Special Consensus - Chicago Barn Dance '2020

Tracks list

Tracklist

01. Chicago Barn Dance
02. Lake Shore Drive
03. East Chicago Blues
04. My Kind of Town
05. Looking Out My Back Door
06. I Hope Gabriel Likes My Music
07. City of New Orleans
08. I Am the City
09. Wont That Be a Happy Time
10. Sweet Home Chicago
11. Chicago Barn Dance-Reprise


On the heels of their IBMA Album of the Year winner Rivers and Roads, Special
Consensus celebrates their 45th anniversary with the release of Chicago Barn
Dance. The new project is a love note of sorts to Chicago, hometown of the bands
founder and banjo player Greg Cahill. The albums title track, written by Becky
Buller, Missy Raines and the albums producer Alison Brown, tells the story of
WLS Barn Dance and features the exquisite twin fiddling of Grammy winning
fiddler Michael Cleveland alongside Becky Buller. Former band member Robbie
Fulks wrote East Chicago Blues especially for the project and contributes lead
vocals. The song tells Bill Monroes personal journey of trading a farmers life
in Kentucky for the oil refineries in Chicago. My Kind of Town is a re imagining
of the Sinatra classic into a bluegrass instrumental featuring the twin banjos
of Greg Cahill and Alison Brown alongside the twin fiddles of Mike Barnett and
Patrick McAvinue. Guitarist and lead vocalist Rick Faris shines on Lake Shore
Drive and Looking out my Back Door, features a Dobro performance from Compass
label mate Rob Ickes. Chicago Barn Dance not only establishes Special Consensus
as one of Chicagos most prized music treasures but also draws the connection
between the Chicago and the evolution of early country and bluegrass music.
Artists that regularly appeared on Chicagos WLS National Barn Dance from the
1920s through the 1940s, including Hank Williams, Bill and Charlie Monroe, Pasty
Montana and Lulu Belle and Scotty, provided a sense of connection and comfort to
the many Southerners who migrated from the Appalachian states in search of work,
including the father of bluegrass music Bill Monroe. And 45 years into their
journey, Special Consensus continues to epitomize nexus between the Windy City
and bluegrass music.

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