When a group marks its half century of activity, it has every right to take a victory lap. Credit Special Consensus for marking their first 50 years with an album that looks back on the era from which they were spawned. Two-time Grammy-nominees and multiple IBMA-Award winners, the Chicago-based band — which currently consists of Greg Cahill (banjo), Brian McCarty (mandolin), Greg Blake (guitar) and Dan Eubanks (bass) — effectively brings past to present with a series of stellar interpretations of classic tracks that vary to some degree, while remaining well-suited to the band’s bluegrass pastiche. Each offering features an individual singer associated with the band’s early endeavors — Robbie Fulks, Rick Faris, Josh Williams, Chris Jones, Ashby Frank, and Dallas Wayne, among them — effectively demonstrating a continuing creativity combining via specific retro references.
The album finds producer and label chief Alison Brown sitting behind the board once again, assuring the necessary cohesion that pulls past and present together. While certain bluegrass standards — the traditional tune, I’ve Been All Around This World, and the Tony Rice composition, Like a Train — could be considered as obvious inclusions, other tracks find the musicians taking a somewhat surprising turn. A take on The Marvelettes’ Please Mr. Postman (famously covered by the Beatles early on) and an a cappella read of the well-honed gospel number, I Can’t Sit Down, finds them stretching bluegrass boundaries to a certain extent, it’s just enough to demonstrate their verve and versatility.
On the other hand, the band’s interpretation of Roger Miller’s King of the Road, and a pair of Michael Martin Murphy classics, Carolina In the Pines and What Am I doing Hangin’ Round are a natural fit. Likewise, the album’s rousing conclusion, a robust collaborative cover of John Hartford’s I Wish We Had Our Time Again, featuring the special guests and the current band members, is both seeped in nostalgia and an apt celebration of a legacy that continues to linger large.
Their’s is a sound that’s timeless indeed.
