ation’s inaugural event. We certainly enjoyed the evening, the won­der­fully responsive audience, and the great music of Blue Moon Drive. I hope we can work together again to support the Found­ation.” Greg Cahill - Special Consensus

Bluegrass Heritage Foundation announces Bluegrass Heritage Festival

The Foundation is excited to announce the first annual Bluegrass Heritage Fes­ti­val, scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 6 at South Oaks Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas. Appearing at the festival will be Mark Phillips & Third Generation, Hickory Hill, Blue River, Warren Hull & Acoux Deville, Blue Moon Drive (featuring The Gerald Jones), Ellis County Bluegrass, Salt Rock Rounders, and more. Festival admission will also in­clude banjo, mandolin, guitar, and song­writing instructional workshops. For more information, see www.BluegrassHeritage.org.

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Special Consensus will perform at the inaugural concert benefiting the Bluegrass Heritage Foundation in Dallas, TX

Special C along with Blue Moon Drive featuring Gerald Jones will be performing at the inaugural benefit concert for the Bluegrass Heritage Foundation in Dallas, Texas Saturday May 3. The 7:30 P.M. concert takes place at the historic Sons of Hermann Hall located at 3414 Elm St. in Dallas. Tickets are available at the door for $12.00.

The Bluegrass Heritage Foundation’s mission is to preserve and promote the heritage of bluegrass music in America. The Foundation seeks to educate the public about this distinctly American form of music with roots in Irish, Scottish, and English tradi­tional music through educational programs and workshops, public performances of bluegrass music, and other similar programs

The Bluegrass Heritage Foundation is managed by a Board of Directors and a non-voting Advisory Board that provides advice, assistance, and resources to the Foundation. The Bluegrass Heritage Foundation is a non-profit corporation organized under Texas law.

The foundation is currently seeking donations. For more information visit them online at http://bluegrassheritage.org.

The foundation’s current board of directors includes:

• Alan W. Tompkins, President - Alan co-founded the Frisco Bluegrass Festival held at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas (2006-07) and Acoustic Music Camp, an instructional institute for acoustic musicians.
• Gerald L. Jones - Invented the Acoustic Plus electronic banjo pickup used by Earl Scruggs, Bela Fleck, Alan Munde, Bill Keith, and others. Gerald is a multi-instrumentalist who is proficient on banjo, mandolin, guitar, and fiddle. Gerald co-founded the Frisco Bluegrass Festival and Acoustic Music Camp.
• Richard S. Tucker - Responsible for the creation of the Argyle Bluegrass Festival, the largest and most successful bluegrass festival in Texas. Richard also serves as President and a member of the Board of Directors of The Foundation for Bluegrass Music, Inc., a tax-exempt organization dedicated to fostering awareness of bluegrass music with a focus on youth and education.
• Clifford G. Fitch - A professional instrument luthier and the founder of Fitch Banjos. Cliff builds profes sional-grade custom banjos and performs instrument set-up and restoration services for some of the top players in the country. Fitch Banjos is also the designated United States custom shop for Recording King Banjos.
• Raleigh W. Newsam - Born in New York City, he spent his youth in Long Island, New York and Clarksville, Tennessee. It was in Clarksville that he developed his love and enthusiasm for bluegrass and country music. Raleigh has been active with numerous charitable organizations.

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Special Consensus - Trail of Aching Hearts

So, what’s my favorite bluegrass CDs of 2007? When that question was first asked of me, I thought, easy, no-brainer. It was wham, wham … and well, er, uh, mmmmm, I stammered. Gee, I dunno. I’m gonna have to think about that.

First, those two whams.

No, no, no! First the rules of this little exercise. Rule No. 1: I’m making up the rules as I go. Rule No. 2: There are no rules. Rule No. 3: Please refer back to rule No. 2.

Next, a preface is in order. I’m not a fanatical CD buyer. My dear friend Rickey Lamb, who is a regular contributor to BluegrassJournal.com, buys several CDs a month. Perhaps, a week. From many different genres, bluegrass included. That’s not me. I just can’t find the time to listen to that many CDs. I’ll go to a bluegrass festival, come home with 4 to 6 CDs, and spend the next month trying to digest them.

Only a tiny handful of CDs come out each year that have me slobbering to get my hands on them. One was Merle Haggard’s bluegrass CD that hit the stores in October. Another project I stewed and walked the floor over until it finally came out was IIIrd Tyme Out’s long-awaited DVD of a concert at the Mountain Arts Center in Kentucky. I waited for two years to get my hands on that DVD — and after I got it, waited a couple of months before watching it.

So, here’s the bottom line on my preface: I don’t go shopping for every CD that shows up on the charts. As a result, my Top 3 CDs of 2007 are gleaned from a very limited list. So, here goes:

Greg Cahill, the Special Consensus founder, and his band of very capable vocalists and instrumentalists, created a real masterpiece with “The Trail of Aching Hearts.”

No. 1, hands down is “The Trail of Aching Hearts” by Special Consensus.

No. 2 is “Lefty’s Old Guitar” by J.D. Crowe & The New South.

No. 3: I’m not saying yet, so keep reading. (And, also keep Rules. No. 1 and 2 in mind.)

Greg Cahill, the Special Consensus founder, and his band of very capable vocalists and instrumentalists, created a real masterpiece with “The Trail of Aching Hearts.” It runs the gamut of what bluegrass has become today. There’s the traditional “Branded Wherever I Go,” which is a Flatt & Scruggs tune. Add the classic country factor with Hank Snow’s “Down the Trail of Broken Hearts” and a great, but nearly forgotten Marty Robbins’ tune, “The Shoe Goes on the Other Foot Tonight.” And, yes, there’s the non-bluegrass tune from left field, in this case Irving Berlin’s classic “Blue Skies,” which has become a popular staple on the Special Consensus concert set list. Then, providing a shade of newgrass is “Ten Mile Tennessee,” a pretty little melody paying tribute to a place we all long for, where the living is pretty darned easy and where the world is best viewed from a rocking chair on a front porch on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Putting a little icing on this CD’s cake is the vocal work of mandolin player Ron Spears, who was a real standout in his tenure with Special Consensus. Spears, who recently joined David Parmley & Continental Divide, contributed two of his own songs to my favorite CD of the year.

It’s just difficult to put “The Trail of Aching Hearts” anyplace but at the top. And, it’s really nice to see that Cahill and his band have enjoyed a fair amount of success on the charts with the album.

JD Crowe & the New South - Lefty’s Old Guitar

I also really enjoy hearing Rickey Wasson’s vocal work with J.D. Crowe’s New South. So much so, that admittedly may be a reason why “Lefty’s Old Guitar” lands at the No. 2 spot of my 2007 favorites.

When I originally reviewed this CD in summer, I took note that Crowe’s current edition of the New South has held the same lineup for the past few years. That, indeed, gives the band a rock-solid sound, both instrumentally and vocally, which usually features Wasson on lead vocal, mandolin player Dwight McCall on the high harmony and Crowe on the baritone part. It’s a winning combination.

The title cut refers to the late Lefty Frizzell’s guitar feeling a bit lonesome, unplayed and hanging in the Country Music Hall of Fame. It’s a poignant tribute to a country music legend who inspired many singers, among them Merle Haggard. So, it’s no surprise that a Haggard tune, “In My Next Life,” is one Rickey Wasson’s strongest vocal efforts on the CD.

Ronnie Stewart’s great fiddle work also adds plenty to the tracks. And, did I mention, J.D. Crowe continues to be a hard-driving, on-the-money banjo player? This Rounder release has also enjoyed plenty of chart success this past year — and deservingly so.

So, if you’ve stayed with me through all of the above, it’s time to exercise my privilege of having no rules. I have a tie for my No. 3 spot, shared by an album that came out in 2006, and a CD that hasn’t even hit the market and won’t be until early 2008.

Nothin’ Fancy - 7

The 2006 effort is “#7″ by Nothin’ Fancy and the new, unreleased project is “Vincent & Dailey,” which will be released in late January. Here’s why I’m putting them both on my 2007 list: I never acquired “#7″ until this year, and I got my first advance listen to “Vincent & Dailey” earlier this month.

I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: Nothin’ Fancy is one of bluegrass music’s most underrated bands. All of their CDs (this is the seventh) shine. The band’s concert appearances more than shine, they glow.

“#7″ has a great song lineup filled with new tunes, old tunes and standards, including one of my favorites, Charlie Waller’s “Two Little Boys.” Like my No. 1 and 2 picks, “#7″ also pays homage to classic country with the Tom T. Hall song, “I Washed My Face in the Morning Dew” and the old Johnny Rodriguez country hit, “Pass Me By.”

As with most of Nothin’ Fancy’s CDs, Chris Sexton’s fiddle work (and viola work, cello work, etc .) is a true work of art.

Dailey & Vincent

“Dailey & Vincent” — that’s Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent — are set to release a CD that will become a classic. The instrumental work is many notches above adequate and the vocal work — well, it’s just out of sight. You can find my review of their debut CD on Rounder Records elsewhere on www.bluegrass journal.com.

Suffice it to say that what I heard on this advance copy made me temporarily forget some of the great bluegrass music that was released in 2007. Perhaps that’s another reason why this 2008 CD makes my 2007 list.

Meanwhile, I’m waiting for 2008 and a bunch of new, terrific bluegrass music that is out there, waiting to be released.

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Editor’s note: We’ve met and visited with a lot of wonderful people in the bluegrass world in the past few years, and especially in the last six months that we’ve been involved in our Web site. We asked a handful of some memorable people we’ve visited with over the past year and invited them to share a bluegrass Christmas memory. The charming, colorful story that follows was written by Greg Cahill, the solid rock, mastermind and banjo player for Special Consensus.

To friends and readers of bluegrassjournal.com,

Special Concensus

I will take a stab at recalling our last tour of the year back in the 1980s, heading into the Christmas break we take every year so we can have quality time with our families who put up with us being away from home all to frequently throughout the year.

We left Chicago in our van to play several shows in OH and PA. We encountered a pretty intense snow storm as we drove through IN and had to pull off the road for a while due to no visibility. Once we finally got back onto the highway, the van began losing power and we nursed it into an off-highway repair shop in OH. The mechanic was very friendly and dropped everything to look at our vehicle when we told him we were a touring bluegrass band and desperately needed to keep pushing on so we could make our show in Bethlehem, PA that evening.

Sitting pretty on the charts:
Special Consensus’s latest Pinecastle CD, “The Trail of Aching Hearts” continues to hold itself high in the bluegrass charts. It’s currently No. 6 on the Roots Music Report and No. 7 on Bluegrass Unlimited’s rankings.

The mechanic determined that we had an alternator problem but he did not have the part (it was Saturday) so he put our nearly dead battery on a charger in hopes that we might at least make it to Bethlehem for our concert. Since we had to wait about two hours for the battery to charge, we began singing old gospel songs in the waiting area to pass the time. The mechanic loved the music and gave us a huge price break because he wanted to help us out - we were mighty broke in those days. We left the shop in good spirits, even though we were now really out of cash and late for our show. I phoned the venue, Godfrey Daniels, to tell them we would be late but we would definitely get there.

We were pretty depressed as we nursed the van down the highway - we had not slept, had driven through a terrible storm and didn’t know if we would be able to complete the tour because the van was in bad shape. It was the Christmas season and we were determined to share our music with all the folks who were coming out to hear us (and we desperately needed to play the dates to make enough money to buy presents for our families).

When we were just outside of Bethlehem, the van was barely moving - the battery was again running out of juice. We had our guest fiddler sit in the driver’s seat to steer while the four of us pushed the van to the top of a hill on the outskirts of Bethlehem. We were exhausted but determined to get to Godfrey Daniels to play our show. When we topped the hill, the guys jumped into the van and I climbed onto the ladder on the rear of the van - we literally coasted into town. But our breath was taken away as we passed all of the homes with candles in every window - a Moravian tradition to welcome everyone. What a beautiful sight - the night was very dark and cold and still and all I could hear while holding onto the ladder on the outside of the van was the wind whipping around us. Those lights were so welcoming and the quiet ride was so peaceful that we all rode in complete silence - and peace. I will never forget the sight of those candle-lit windows and the warmth they shared even on a very cold night. We managed to get the van started again long enough to drive to the club, where the van officially died (we did revive it on Monday). We still spoke very little, but I know we all held this peaceful feeling inside that would not allow any of us to complain about the gruelling trip.

Then we walked into the club - packed out! All the people waited for us for nearly two hours. We were so moved that we didn’t even take time to change our clothes - we just jumped up onto the stage and began playing. The power of the music so completely connected every one of us in the room with each other - we played very late and all knew this was a magical evening.

After the concert, we pulled out sleeping bags and actually slept on the stage, cold but smiling because we had just had an evening worth more than any amount of money could ever buy.

I will never forget that evening - I think it was the first time I realized that I will leave this earth a wealthy person, even though I know I will never have any large sum of money in the bank. Traveling the road has not been any easy life, but I feel like a very wealthy man to have met all of the wonderful people who have shared the joy of music and the true meaning of life as we all continue on this fantastic journey.

Wishing everyone peace and joy in this beautiful holiday season!

All the best,
Greg Cahill

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How does Greg Cahill, leader of Special Consensus, do it? Has he ever recorded two CDs with the same band mates? Granted, I don’t have all of Special C’s albums, but I’d venture a guess every recorded project has been done with a different lineup.

If that’s the case, why do all of these CDs through the years sound so darn good? Could Greg Cahill, himself, be the reason? I’d have to think so. Besides his keen ear for great material to record, he’s been, throughout his career, a school master of sorts, a pass-through station of up and coming instrumentalists and vocalists. And, did I mention, he’s one fine banjo picker?

To say the new Special C release on Pinecastle, “The Trail of Aching Hearts,” is a winner would be an understatement. It’s Greg Cahill and Company — whoever that company may be — at its peak. It’s hard to pick out a tune here that might be considered a filler; it’s even more difficult to single out a solo, whether it be by Cahill, one of his Special C gang or a guest instrumentalist that isn’t an ear-perker. This is one well conceived CD, from the tune selection to the nitty gritty instrumental fills that can really make a recording shine.

The song list covers the gamut, from Hank Snow’s “Down the Trail of Broken Hearts;” an early Marty Robbin’s hit, “The Shoe Goes on the Other Foot Tonight;” “Branded Wherever I Go,” from Flatt and Scruggs; to Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies.” And just some darn good bluegrass throughout.

“Blue Skies” has become one of Special C’s concert highlights, and it’s great to see it included in this project. Cahill and his merry band truly show their versatility and virtuosity on this one.

Mandolinist/vocalist Ron Spears contributes a couple of his own songs, “I’d Like to Wander Back to the Old Home” and “Lift Your Voice in Prayer.” (Spears, very definitely a driving force behind this edition of Special C, has since left the group and joined Doyle Lawson.)

A couple of other tunes deserve mention, the haunting “Rich Man’s Coal,” and “Ten Mile Tennessee,” the latter a tribute to a place we all long for, where the living is pretty darned easy and the world best viewed from a rocking chair on a front porch on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Justin Carbone’s slick guitar work and vocals shine throughout the CD.

Guest musicians are Tim Crouch on fiddle, Tres Nugent and Tim Dishman on bass, and Rob Ickes and Phil Ledbetter on Dobro.

My favorite Special C album is “Route 10,” a 2002 project. Give me a few more listens and “The Trail of Aching Hearts” just might bump “Route 10″ to No. 2.

– By Dan Tackett

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