The bluegrass band 18 South kicks off the performance series, which is taped in Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville, Tenn.
Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder perform.
Singer-songwriter Will Hoge performs.
Mike Farris and the McCrary Sisters perform.
Cherryholmes perform.
Singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle performs.
Mountain Heart perform.
Singer-songwriter Darrell Scott performs.
The John Cowan Band performs.
The Farewell Drifters perform.
Monte Montgomery performs.
The Season 1 finale features highlights from the season, including performances by Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder; Mike Farris and the McCrary Sisters; the John Cowan Band; Cherryholmes; and Will Hoge.
From multiple Grammy wins to The Hunger Games' soundtrack, 2012 is a breakout year for The Civil Wars. Intricately woven phrasing and airtight harmonies mark the minimalist duo's powerfully ballads and astonishingly frank songs on the paradoxical nature of love.
The thirteen time Grammy winner plays the dobro with unprecedented speed and haunting lyricism. Douglas is one of Nashville's most in-demand session players and is a longtime featured member of Alison Krauss & Union Station.
Singer-songwriter Sarah Jarosz performs.
Jim Lauderdale performs.
Raised on show business in a family band, David Mayfield made his name with award-winning progressive bluegrass group Cadillac Sky. The singer/guitarist mixes acoustic-alternative and cutting-edge Americana with great showmanship.
Singer/mandolinist Doyle Lawson and his band perform progressive bluegrass and compelling a cappella Gospel.
Americana pioneer Miller and his band, the Commonwealth, perform songs with a bluegrass and edgy mountain tinge.
The Timejumpers, a western-swing band whose members include Vince Gill, perform.
The Vespers perform.
Grammy-winning singer/guitarist Del McCoury and his band perform the "High Lonesome" sound and also explore new musical frontiers.
Country star and multiple Grammy winner Vince Gill, known for his razor-sharp instrumental skills, expressive tenor voice, richly varied songwriting, and superb choice of backup musicians, performs honky tonk ballads, bluegrass, and country rock.
The Black Lillies perform in the Sesaon 2 finale.
Season 3 kicks off with Old Crow Medicine Show.
Singer-violinist Andrew Bird performs; and is joined by singer-songwriter Tift Merritt.
Infamous Stringdusters perform.
The folk-pop duo Johnnyswim perform.
Yonder Mountain String Band, a Colorado-based bluegrass group, perform.
Ben Sollee, a singer-songwriter and cellist, performs.
The Steeldrivers perform.
BeauSoleil, a Cajun-zydeco band, perform.
Leon Russell performs.
North Mississippi Allstars perform.
The Wood Brothers perform.
The Season 3 finale features the Alison Brown Quartet.
Widespread Panic blends Southern rock, blues-rock, funk and hard rock in an online acoustic show.
Grammy-winning American bluegrass group Steep Canyon Rangers.
Cellist Dave Eggar and singer Amy Lee perform; dance troupe Hammerstep mixes traditional Irish step dance with hip-hop and tap.
Singer-songwriter Jason Isbell and his band perform original Americana music.
David Grisman, a founder of newgrass and new acoustic music, performs with his jazz trio.
Singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams blends country, blues, folk and rock and roll.
The Gibson Brothers, International Bluegrass Association's 2013 Entertainer of the Year.
The frontwoman and the band sing through multiple generations and genres of New Orleans grooves.
Keller Williams joins the Travelin' McCourys in a collaboration of jazz and alternative rock.
Married duo Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent mix folk-rock with roots-based ballads.
Folk-rock singer-songwriter Hayes Carll.
Michael Martin Murphey blends folk, country-rock, pop and Western music.
Singer-songwriter Chip Taylor's music has been covered by many different artists.
The bluegrass/jazz great is joined by his wife on clawhammer banjo.
The Michigan-based Americana group Greensky Bluegrass performs.
Texas troubadour Robert Earl Keen performs.
The hot bluegrass band of the 1970-1992 have reunited with a new guitar player but the same great sound.
Country singer-songwriter Billy Joe Shaver performs.
Chatham County Line perform.
The Quebe Sisters, a western swing group, perform.
Railroad Earth, an Americana-based jam band, perform.
Savor the Underground debut of a group that personifies “Americana”: Guitarist-singer-songwriter Rawlings with Gillian Welch, Punch Brothers bassist Paul Kowert, fiddler Brittany Haas and former Old Crow Medicine Show guitarist Willie Watson.
Welcome these relative newcomers, a 10-piece band fresh out of Houston and fronted by the massive-voiced singer Kam Franklin and influenced by classic rock 'n' roll, country, Latin and southern hip-hop as much as Stax/Volt or Muscle Shoals era.
Join monster mandolinist (and chef) Frank Solivan and his band, Dirty Kitchen, whose sturdy matrix of bluegrass veined with jazz, blues, country and jam band delivers on their main rule: “No filler.”
Hurray for the Riff Raff - with Alynda Lee Segarra, who hopped freight trains across America before settling in sultry New Orleans - promises to turn the Volcano Room into the French Quarter with a high-energy, funky, folky N'Awlins groove.
Enjoy a set by this Mississippi-raised musical force of nature-a Grammy winner, eight-time CMA Musician of the Year, soulful singer, hit songwriter and Muscle Shoals session musician who boasts a following of fans devoted to the art of the song.
Described as a mash-up of jam band, blues, funk, soul and Southern rock, the songs of JJ Grey, the "North Florida sage and soul-bent swamp rocker," reflect the area around Jacksonville, where he was raised.
Hear the Cox family, who contributed several songs to the soundtrack of O Brother, Where Art Thou?-the best-selling roots music album of all time. They returned to the national music scene recently with their first album in almost 20 years.
As his wife recovered from an accident that nearly paralyzed her, The Lone Bellow was born as a creative outlet for singer Zach Williams. Now a thriving part of Brooklyn’s Americana scene, The Lone Bellow Roots-folk-rock trio was recently nominated for Americana Duo/Group Of The Year.
Rolling Stone magazine explained veteran rockers DNC thusly, “Crunching hard rock is the Drivin’ part. Brittle country-ish balladry.” Hailing from Atlanta, GA, Kevn Kinney and Drivin’ N Cryin’ have for 30 years offered die-hard fans a blend that arcs from intimate acoustic folk to soaring (and searing) guitar-laden southern rock.
The Tennessee mandolin prodigy is all grown up and comes to Bluegrass Underground fresh from releasing her third solo album, the jaw-dropping, Bela Fleck-produced Weighted Mind. Of her, Fleck notes, “She plays the mandolin with a degree of refined elegance and freedom that few have achieved Her vocals and songwriting matured to the level of her virtuosity.”
Seemingly born fully formed in 2012, this Birmingham, Alabama Soul band’s career hit the ground as big and strong as their sweat-soaked, seven-piece Soul-Funk sound, earning major raves from major media, including Paste magazine, Garden and Gun, Southern Living, Rolling Stone and NPR.
Led by Illinois native Jason Ringenberg, the Scorchers crashed out of Nashville and began smashing down the walls between genres with their own brawling brand of country-rock almost 35 years ago. As trailblazers for the cowpunk and alt-rock bands that would follow, Jason and the Scorchers have received the Americana Music Association's Lifetime Achievement Award.
Enjoy the irresistible Cuban groove of the genre-leaping Grammy-winners fronted by the transcendent vocals of Raul Malo. The band has won awards from the Academy of Country Music, the Country Music Association and the Americana Music Association.
Listen to the group variously described as blues-rock, jamband and acid-Americana. Rolling Stone described their sound as “electrifying…boast[ing] a vintage rock vibe that’s at once quirky, trippy, soulful and downright magnetic.”
Hear a Georgia-born, internationally acclaimed band that defines the drive and precision of top shelf bluegrass. Celebrating their 25th anniversary, the group is a top pick on Amazon.com and a favorite of discerning bluegrass fans everywhere.
Tune in for a set from a singer-songwriter who traveled from the Land Down Under to Tennessee’s “Show Down Under.” From a well-known producing/performing musical family, Chambers is one of Australia's most successful and celebrated country artists.
Don’t miss this performance by the five-time Grammy-winner. With a bio that boasts stints with Lester Flatt and Johnny Cash, Stuart is unsurpassed as a rhinestone showman and folk philosopher who has proudly remained to country.
Enjoy a performance by a singer-songwriter deemed one of Nashville’s hottest new country roots artists. Winner of Americana’s 2016 Album of the Year, Millsap performs on guitar, harmonica and slide guitar.
Tune in for a performance by the “Queen of Bluegrass," who tours with her band, The Rage, earning accolades for her mastery of the progressive chord structures and multi-range, fast-paced vocals intrinsic to bluegrass.
Hear a set from a progressive singer/songwriter who has sung with numerous bands, including the Monsters of Folk supergroup. His songs of insight, detail and political awareness have earned him a large and devoted following.
The word “soul” has powerful resonance – musically, culturally and spiritually. No contemporary band embodies the power of Soul more than the Bo-Keys, made up of session musicians from historic Stax and Hi Records studio bands including drummer Howard Grimes, organist Archie “Hubby” Turner, singer Percy Wiggins, Grammy-nominated bassist Scott Bomar, and trumpeter Ben Cauley.
Hailing from the dual musical poles of Memphis and East Nashville, this band has toured extensively with such diverse artists as The Avett Brothers, Ryan Adams, Los Lobos, and Susan Tedeschi and now regularly sell out Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium. The band was first seen nationally on PBS’ series, Legends and Lyrics.
Nashville born and raised, the McCrary Sisters are the daughters of the late Rev. Sam McCrary, one-time preeminent leader of the Fairfield Four gospel quartet. Raised on harmony, these four siblings form one of the world’s premier gospel quartets in their own right.
This high energy, multi-genre band blasted out of Princeton, N.J. atop the furious harmonica riffs of frontman John Popper. Testing skills in blues, reggae, folk, hip-hop, soul, and southern rock, the band in the end emerged as key players among the growing and loyal Jamband audiences. The Grammy-winning band is also known for its Top 40 hits such as Hook and Run-Around.
Reaction to Billy Strings come in two varieties: “Who is this guy?” and “That kid can play!” Strings won IBMA 2016 Momentum Awards Instrumentalist of the Year (for guitar, banjo and mandolin) and was voted #1 in The Bluegrass Situation’s Top 16 of 16. Michigan-raised from a long line of players, Billy Strings is a phenomenon whose articulation and entire approach is totally authentic.
With a distinct "indie folk grit," Berklee-trained Tasjan has always considered himself a songwriter first even as he built creds with glam-rockers New York Dolls, southern rockers Drivin’ N Cryin’, arena rockers Semi Precious Weapons and British rockers Alberta Cross. Imbued with wry wit, a sharp tongue and a lot of heart, his songs harken John Prine, Tom Petty, Guy Clark, and Steve Goodman, solidifying him as one of the most intriguing songwriters to emerge in some time.
Raised on a Kentucky farm, The Father of Newgrass and King of Telluride has long since established himself as roots royalty, soaking up honors such as an Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award, three Grammys, and multiple International Bluegrass Music Association trophies. After a lifetime of channeling energy toward jazz, folk, blues, reggae, country swing, and bluegrass, Bush still strives relentlessly to create something new.
This gifted septet conquers every stage they play. Songs penned in English, Spanish and French have led to tours in Venezuela, Canada, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Russia, France, China and Portugal. Traditional Latin rhythms, Classical influences and American Roots-Rock sensibilities offer a fresh, truly singular approach perhaps best described as “Pan Americana.”
With multiple awards from both Grammy and IBMA, this singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist grew up singing in church and in school, becoming a lifelong devotee of Old Time and Bluegrass music. First touring nationally in the 1980’s with Colorado Bluegrass band Hot Rize, O’Brien’s range over original compositions and traditional arrangements.
Formed in 1992, Lettuce was founded on a shared love of funk artists like Earth, Wind & Fire and Tower of Power. Lettuce brilliantly infuses their psychedelic/hip-hop sensibilities to bring a refreshing vitality to classic funk. Their tight sense of unity springs from a camaraderie that's only intensified over the lifespan of the band, deepening a sonic freedom with the infectious energy of an incendiary live show.
With two Grammys and 15 Top 10 singles on the Billboard charts, Mattea is a storied Nashville singer/songwriter. A genuine storyteller drawing on Appalachian roots, hers are classics infused with Bluegrass, Gospel and Celtic influences. Mattea pulls an acoustic eclectic set in duo long-time collaborator Bill Cooley featuring new material mixed with her extensive and decades-deep archive.
Rev. Sekou's music offers a searing blend of North Mississippi Hill Country Music, Arkansas Delta Blues, Memphis Soul and Pentecostal steel guitar. AFROPUNK heralded the ”deep bone-marrow-level conviction” of his first album, which contained the single, “The Revolution Has Come.” The St. Louis Post-Dispatch dubbed the song as the new anthem for the modern Civil Rights movement.
Borrowing their name from the Indian Nation Turnpike that connected the more obscure dots of the Sooner state where they cut their artistic teeth, the Troubadours have honed a rowdy, quick-witted sound that’s brought together folks of all stripes. With a raw-boned energy and a knack for capturing slices of life in vivid detail, the band has evolved from acoustic explorations of Townes Van Zandt and Jerry Jeff Walker to full-throttle roadhouse country twang-tinged with a certain punk attitude hanging over from the band’s early years.
Hailing from New Orleans, Gauthier wrote her first song at the age of 35. Since, her extraordinarily confessional songs have garnered "New Artist of the Year" by The Americana Music Association and landed on Top 10 lists of the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Daily News, No Depression, and Billboard Magazine. Her latest release, "Rifles and Rosary Beads" ("Thirty Tigers"), includes songs co-written with and for wounded veterans, all co-written as part of Darden Smith's SongwritingWith:Soldiers program.
Debuting in 2013, this band is a musical force with Grand Ole Opry appearances, Billboard charting albums, and three top IBMA honors in 2016, Vocal Group, Song, Album of the Year, and Vocal Group for 2017. Digging into a well of emotion, expressive instrumentals, sophisticated writing and inventive arrangements, Flatt Lonesome continues to raise the bar of their own fiercely creative game.
Self taught, Washington-raised and Grammy nominated for Americana Album of the Year, Carlile’s style has revolved around several genres, including pop, rock, alternative country, and folk with songs serving as personal stories of parents and childhood, of divorces and religion, of marriage and having children, and of love and of loss.
Ten-time IBMA Fiddler of the Year Award and one of the premier musicians of his generation. Originally trained in the classical Suzuki method, Cleveland’s blistering technical fluency pairs amazingly with Flamekeeper's tight harmonies and jaw dropping instrumental trades, finding balance between Bluegrass founding fathers and breaking new ground.
Truly iconic, profoundly influential, and a catalyst for an entire movement in country rock and American roots music, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, continues to add to their legendary status. With multi-platinum and gold records, strings of Top 10 hits, multiple Grammy, IBMA, CMA Awards, the band's accolades continue to accumulate.
Singer-songwriter and violinist, road warrior, and recently minted MFA in creative writing, Amanda Shires cuts her own genre blended roots-rock with fierce-sweet violin, soaring vocals and critically acclaimed compositions. Shires was Americana’s 2017 Emerging Artist of the Year and won for Best Americana Album with husband Jason Isbell’s band, The 400 Unit.
Nashville-based singer-songwriting bluesman and four-time Grammy Award winner, Keb’ Mo’ has been described as "a living link to the seminal Delta blues that traveled up the Mississippi River and across the expanse of America." A musical force defying typical genre labels, Mo’s post-modern blues style harkens many eras and genres, including folk, rock, jazz, pop and country.
Ritter is a vocalist, musician, New York Times best-selling author, painter, and consummate live performer - a true artist. Best known for his distinctive Americana style and narrative lyrics, Josh Ritter is — two decades into a storied career — unafraid of growing, changing and constantly challenging then estimable, earlier versions of himself. Josh Ritter, it seems, may just be getting started.
Lucero’s first gig in Memphis was for a crowd of six. But for a band with a 20-year string of successes and aural iterations, who carried the alt-country torch back in the '90s and helped pave the way for “Americana,” Lucero have returned to what inspired them in the first place. They tour behind a streamlined sound honoring their seminal southern and rock influences.
Two talented boys from a working class Maryland family, the Brothers Osborne bring us a “twang-and-crunch,” equal parts country and rock into one of the freshest, most identifiable sounds to come out of Nashville in recent years. Five-time Grammy nominees, The Brothers Osborne reign as back-to-back ACM Vocal Duo of the Year Awards as well as the two-time CMA Vocal Duo of the Year.
This native of South Africa who as a child moved to the U.S. is now a fiercely independent, DIY musician based in Boulder, CO. Influenced from a young age by Leonard Cohen, Kelly Joe Phelps and Bruce Springsteen, Isakov strikes that “balance of space and instrumentation,” with lush flourishes: twirling strings, a loping banjo, ghostly pedal steel, solid yet restrained percussion.
Producer, author, activist, actor, singer-songwriter. A master musician and writer’s writer in the vein of Townes van Zandt and Guy Clark, his work has carried a profound affect on the Americana, country, rock, and folk genres for nearly two generations. There is, frankly, no one quite like Steve Earle.
Lauren Morrow, once the crown jewel of The Whiskey Gentry, with her broad vocal range and sweet Georgia drawl, is here to tell you a story. Morrow’s songs chronicle the decades of life, some real, some fiction, all universal and yet personal. Whether crooning a murder ballad or belting out a vintage country banger, her talent is a unique impression that lingers.
This gifted Irish songwriter, vocalist and guitarist for The Frames is known for his acting in the "The Commitments" and "Once," which earned him an Academy Award for Best Song, the Sundance Festival's World Cinema Audience Award, a TONY, and London’s Olivier award for outstanding achievement in music. Hansard brings the heart and soul of the Irish back by a powerful folk-rock horn band.
Vermont-raised and rooted in troubadour traditions of wandering folk, delta blues, reckless rock, and whiskey-ragtime jazz, the California-based band evokes songs from some bygone era like a dusty leather bound book. Carefully crafted, the trio's songs unfold like short stories.
One of Nashville’s enduring musical treasures and a masterful song stylist of many genres, Mandy Barnett highlights her blues and roots music influences, backed by her topnotch band. Barnett takes her cue from the crooning of iconic singers and timeless sounds, wrapping her powerhouse vocals around songs to reach their emotional cores.
Encore performances from previous season show Brandi Carlile performing The Story and The Eye, Sarah Jarosz performing Anabelle Lee and The Wood Brothers performing Honey Jar and One More Day
Encore performances : Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Cosmic Cowboy Mr Bojangles, Old Crow Medicine Show Carry Me Back to Virginia Alabama High Test and Leon Russell Cajun Love Song, Columbus Stockade Blues and Jambalaya.
Encore performances of: previous seasons show Sweet Lizzy Project performing Technicolor and Heaven and The Mavericks performing All Night Long and Dance In The Moonlight
Encore performances of previous seasons: Kathy Mattea: Ode To Billy Joe and Where've You Been, Lauren Morrow: Mess Around and Lucinda Williams: Something Wicked This Way Comes and Get Right With God
Encore performances from previous seasons: Billy Strings performing Dust In A Baggie and Meet Me At The Creek and Widespread Panic performing Tall Boy and Wonderin'
Encore performances from previous season: Keb' Mo' performing Rita, The Suffers performing Dutch and Gwan and St. Paul and The Broken Bones performing Broken Bones and Pocket Change and Call Me
Encore performances: Brothers Osborne: Stay A Little Longer Marty Stuart And His Fabulous Superlatives: Country Boy Rock And Roll and Old Mexico and Vince Gill: Take Your Memory With You, Look At Us and One More Last Chance
Encore Performances: Amanda Shires from Season 9 performs "When You're Gone". From Season 4 it's Davina & The Vagabonds performing "St.Michael Vs.The Devil" and covering Etta James "I'd Rather Go Blind". From Season 4 it's Shovels & Rope with "O' Be Joyful". Finally Kasey Chambers from Season 7 with "Ain't No Little Girl".
Encore performances: Amos Lee: Violin, Mary Gauthier: Rifles And Rosary Beads, Andrew Bird: Danse Caribe and The Lone Bellow: Green Eyes And A Heart Of Gold and Then Came The Morning
Encore performances: Rev. Osagyefo Sekou: The Devil Finds Work and a spiritual medley, Mike Farris and The McCrary Sisters: Can't No Grave Hold Me Down and The McCrary Sisters: I'll Take You There
Encore performances: Steve Earle And The Dukes: Harlan Man and The Firebreak Line, Scott Miller And The Commonwealth: Amtrak Crescent, Drivin' N' Cryin': With The People and Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit: Live Oak and Flying Over Water
Encore performances: Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper, Rhonda Vincent and The Rage, Del McCoury Band, ,Leftover Salmon
Old Crow Medicine Show, Vince Gill, Leeanne Womack, Lucinda Williams, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, others.
Self taught, Seattle-based and Grammy nominated for Americana Album of the Year, Brandi Carlile’s style revolves around pop, rock, alt-country and folk. Her songs serve up personal stories of parents and childhood; of divorce, marriage and religion; of love and of loss. Here are stories of forgiveness, reconciliation, of climbing out of bed every morning open to love.
Join Rhonda Vincent and Jim Lauderdale for a grand celebration of bluegrass with artists Alison Brown, Becky Buller, Dan Tyminski, Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen, Larry Sparks, Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, Missy Raines and Molly Tuttle.
Come along as we take you to the new home of Bluegrass Underground, The Caverns, on a behind-the-scenes tour from when the subterranean amphitheater was first purchased. The musical adventure series features both long-established and emerging artists within a broad spectrum of genres including roots-rock, jam band, R&B, country, soul, folk, Americana and bluegrass.
