Special Consensus tour in Ireland begins 25 Jan. 2023 (update)

The leaves have fallen since the photo above was taken, but the appealing prospect of a tour by the multi-award-winning Special Consensus (above) is evergreen. The next one will open on Wednesday next week (25 Jan.) with two shows in Belfast: at 1.00 p.m. in the Black Box, and again at 8.00 p.m. in the American Bar. After three further shows in Ulster, the band will be briefly in Britain till 3 Feb. when they will play the first of twelve shows completing their tour in this island. All dates in the tour are in the BIB calendar, and are displayed in the BIB's right sidebar.

As if it had been planned, Bluegrass Unlimited magazine presents in its weekly newsletter a Spotify playlist of fifty Special C. recordings, and (from its archives) a 1979 article by Kerry Wike, the first time the band was ever featured in BU. The quotations in that article from and about the Special C.'s leader Greg Cahill help to show why he has achieved since then an IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award and induction into the SPBGMA Hall of Greats.

In addition, this week's BU podcast (no. 118) features Chris Jones, an alumnus of the Special C. who has since toured Ireland twice with his own band, the Night Drivers. The Mountain Home Music Company announces the latest single from Chris & the Night Drivers, 'The price of falling', which follows on a string of chart successes for them.

Update: Eilís Boland of Lonesome Highway conducted earlier this month an excellent interview with Greg Cahill, which can be read here. Among masses of other information, it reveals Greg's Irish ancestry.

© Richard Hawkins