| BIOGRAPHY
GREG
CAHILL
Greg Cahill plays banjo and sings baritone and tenor vocals.
Chicago born and bred, Greg has been playing bluegrass banjo since the
early 1970s and formed The Special Consensus in 1975. He has composed
many banjo instrumentals and released three albums featuring his unique
style: Lone Star (1980) with guests Jethro Burns and Byron Berline,
Blue Skies (1992) with fellow Chicagoan Don Stiernberg, and Night Skies
(1998) with Don and guests Sam Bush, Glen Duncan and Tom Boyd. He has
appeared on all of The Special Consensus recordings, on numerous recordings
by other artists, and on many national television and radio commercials
as the banjo player of choice on Chicago's busy jingle music scene.
Greg has also recorded with the ChowDogs (Slavek Hanzlik, Dallas Wayne,
and Ollie O'Shea) and periodically tours European countries with that
band.
In addition to conducting workshops at festivals, teaching at the Old
Town School of Folk Music in Chicago and teaching banjo at music camps,
Greg has released four instructional videos/DVDs. He served as Vice
Chairperson of the Nashville-based International Bluegrass Music Association
(IBMA) Board of Directors for several years and was elected President/Board
Chair of that organization in 2006.
RICK
FARIS
Rick Faris plays mandolin and sings lead, baritone, tenor and high baritone
vocals.Rick is actually known in the world of bluegrass music as an
award-winning guitar player. Born in Iowa, raised in Arkansas and Missouri,
Rick and his family moved to Kansas in 1991 and he started playing with
the Faris Family Bluegrass Band in 1998. Although guitar was his first
instrument (he began playing when he was 7 years old), Rick also plays
dobro, banjo and mandolin.
The Faris Family band toured extensively throughout the USA and Canada
and was awarded Traditional Bluegrass Group of the Year, Instrumental
Group of the Year, Vocal Group of the Year and Entertaining Group of
the Year several times by the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass
Music in America (SPBGMA). Rick was awarded the SPBGMA Midwest Guitar
Performer of the Year in 2005 and 2008. He was one of the first teachers
at the Americana Music Academy in Lawrence, Kansas(where he remained
a teacher of guitar and dobro for five years). When not on the road,
Rick spends his “spare time” as an excellent luthier, building
guitars (there is a year waiting list for his guitars), dobros and mandolins.
Rick joined The Special C in 2009.
DAVID
THOMAS
David Thomas plays bass and sings lead, baritone, tenor and high baritone
vocals.
David was born and raised in Limestone County and still resides near
Elkmont , Alabama . His interest in music was sparked by listening to
the country band of his uncle and great uncles in the 1980s. David began
playing the guitar at the age of twelve and his grandfather, an avid
fan of bluegrass music, began taking him to bluegrass music concerts
when he was in his early teens. He began playing the mandolin at the
age of seventeen and bass at nineteen.
David played guitar, mandolin and bass in regional Alabama-based bands
throughout his teenage years and he co-founded a bluegrass band (playing
mandolin) called Roanoke in 2003. Roanoke competed in bluegrass band
contests throughout the southern states, winning several in Alabama
and Tennessee , until David joined The Special Consensus in 2006. He
appeared on the 2007 band recording Trail of Aching Hearts and the 2009
release Signs.
RYAN
ROBERTS
Ryan Roberts plays guitar and sings lead, baritone, bass and tenor vocals.
Ryan is an award-winning songwriter, born and raised in Cape Breton,
Nova Scotia, Canada. His songs have been recorded in the styles of bluegrass,
country, jazz, and R&B. He has composed instrumental scores for
film as well as jingles for commercial radio.
At the Eastern Canadian Bluegrass Awards, Ryan was awarded Songwriter
of the Year five consecutive years (2005 through 2009) and his solo
recording was awarded Bluegrass Album of the Year in 2009.
Ryan joined The Special C in the fall of 2009. |
