Bluegrass Underground, the concert series that has welcomed guests from Del McCoury to Lucinda Williams to Widespread Panic for subterranean concerts within Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville, Tenn., is about to get new digs beneath Monteagle Mountain.
Todd Mayo, creator and executive producer of the PBS music series, says he’s found a new permanent home in The Caverns. Besides the natural acoustics it provides, the new venue will accommodate a larger audience in response to increasing demand for tickets to Bluegrass Underground and for other live music concerts across expanding genres.
“This is a dream come true to find a cave system that expands and improves the live and televised musical experiences of underground performances we have been curating since 2008,” Mayo said in a news release. “Our new home at The Caverns will enable us to add infrastructure with permanent power, professional audio and lighting with enhanced food and beverage concessions that have never before been possible, including a longtime request from our patrons: cold beer.”
The Caverns’ enhancements will greatly benefit the PBS experience as well, said television producer Todd Jarrell.
“In the past, we taped the entire 12-episode season over one weekend due to the difficulty and expense of bringing literally tons of cabling and show gear a quarter-mile into the cave,” Jarrell said. “But The Caverns’ permanent infrastructure presents us the flexibility to match calendars with some of the world’s greatest performers, enticing them underground to offer our fans a ‘deep down’ lifetime experience throughout the year.”