Freight Train Boogie (Turquoise Records TR-5056, 1986) is the third studio album from the Special Consensus, the Chicago-based bluegrass band founded by banjoist Greg Cahill in 1975 and one of the most consistently active Midwestern bluegrass ensembles of the era. Cahill plays banjo and sings; Dennis White plays guitar and harmonica and sings lead; Tim Wilson plays mandolin; Scott Salak holds the bass; and Ollie Shea plays fiddle. The title track reached number one on the Bluegrass Unlimited Top 30 chart, confirming the band's standing in the national bluegrass community despite their origins outside the genre's traditional Southeastern strongholds. The Special Consensus's commitment to hard-driving ensemble bluegrass — honed through years of Chicago-area touring and festival appearances — gave Freight Train Boogie the urgency of a working road band at its most confident.
Tracklist
- 1 A Long Time Gone 2:13
- 2 The Whistle's Lonesome Sound 3:10
- 3 Sweet Temptation 3:06
- 4 Lone Star 2:25
- 5 I'm No Stranger to the Rain 3:35
- 6 Walk These Blues Off My Mind 3:25
- 7 I Can't Sit Down 1:41
- 8 Thirty-Two Acres of Bottom Land 3:25
- 9 Logging Camp 2:28
- 10 Mortages and Dust 3:31
- 11 Cottonfields 3:11
- 12 Stormy Waters alt version 2:47
- 13 Like a Train 2:46
- 14 Blue Water 3:00
- 15 Freight Train Boogie alt version 4:52
- 16 Smith's Reel 3:02
- 17 That's Heaven to Me 2:42
- 18 When the Walls Come Tumblin' Down 2:59
- 19 The Green Rolling Hills of West Virginia alt version 3:24
- 20 Stealin' Away 2:33
