Congratulations!

... to the Special Consensus (above), Ireland's favourite and most regular bluegrass visitors from the States, who won two awards at last night's IBMA Awards Show in Raleigh, N.C.

The Special C. received the Instrumental Recorded Performance award for 'Thank God I’m a country boy' (written by John Martin Sommers), from their Compass Records album Country boy: a bluegrass tribute to John Denver, with Buddy Spicher, Michael Cleveland and Alison Brown. They also won the Recorded Event of the Year award for 'Wild Montana skies', with Claire Lynch and Rob Ickes, also on Compass. A full IBMA press release on all the 2014 awards is online, and the alert reader will notice several other recipients who have played in Ireland.

The Special Consensus, led by Greg Cahill (banjo) with Rick Faris (mandolin), Dustin Benson (guitar), and Dan Eubanks (bass), will be in these islands for most of January 2015. Details of the schedule are not out yet, but the tour is being arranged as usual by Nigel Martyn and his Old Flattop agency in Belfast, and the band will be headlining the 16th Shannonside Winter Music Weekend (15-19 Jan. 2015).