Special Consensus

The band grew out of jam sessions. In 1973 Cahill, then a graduate student, was picking with other bluegrass players at the University of Chicago Folk Festival, and the group went on to play house parties. In 1975 he and Edelstein decided to try music as a career for a few years, with Jeremy Raven on mandolin, Jim Iberg on guitar and Jim Hale on fiddle. The name came from Carlos Castaneda’s books about Yaqui rituals, where a “special consensus” is a state in which spiritual and physical things come together.

The first album, Special Consensus (Tin Ear, 1979), had Ed Walsh on guitar, Mark Weiss on mandolin and Edelstein on bass. Through the 1980s and early 1990s the band recorded for Turquoise: Freight Train Boogie (1986), with Dennis White on guitar and harmonica and Glen Duncan guesting on fiddle; A Hole in My Heart (1989), with Robbie Fulks on guitar; Hey Y’all (1991), with Marty Marrone, mandolinist Don Stiernberg, fiddler Al Murphy and Dallas Wayne on electric bass; and Green Rolling Hills (1993). The line-up changed constantly around Cahill; by 2021 the band had had 18 guitarists, 18 mandolin players and 12 bass players. In 1984 it started the Traditional American Music (TAM) program, taking bluegrass into schools, and Cahill estimates it has reached about a million children.

After Roads and Rails (ShyTown, 1995) the band moved to Pinecastle for Strong Enough to Bend (1996), Our Little Town (1998), a 25th-anniversary album (2000), Route 10 (2002), with Josh Williams on mandolin and Ron Stewart and Rob Ickes guesting, Everything’s Alright (2004), The Trail of Aching Hearts (2007) and Signs (2009), with Ashby Frank on mandolin. Meanwhile Cahill served on the IBMA’s board of directors from 1998 to 2010, as its chair and president from 2006.

The band joined Compass in 2010 with 35. Its second Compass album, Scratch Gravel Road (2012), with Dustin Benson on guitar, Rick Faris on mandolin and David Thomas on bass, was nominated for the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album. Country Boy: A Bluegrass Tribute to John Denver (2014), billed to Special Consensus and Friends, won IBMA awards for “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” (Instrumental Recorded Performance) and “Wild Montana Skies” (Recorded Event), and “Fireball” from Long I Ride (2016) won the instrumental award again. Rivers and Roads (2018), with Faris now on guitar, Nick Dumas on mandolin and Dan Eubanks on bass, brought a second Grammy nomination, was named IBMA Album of the Year and won a third instrumental award for “Squirrel Hunters.” Cahill received the IBMA’s Distinguished Achievement Award in 2011 and was inducted into the SPBGMA Hall of Greats in 2020.

Chicago Barn Dance (2020) marked the band’s 45th anniversary and the city’s place in country music through the WLS National Barn Dance; its title song was the 2020 IBMA Song of the Year. With Greg Blake on guitar and lead vocals and Michael Prewitt on mandolin, the band then made Great Blue North (May 2023), songs by Canadian writers with Canadian guests. Its version of Gordon Lightfoot’s “Alberta Bound” won the 2023 IBMA award for Collaborative Recording, and its video shared the first IBMA Video of the Year award in 2024. For the 50th anniversary, Been All Around This World (Compass, June 2025) brought back former members Rick Faris, Ashby Frank, Robbie Fulks, Chris Jones, Dallas Wayne and Josh Williams to sing and play with Cahill, Blake, Brian McCarty and Eubanks. Blake was named IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year in 2023 and 2025; the band’s current line-up is Cahill, Blake, McCarty on mandolin and Nico Humby on bass.

Special Consensus has toured in Australia, Canada, Europe, Ireland, South America and the United Kingdom, and has played the Grand Ole Opry at both the Ryman Auditorium and the Opry House. Every five years current and former members gather for an anniversary concert, often at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, where Cahill teaches banjo.