Local Musician Nominated for Grammy

Musician Nick Dumas. Photo by Hana Rass.

Door County musician Nick Dumas and his band, Special Consensus, have been nominated for a Grammy Award. They were nominated in the Best Bluegrass Album category for their 2018 release Rivers and Roads.

Dumas is a mandolin player who has been a member of Special Consensus since 2015. He’s also been a Door County resident for about two years. The band formed in 1975, with Greg Cahill at the helm, playing the five-string banjo. Current members include Rick Faris on guitar and lead vocals, Dan Eaubanks on bass and vocals, and Nick Dumas on mandolin and vocals.

Dumas has been a Special Consensus fan throughout his life and during his start as a younger musician, but he never thought he would eventually join the group. He said some of his biggest influences have come from past incarnations of the group.

Originally from the Seattle area, Dumas now resides in Sturgeon Bay with his fiancée, Hana Rass. They purchased a farmhouse in the fall of 2017 and are planning to open a music and wedding venue in their late-1800s restored barn, The Fiddler’s Farm. The barn’s grand opening will be in spring of 2019. Along with touring nationally and internationally, Dumas teaches music lessons out of his Sturgeon Bay home, along with Rass, who’s a fiddler.

Special Consensus has earned numerous International Bluegrass Music Association awards, and the Grammy nomination is the group’s second since 2012. The Grammys will be held Feb. 10 in Los Angeles. Find Special Consensus at specialc.com.