Special Consensus
2012 and 2018 GRAMMY Nominee
The Special Consensus is a bluegrass band that has achieved a contemporary sound in over four decades of performing, making their music a modern classic. Band leader and founder Greg Cahill is a recipient of the prestigious Distinguished Achievement Award from the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) and was inducted into the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America (SPBGMA) Hall of Greats. Special Consensus has released 21 band recordings and received seven awards from the IBMA and two Grammy nominations.
Special Consensus’ sound is grounded in a deep appreciation and understanding of bluegrass music, incorporating both the drive and harmonies of the traditional sound with the more contemporary sounds and repertoire of today. With the foundation of Greg’s unique banjo playing style and the vocal prowess of the 2023 IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year Greg Blake (guitar), Dan Eubanks (bass) and Brian McCarty (mandolin), these musicians effortlessly support each other and consistently maintain their bluegrass center whether they’re playing a jazz-tinged instrumental or a song from any of their award-winning recordings. These four talented vocalists and instrumentalists follow their creative desires without straying too far from their roots.
Rivers and Roads, the band’s 19th recording, was nominated for a 2018 Grammy and was awarded 2018 IBMA Album of the Year. The tune “Squirrel Hunters” from that recording received the Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year award.
International tours have brought the band to Australia, Canada, Europe, South America, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The band has also appeared on National Public Radio, The Nashville Network, the Grand Ole Opry at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, and in concert with symphony orchestras nationwide.
Dedicated to preserving their craft as well as keeping it fresh, in 1984 Special Consensus initiated the Traditional American Music (TAM) Program to introduce bluegrass music to students in schools across the country and in several foreign lands.
The band records for Compass Records and proudly celebrated its 45th anniversary in 2020 with the release of Chicago Barn Dance. This recording also celebrates the long-standing connection of country and bluegrass music with Chicago from the time of the WLS “National Barn Dance” that was a precursor to the Grand Ole Opry. The songs on this recording either relate to Chicago and/or are written by artists who once lived in Chicago. The title song “Chicago Barn Dance” received the 2020 IBMA Song of the Year Award.
Compass Records released Great Blue North, the 21st Special C recording, in May of 2023. The band has been touring in Canada for nearly four decades and this recording was made as a tip of the hat to all the friends and fans made throughout the country over so many years. All songs featured on the recording were written by Canadian writers and numerous Canadian musician friends of the band made guest appearances. The Gordon Lightfoot song “Alberta Bound” received the 2023 IBMA Collaborative Recording of the Year award and the video received the first-ever 2024 IBMA Video of the Year award (tied with Authentic Unlimited).
Chicago born and bred, Greg Cahill has been playing bluegrass banjo since the early 1970s. He co-founded The Special Consensus in Chicago in 1975 and has continued to tour nationally and internationally with the band ever since. In 1984, he created the Traditional American Music (TAM) Program to introduce students of all ages to bluegrass music. He has appeared on all 20 of The Special Consensus recordings, on numerous recordings by other artists and on many national television and radio commercial jingles. Greg has also released three recordings: Lone Star (1980, with guests Jethro Burns and Byron Berline); Blue Skies (1992, with Chicago mandolinist Don Stiernberg); and Night Skies (1998, with Don Stiernberg and guests Sam Bush, Glen Duncan and Tom Boyd). He has also recorded and toured European countries with the ChowDogs (Greg and Slavek Hanzlik, Dallas Wayne and Ollie O’Shea). Greg has released four banjo instructional DVDs and three banjo tablature books and he teaches banjo at festival workshops and music camps nationally and internationally. He is a banjo instructor at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago and has been an adjunct faculty member of the music department (teaching banjo) at Columbia College in Chicago. He served on the Nashville-based International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Board of Directors from 1998-2010 (Board Chair/President 2006-2010), became a Kentucky Colonel in 2010 and was awarded the prestigious IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award in 2011. Greg was also appointed to the Board of Directors of the Nashville-based Foundation for Bluegrass Music in 2007, elected President of the organization in 2011 and rotated off that board in 2012. The 2012 Compass Records band recording Scratch Gravel Road was GRAMMY-nominated for Best Bluegrass Album; the 2014 Compass Records band release Country Boy: A Bluegrass Tribute To John Denver received two IBMA awards; the 2016 Compass Records band recording Long I Ride received an IBMA award and the 2018 Compass Records recording Rivers And Roads received two IBMA awards (one for Album of the Year) and a GRAMMY nomination for Best Bluegrass Album. Greg served on the Recording Academy Chicago Chapter Board of Directors 2018-2020 and he was inducted into the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America (SPBGMA) Hall of Greats in Nashville, TN in 2020. Greg appears on the 2020 Special C Compass Records release Chicago Barn Dance, the 20th band recording that received the 2020 IBMA Song of the Year award. He also appears on the 2023 Compass Records release Great Blue North, the 21st Special C recording that features guest appearances by many Canadian musician friends of the band. The Gordon Lightfoot song “Alberta Bound” received the 2023 IBMA Collaborative Recording of the Year award and the video received the first-ever 2024 IBMA Video of the Year award (tied with Authentic Unlimited).
Dan Eubanks grew up in Crystal City and St. Louis, Missouri, and his grandparents began taking him to bluegrass festivals at a very young age in the 1970s. He began playing music on drums, then banjo and guitar, and eventually electric bass at age 12. Dan played in country and rock bands throughout high school and attended college on a music scholarship. His study of jazz bass playing eventually led him to the upright bass and a very diverse musical education that included study of nearly all styles of American music and procurement of a Master’s degree in Jazz Studies from Webster University in St. Louis. In 2003, after many years of teaching at several St. Louis-area colleges and universities as an adjunct professor, Dan’s desire to get back to his bluegrass and country roots prompted his move to Nashville. He spent nearly 20 years in Nashville teaching, performing with various bands, working as a studio session musician and appearing on the television show “Nashville” several times as a side musician in bands that support main characters. Dan joined Special Consensus in 2013 and made his first band recording appearance on the 2014 Compass Records band recording Country Boy: A Bluegrass Tribute To John Denver that received two International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) awards. He also appeared on the 2016 Compass Records band recording Long I Ride, which also received an IBMA award, and on the 2018 Compass Records band recording Rivers And Roads that received two IBMA awards (one for Album of the Year) and a GRAMMY nomination for Best Bluegrass Album. Dan released a solo recording titled Look What The City’s Done in March 2019 and he appears on the 2020 Special C Compass Records release Chicago Barn Dance, which received the 2020 IBMA Song of the Year award. Dan also appears on the 2023 Compass Records release Great Blue North, the 21st Special C recording that features guest appearances by many Canadian musician friends of the band. The Gordon Lightfoot song “Alberta Bound” received the 2023 IBMA Collaborative Recording of the Year award. Dan moved back to his hometown of St. Louis in the summer of 2023 and continues to teach remotely at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN. The “Alberta Bound” video received received the first-ever 2024 IBMA Video of the Year award (tied with Authentic Unlimited).
Greg Blake, the 2023 IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year, was born and raised in the hills of West Virginia but spent most of his life living and working in both Kansas City, MO and Kansas City, KS. After graduating from high school in West Virginia, Greg attended bible college in Overland Park, Kansas where he met his wife. They both pursued further education, careers, and raised a family for 25 years in Kansas before moving to Colorado in 2007. While in Kansas, he was a member of the Bluegrass Missourians for nearly 15 years. During that time, the band received multiple awards from the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America (SPBGMA), and he received two nominations for SPBGMA’s Traditional Male Vocalist of the Year and nine nominations for SPBGMA Guitarist of the Year. By the time Greg moved back to Kansas City, KS in 2017, he had received five consecutive SPBGMA Guitarist of the Year awards, a Kansas State Flatpicking championship and a nomination for the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Male Vocalist of the Year award. A highlight in 2015 was a debut solo album that was named by several sources among the Top Ten albums of the year. Greg has also toured with the Greg Blake Band and, most recently, with Jeff Scroggins and Colorado. In March, 2021 Greg officially became the Special Consensus guitar player and also released a solo recording titled People, Places and Songs on the Nashville-based Turnberry Records label. Greg also appears on the 2023 Compass Records release Great Blue North, the 21st Special C recording that features guest appearances by many Canadian musician friends of the band. The Gordon Lightfoot song “Alberta Bound” received the 2023 IBMA Collaborative Recording of the Year award and Greg received the prestigious IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year award. The “Alberta Bound” video received the first-ever 2024 IBMA Video of the Year award (tied with Authentic Unlimited).
Brian McCarty grew up in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. The son of a prolific gospel songwriter and singer, he was immersed in the world of music from birth. He first performed with his mother's gospel band at the age of 7 and soon began competing as a vocalist in regional gospel music conventions. His love of traditional American music began when a family member handed him a mandolin at age 13. Brian soon added banjo and guitar to his instrumental prowess and won the 2005 International Bluegrass Artist of the Year award in the Branson-based CGMA. He has played with numerous bands in the Kansas City area over the past two decades, including 15 years as mandolinist for the Bluegrass Missourians. Brian appeared on four recordings with that band and on “The View from Home,” a recording with Greg Blake and Hometown in 2022. For the last two years he has been mandolinist for The Matchsellers, a Kansas City-based band with whom he appeared on two recordings in 2022 and 2024. Brian currently offers mandolin lessons in the Kansas City area and occasionally performs old “brother duets” with banjo player Todd Davis, billed as Davis and McCarty. He resides in Kansas City with his wife Mandy and their two daughters and he joined Special C in 2024.
