The lakecity’s Hub Bluegrass Club presents its eighth annual bluegrass concert Sunday evening at the Evangelical Free Church on 11th Avenue starting at 7 p.m.
Entertainers include some of the top Bluegrass artists in North America who are teaching this week at the 108 Cabin Fever Bluegrass Workshop.
Among them are the four-piece band Special Consensus, Jason and Pharis Romero, Steve Spurgin, John Moore (mandolin), Jason Homey (guitar), Gene Bretecher (banjo), Keith Hill (fiddle), Garry Stevenson (mandolin), and Tim Tweedale (dobro).
Special Consensus was formed in 1975 by Greg Cahill who tours Canada, the U.S. and Europe today with Rick Faris, David Thomas, and Ryan Roberts.
Special Consensus has performed at the most traditional Bluegrass festivals and has also been the band to bridge the gap between traditional and progressive Bluegrass at more diverse festivals and fairs.
Among their many accolades the Special Consensus 2005 release Everything’s Alright was included in the top 10 recordings of 2005 in Bluegrass Now.
Their 2007 release Trail of Aching Hearts and 2009 release Signs climbed both the top songs and the top album charts in Bluegrass Unlimited and Bluegrass Music Profiles.
A singer/songwriter and drummer Steve Spurgin, started his career in the late 60s playing with various rock bands out of California including the Limeliters, and Sundance. He also works as a session drummer. After moving back to Texas in 1983 and getting into the honky tonk scene, he started playing electric bass with the band that became California and went on to earn three consecutive IBMA Instrumental Group of the Year awards.
Spurgin has penned songs such as She Always Smelled Like Lilacs, Muley Was a Railroad Man, Band of Angels, and A Walk in the Irish Rain.
John Moore plays guitar, sings and also played mandolin with the band California and sings with Bluegrass etc. His musical performances have led him throughout the U.S. and Canada, Europe and Japan as well as into the studio doing sessions for other artists. His work can be found in radio and television commercials as well as movie sound tracks.
Among other things he recorded the soundtrack for and appeared in the CBS television special The Legend of the Beverly Hillbillies in a four-piece band along with Roy Clark, Byron Berline and Earl Scruggs.
He recently recorded a Grammy-nominated album with Byron Berline, Vince Gill, Bill Bryson, Dennis Caplinger, Rick Cunha and Jan Browne, and another with Mike Oldfield of Tubular Bells fame.
Jason and Pharis Romero hail from Horsefly where they make banjos and perform together as a couple and with the Haints Old Time Stringband. Pharis, who grew up in Horsefly and Williams Lake, is also co-founder of the western Canadian band Outlaw Social, an award-winning and innovative roots-folk band.
Tickets are available at The Guitar Seller, Sight and Sound, and at the door.