THE SPECIAL CONSENSUS is a four person acoustic bluegrass band that began performing in the Midwest in the spring of 1975.
The first band album was released in 1979 when the band began touring on a national basis. In 1984, The Special Consensus initiated the Traditional American Music (TAM) Program in schools across the country and began appearing on cable television and National Public Radio shows. The band has since appeared on The Nashville Network “Fire On The Mountain” show, toured for three seasons as 4/5 of the cast in the musical Cotton Patch Gospel (music and lyrics by Harry Chapin), and released seventeen additional recordings. In 2000, Pinecastle Records released the first band performance video, filmed for Iowa Public Television’s “Old Time Country Music” show, and The Special Consensus 25th Anniversary recording to mark this milestone year for the band. The band has been featured in cover stories of the renowned bluegrass publication Bluegrass Unlimited in 1998, 2005, 2010 and 2015. In November 2003, International tours have brought The Special Consensus to the United Kingdom, Canada, Europe, Ireland, South America and Australia. In 1993, the band performed the first of many concerts with a symphony orchestra, complete with orchestral arrangements of songs from the band repertoire. The sixteenth band recording “Scratch Gravel Road” was released by Compass Records in March, 2012 and was nominated for the Best Bluegrass Album GRAMMY Award. Compass Records released the seventeenth band recording “Country Boy: A Bluegrass Tribute To John Denver” in March, 2014. Two songs on this recording received IBMA awards in 2014: “Thank God I’m A Country Boy” (Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year Award) and “Wild Montana Skies” (Recorded Event of the Year Award). In March, 2016 Compass Records released the eighteenth Special C recording “Long I Ride” and the tune “Fireball” (with guests Rob Ickes, Trey Hensley and Alison Brown) received the 2016 IBMA Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year Award. The nineteenth band recording “Rivers And Roads” was released by Compass Records in March, 2018.