Bluegrass Underground Live at World Famous Cumberland Caverns


McMinnville, TN — You’ll go underneath Rocky Top for this bluegrass event. Bluegrass Underground is a new concert series airing on 650 WSM and in syndication that is taped before a live audience 333 feet below ground in a natural amphitheatre deep inside Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville, Tennessee. Here water and time entwined 3.5 million years ago to create one of the most acoustically pure natural spaces on earth. No man-made sound reaches inside the cavern and the living rock hued amid the eons is jagged and uneven, providing near perfect resonance. Sound engineers working with the Concert describe the quality as “like recording in the Ryman.”

The experience at Bluegrass Underground begins at Cumberland Caverns in the light of day. Tour guides lead you through the cave entrance and into another world. A subterranean descent takes one past underground pools and waterfalls and to the underground ballroom known as “the Volcano Room.” The primordial silence and perpetual darkness then give way each month to the sounds of the finest music of the greatest bluegrass musicians on earth. Regardless of outside temperature, the Volcano Room is a constant 56 degrees.

“Bluegrass Underground will feature established and up and coming traditional and progressive musicians in an otherworldly venue without amplification to a world-wide audience of music lovers”, says Todd Mayo of Loblolly Ventures, who will produce the show. “The WSM brand is synonymous world-wide with the original American art form known as country and bluegrass music and Cumberland Caverns is world-famous as one of the world’s largest and family-friendliest show caves. Bluegrass Underground is proud to emanate from such a magical venue as Cumberland Caverns and proud to be heard on the legend, 650 WSM.”

“Cumberland Caverns is proud to be making musical history here in the hills of Tennessee” stated Teddy Jones, Marketing Manager for Cumberland Caverns. “As far as we know, nothing of this nature has been done in any cave, anywhere.” A registered US National Natural Landmark, Cumberland Caverns receives thousands of visitors from across the US and around the world year-round. First discovered in 1810, the caverns is Tennessee’s largest show cave and offers daily walking tours, spelunking adventure trips, and overnight camping in the cave.


Getting There

Bluegrass Underground is taped once a month and tickets can be purchased at the website, www.bluegrassundergound.com. The first Bluegrass Underground concert will be held Saturday, August 16 from 4:00 – 6:00 PM with The Steel Drivers. The Grascals will follow on Saturday, September 27 from 2:00 – 4:00 PM.

Bluegrass Underground can be heard on 650 WSM on the last Friday night of each month, starting in August, beginning at midnight.

World famous Cumberland Caverns is located in the heart of Middle Tennessee, centrally located between Nashville, Chattanooga and Knoxville. The cave is just off of Hwy. 8, six miles southeast of McMinnville via us hwy 70S between Nashville and Knoxville or via hwy 55 from I-24 at Manchester between Nashville and Chattanooga.


Contacts

Teddy Jones, Cumberland Caverns teddyj@cumberlandcaverns.com, 931-668-4396

Todd Mayo, Mayo Gossett, josephtoddmayo@gmail.com, 615-386-7133

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