Bluegrass band to play benefit concert for Valley Children’s Hospital

Bluegrass band Special Consensus is coming to Fresno in a benefit concert for Valley Children’s Hospital, Jan. 20. They will be performing from 7-9 p.m. at the Universalist Church of Fresno. Reserved seating costs $25 while general admission is $20.

The music group released their first album in 1979 and has made 16 additional albums since then. 

Special Consensus was nominated in 2012 for Best Bluegrass Album, winning a Grammy Award for their album Scratch Gravel Road, their 16th album.

The co-founder of Special Consensus, Greg Cahill, spoke abut the youth programs he has been involved with and the way kids connect through music.

“Doing kids programs started when I had a friend who was a school teacher in the Chicago area, and whenever I’d be home she’d ask me to come play the banjo for her class,” Cahill said. “Other teachers heard that and wanted me to come to their classes and pretty soon it was a school program for more than one classroom.”

The program began to expand and other people became involved with connecting with kids through music.

“Eventually I started bringing guitar players with me and pretty soon there would be three of us and the kids were very responsive to that,” Cahill said. “Most of the kids had never seen a mandolin or a banjo back then. It became a great way to get young folks interested in bluegrass music.”

From there, it expanded into an educational program for the school. Cahill explains how it started to expand into surrounding cites, such as Louisville.

“So we went to the library and researched it and made up little study guides for the school teachers. We started offering that and also concerts. Back then, and even into the 90s, there was a state and federal funding for that sort of thing,” Cahill said. “So sometimes we’d go down to Louisville, Kentucky and spend a week or five days down there and go to four or five schools a day, and it was good. We had a good impact on students of all ages. To this day we sometimes do all that, so it still happens to this day, we just don’t do it as much.”

Special Consensus will be performing privately at Valley Children’s Hospital on the Monday before the concert. However, it is open to the public.

Freshman Brandon Brogan prefers other music over the bluegrass genre, though interested in supporting their fundraising cause. He plans on attending if his schedule is open.

“I’ve never heard of the band Special Consensus, but it would be interesting to go,” Brogan said. “It also would be good to go and support the hospital if I am not doing anything. I am not a huge fan of bluegrass music but a live performance might give me a different view.”

If you would like to check out the band more, check out their video and read from their website.

For more music, read about last year’s Winter Jam.

This author can be reached via twitter @alexrurik23 and via email Alex Rurik.