Celtic Connections
Special Consensus
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Rob Adams
five stars
BLUEGRASS has moved on since Special Consensus formed in Chicago in 1975 as younger generations of musicians raised in the music’s traditions have sought new routes for their roots. There is still, however, innate potency and excitement in the foundations of a branch of country music that has maintained its acoustic values, and if ever an example were needed, this was it.
Its blend of raw expression, sophisticated musicianship and collective vigour has sometimes led to bluegrass being described as Virginia bebop and this became very close to the literal truth as sole founder member and banjo player Greg Cahill, guitarist Rick Faris, mandolinist Nick Dumas and bassist Dan Eubanks tore through and extemporised on Irving Berlin’s Blue Skies as many jazz musicians have done before them.
Songs closer to the spirit that bluegrass godfather Bill Monroe exemplified and the music has come to embody, a kind of walking of a line between losing at love, finding a friend in Jesus and seeking solace or just sheer profit in moonshine, found Faris and Dumas singing with earnest bluesiness and all four musicians coming together in full-voiced harmony before breaking off on solo improvisations that didn’t get passed on like a relay baton so much as a hot coal.
Even a broken string couldn’t put the brakes on Faris’s flatpicking locomotion and as they returned for an encore the individual features that preceded the song itself – Dumas’ mandolin picking reaching improbable liquidity; Eubanks playing with superb eloquence and mobility while honouring the blues – showed they have more than enough adventure, invention and creativity to succeed in the more contemporary bluegrass forms should they so wish.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here