NOTICE: Due to an illness in the band, The Greencards have been replaced for today's episode of Bluegrass Underground by The Farewell Drifters. The line-up of The Farewell Drafters, Mike Farris and the McCrary Sisters and The John Cowan Band will begin at 1pm.

Banjoist J.D. Crowe was one of the most influential progressive bluegrass musicians of the '70s. Initially influenced by Earl Scruggs, as well as rock & roll and the blues, Crowe worked his way through several bands during the '60s, developing a distinctive instrumental style that melded country, bluegrass, rock, and blues. Crowe didn't receive national exposure until the early '70s when he formed the New South, but after the release of the band's eponymous debut in 1972 he became a fixture on the bluegrass scene for the next 20 years.

Born and raised in Lexington, KY, Crowe picked up the banjo when he was 13 years old, inspired by one of Flatt & Scruggs' performances on the Kentucky Barn Dance. After that show, he regularly attended the duo's performances, sitting down in the front row to study Scruggs' revolutionary picking. Soon, Crowe was playing with various groups in Kentucky, including an outfit that also featured Curley Parker and Pee Wee Lambert. The young banjo player frequently played on local radio stations, and that is where he got his first major break in 1956. Jimmy Martin was driving through Lexington when he heard Crowe on the radio station, and was so impressed with what he heard that he drove to the station and asked him to join his band, the Sunny Mountain Boys. Crowe immediately accepted and began touring with Martin. While he was in the Sunny Mountain Boys, Crowe didn't stick to a strict bluegrass set list -- he often added rock & roll songs to his repertoire.

The unique and entertaining musical journey of Williams & Clark Expedition blends tight vocal harmonies, white-hot picking, and side-splitting humor into a fast paced, non-stop, crowd-pleasing show! One of the fantastic surprises of this veteran group of musicians is the original songs and fresh sounds combined with old-school traditional spirit. Critically acclaimed master musicians and singers, trained by the forefathers of bluegrass and the legends of the Grand Ole Opry, have forged into a very special musical experience!

Those Darlins
Those Darlins are a pop group, if they are any one thing, which doesn’t mean anybody with ears can’t hear the country and rock ‘n’ roll in their sound and stance. Or maybe this trio of young women, who live a long stone’s throw from Nashville, Tennessee in the college town of Murfreesboro, are punks straight out of London or Cleveland, 1977.
Informed by Nashville and its intersecting indie, pop, and country scenes—and aware of the twisted tradition of Appalachian roots music that stretches back beyond the Carter Family, Those Darlins are, nevertheless, not of Nashville. They write their own songs, record in New York City with producer Jeff Curtin (whose credits include Vampire Weekend’s debut), and talk convincingly about female empowerment, music history, and egalitarian ideals of performance and business. And, in practice, they are rockers. In the backyard of their shared suburban house—which is littered with musical instruments and cast-off whiskey bottles, they stick wires in the spindle holes of old LPs, hang them from the magnolia tree, and shoot them with BB guns. They’re good shots.

The musicians in question are Kelley Darlin, the group’s bassist, Jessi Darlin, who plays guitar, and Nikki Darlin, on baritone ukulele. Everyone sings. Everyone writes.
Kelley, who hails from South Carolina and started playing music at an early age, founded the Southern Girls Rock & Roll Camp in Murfreesboro, after volunteering at the original GRRC in Portland, Oregon. Jessi, a Kentucky girl whose parents were artists and fostered her musical aspirations, was one of the original participants in SGRRC and met Kelley there. Eventually, they hooked up with Virginia native Nikki, whose father played classic rock in bands, frequently covering material such as Jerry Irby’s honky-tonk classic “Drivin’ Nails in My Coffin.”

Those Darlins went live in 2006; the ladies lined up side-by-side on stage and just let it rip. The band attracted immediate attention for their rowdy, cheerfully sarcastic, and sometimes booze-fueled live show and the unique interplay of their distinct personalities.

Since then, Those Darlins have been engaged in the time-honored practice of extensive touring, rock ‘n’ roll-style. 2008 saw them perform with Boss Hog, Ida Maria, O’Death, Deer Tick and Heartless Bastards, and 2009 got under way with a headlining tour that garnished a New York Times Pick, a Boston Globe “Band to Break in ‘09″ nod, and coverage in Bust and American Songwriter. Most recently, they accompanied garage-blues conceptualist Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys) a nationwide ten-city jaunt, capping off the trip with an explosive buzz-band debut at South by Southwest.

They’ve charmed audiences all over the country and, in return, have gotten the kind of press befitting a powerhouse phenomenon. Pitchfork’s, Amy Granzin praised their “nimble rockabilly swing.” Writing about one of the Darlins’ seven raucous, confident performances at SxSW, Billboard’s Bill Werde dubbed them “Best Band I Didn’t Really Know Before I Got to SXSW,” and went on to describe them as “Patsy Cline for the punk era,” and in the New York Times, veteran journalist David Carr reported, “In a world of emo-boys and reluctant band leaders, Those Darlins, country-punk pals from Murfreesboro, Tenn., had a comically leering sexuality and the kind of abandon that seems scarce these days.” Paste and USA Today, among others, listed the Darlins among their favorites of the entire festival.

Whether or not they’re the embodiment of Patsy Cline, or the latest in a series of rockabilly acolytes intent on reinventing rock ‘n’ roll, they’re absolutely not reluctant on any level. With their ease on stage, they’re in charge all the way. In the studio, they’ve come up with the kind of debut that marks territory and jumps the fence of mere genre.

In the great rock tradition, their debut album is self-titled and self-penned. Those Darlins was cut at Curtin’s Brooklyn studio, Treefort, and his basement studio, 222 (also home to Pitchfork TV’s “Juan’s Basement”). It gives new life to crowd-pleasers they’ve perfected over the last three years, like “The Whole Damn Thing,” “Wild One” and “Snaggletooth Mama.”

When it comes to their music, what results from Those Darlins’ combination of unique influences—they mention everything from The Black Lips to Ernest Tubb to Tav Falco as touchstones—is a flair for concise, unforgettable pop tunes and a completely non-doctrinaire take on the more deadpan aspects of hickdom. The Darlins have a genius for catchy titles, and are expertly lay out their ethos in lyrics, reminding the listener that these women are tough, sexy and vulnerable. As New Yorker pop critic Sasha Frere-Jones notes, they deftly balance sweetness and grit… and there most definitely are strings attached. Those Darlins are rock ‘n’ roll at two-and-a-half minutes, minimalists to be reckoned with.

The band makes a good joke out of rural isolation and provincial idiocy in a way that goes well beyond ironic - proof the ladies can’t be pegged as indie. But what makes their songs exceptionally compelling is the reality principle to which Those Darlins adhere: Nikki and Jessi spent portions of their childhoods in places without electricity or plumbing, and the Flatwood Mall they write about in “Snaggletooth Mama” is a real place. Those Darlins don’t romanticize poverty or rural life; they understand it.

Those Darlins incorporates everything that has made the quartet (the trio, plus drummer Linwood Regensberg, otherwise known as “Sheriff Lin”) a fresh force. “Red Light Love,” the first single, is about not losing the simplest joys of being in love, complete with distorted guitars and a classic rockin’ bass line. Their version of A.P. Carter’s “Cannonball Blues” throws in backwards guitars straight out of the Beatles’ blue period, while “DUI or Die” is as catchy as Nick Lowe tune: “Better find a boy to take you home for the night,” they alternatively suggest to female drinkers everywhere.

The forthcoming album is grounded in the old-time country they started out emulating, but its public face is pop with interludes, psychedelic guitars, and sly tales of triumph. And their live show is part grit, part glamour. They’re aware of image and flash, of the need for speed and good-humored insurgency. In that regard, they’re more Stiff Records than Carter Family, more pop experimentalists than google-eyed revivalists.

Like their punk predecessors, Those Darlins are partly about screwing around with established forms. This doesn’t make them a girl band—a term to which they seem resigned, but don’t especially embrace. For all that, they’re post-punk in the sense that they come from families that slightly subverted the idea of the American nuclear family. Their music—and their presentation—might not be explicitly feminist, but Those Darlins pay tribute to what Kelley calls “the really strong women in our lives.” Nikki gets typically to the point when she says, “There are fucking tons of dude bands out there and they’re not described as an all-male band.” Spoken like a true rock ‘n’ roller. — EDD HURT
Charlie Louvin
The term “living legend” gets thrown around quite a bit, but it actually applies to Country Music Hall of Famer Charlie Louvin. The magical harmonies and depth of feeling found on Louvin Brothers recordings of the 50’s and 60’s inspired a new generation of musicians, firmly establishing the Louvins’ stature as one of the most influential duos in country music history. In 2006, the Tompkins Square label reached out to Charlie about making his first new studio album in over ten years. They enlisted Mark Nevers, who engineered sessions for many top country artists, and produced Calexico, Lambchop, Candi Staton among others. Guests on the album include Elvis Costello, George Jones, Jeff Tweedy, Will Oldham, Tom T. Hall, Tift Merritt, Marty Stuart, Bobby Bare Sr., David Kilgour, members of Bright Eyes, Lambchop, Clem Snide, Superchunk and more. Louvin enjoyed the experience. “Mark Nevers is one of the best engineers I’ve ever worked with. My brother and I cut our teeth on some of those old songs and they influenced us tremendously. I’m glad we’re able to remind people of them.”Charlie was born July 7, 1927 in Henager, Alabama. He and his older brother Ira worked as field hands on the family farm. In the evening, they would listen to the country hits of the day on their father’s Victrola. Inspired by the tight-harmony duets of The Delmore Brothers, Monroe Brothers and Blue Sky Boys, the brothers began developing a distinctive style called “shape note singing” based on gospel harmonies they had learned in church.The duo nailed down steady work in the 40’s on local radio stations in Knoxville and Memphis. They also toured heavily in Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee during this period. On one swing through Dyess, Arkansas, Charlie remembers an encounter with a teenager named Johnny Cash. “We were playing with Eddie Hill. I was selling tickets and I saw this young man standing outside alone. I asked him to show me where the bathroom was. As we walked back, he noticed I had two soda crackers in my shirt pocket. He asked me why, and I said, ‘To keep from starving to death.’ I invited him in to the show I could tell he didn’t have any money. Years later in his book (Man In Black, 1975), he said he always ate two soda crackers before he went on stage.” Cash also recalls the date in an intro to his version of the Louvin’s “When I Stop Dreaming” on the recent Columbia/Legacy release, Personal File. The Louvins scored their first record deal with Apollo in 1947, released a single on Decca in 1949, and recorded 12 sides for MGM in 1951 and 1952. One of those sessions took place with Hank Williams waiting outside for his turn in the studio. Their recording and performing schedule was sporadic due to Charlie’s military service during the Korean War. Upon his return to the States, they began recording for Capitol Records, which remained their label home until the brothers parted ways in 1963. Marking a shift from gospel to secular material, the Louvins scored their commercial breakthrough in 1955 with the top ten hit “When I Stop Dreaming.” They toured in early 1955 with soon-to-be superstar Elvis Presley as their opening act, and became members of the Grand Ole Opry. From 1955 through 1962, the Louvin Brothers churned out 12 hits on the Billboard country chart, including “I Don’t Believe You’ve Met My Baby,” “You’re Running Wild,” “Cash On The Barrelhead” and “Knoxville Girl.” Although the Louvins hit machine had slowed by the early 60’s, they instead created a string of themed albums, cult favorites that still resonate with today’s alt-country audience, including A Tribute to the Delmore Brothers and Satan Is Real. By 1963, with a shifting marketplace and interpersonal tensions mounting, the Louvin Brothers parted ways. Ira released his lone solo album, The Unforgettable Ira Louvin, in 1964. He died in a car crash in Missouri on June 20, 1965.Charlie’s solo career began in 1964 with the top five hit “I Don’t Love You Anymore,” and he followed it with six Billboard-charting singles from 12 Capitol LPs. By the late 60’s, a renewed interest in the music of the Louvin Brothers began to take shape. The Louvins’ continued legacy is at least partly attributed to Gram Parsons, who, according to legend, paid people to scour LA record shops looking for their out-of-print sides. His versions of Louvins classics “The Christian Life” from the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo, or “Cash on the Barrelhead” from Grevious Angel, serve as the blueprint for so much “alt-country” that was to follow. Emmylou Harris’ first hit was the Louvins’ “If I Could Only Win Your Love.” Uncle Tupelo covered “Great Atomic Power” on their third album, March 16-20, 1992. “The Christian Life” has been worked into The Raconteurs’ live set recently.The Louvin Brothers were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in October 2001. In 2003, Charlie was invited to open on a national tour with Cheap Trick and Cake. That year also saw the release of Livin’, Lovin’ Losin’: Songs of the Louvin Brothers on Universal South, a Louvin Brothers tribute album featuring James Taylor, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, and Johnny Cash among others. The collection went on to win two Grammy Awards in 2004.

You could call it an attraction...a curiosity...an anticipation of surprise and delight.

But there’s a better word to describe what the music of The Greencards inspires.

Fascination.

If you’ve followed this multinational threesome over these past five years, you know the feeling. From their personal histories through the content of their work, grounded in deep musical tradition but elevated by breathtaking technique and conceptual adventurousness, there is ample reason for interest ... for excitement ...

For Fascination.

Now, with their Sugar Hill Records debut, it’s official. Fascination describes the essence of this band. It was, first of all, their fascination with American roots music – bluegrass especially – that drew singer/bassist Carol Young and multiple string-instrument master Kym Warner from Australia, and violinist/violist Eamon McLoughlin from the U.K., to Austin, Texas, where they began performing together, and later to their current home base in Nashville.

That urge to challenge themselves, to test the limits of any established genre, guided them on their first three albums. It kept them focused as they accumulated awards and acclamations, from the Americana Music Award in 2006 for “Emerging Artist of the Year” through tours with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson to last year’s “Best Country Instrumental Performance” Grammy nomination for "Mucky The Duck," a track from Viridian in 2008.

The Two Man Gentleman Band

Hailing from New York City, The Two Man Gentlemen Band combines hot jazz, vintage rhythm & blues, old-time country, and tin pan alley to create a joyous two-man sound that is all their own. Performing with plectrum banjo, guitar, string bass, dueling kazoos, novelty percussion, and a cornet, The Gentlemen whip themselves into a frenzy that is unlike any acoustic duo on the road today. And they belt out original songs that manage to be at once familiar, bizarre, fun, and entirely new.

Please join us in helping to celebrate two birthdays this 4th of July: America and Cumberland Caverns. Cumberland Caverns opened as a show cave on July 4th 1956 and will celebrate it’s 53 rd year while America will celebrate 233 years of being the best country on earth! WSM will broadcast the special edition LIVE from the Volcano Room with Six great artists who represent the best in Bluegrass and Roots music: The John Cowan Band, The Tn Mafia String Band, The Josh Williams Band, Missy Raines and The New Hip, Pokey Lafarge and Christabel and The Jons.

There will be a second stage above ground and all artists will play a set at both stages, below and above ground.

-Tickets are just $30 for both stages and all day
-12 and under tickets are $15
-Kids 5 and under are free
-Free caricature drawings for all kids from Tracy Latham
-A kids play area with games, inflatables, snowcones, cotton candy and more!
-Hourly drawings in the Volcano Room for great prizes

Schedule:

Volcano Room
12p-12:45: Christabel and The Jons
1pm-1:45: Pokey Lafarge
2-2:45: Missy Raines and The New Hip
3-3:45: Tn Mafia Jug Band
4-4:45: Josh Williams Band
5-5:45: John Cowan Band

Amphitheatre
12-12:45: Tn Mafia Jug Band
1-1:45: Josh Williams Band
2-2:45: John Cowan Band
3-3:45: Christabel and The Jons
4-4:45 Pokey Lafarge
5-5:45 Missy Raines and The New Hip

This show has moved from June 27th to June the 6th. Please note.
Until April of 1999, the dynamic family band known as Cherryholmes did not exist, and half of its youthful members hadn't even picked up an instrument. In five short years, this high-energy Nashville-based band was named 2005 IBMA's Entertainers of the Year.

Cherryholmes has many qualities that make them unique, but the basis of their success lies in plain, old-fashioned hard work combined with shining star talent that only appears to glow more brightly with each performance. They embody the American Bluegrass dream.

All six band members pull their creative ideas to form their own new brand of bluegrass music. Every member takes a turn singing lead and showcasing their abilities. Their live shows include twin fiddles, Irish step dancing, classic country yodeling, and old-time claw hammer in addition to their dynamic bluegrass.

They have continued to receive many industry nominations and awards- including a Grammy nomination in 2006 for their first commercial release "Cherryholmes". Their second release on Skaggs Family Records "Cherryholmes ll" was released in June 2007 and opened up at #1 on the BillBoard Charts. Cherryholmes have also become regular performers on the historic Grand Ole Opry.

The band leader, Jere, sums the band up this way , "People say that bluegrass music has to change or evolve or it will die. Well, if you change something from one thing to another it isn't alive anyway. I don't really think it needs to be changed. It just needs new life breathed into it. I feel like maybe I'm offerring that with my family."

CherryHolmes.com

Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper

Award-winning fiddler Michael Cleveland brings dynamic traditional bluegrass to the stage with his band, Flamekeeper, in a show that will leave the audience talking. A five-time winner of the International Bluegrass Music Association's Fiddle Player of the Year award, Mike and his talented band present a program of tight vocal trios and duos, blistering instrumentals, and fiddle-and-banjo duets that echo the first-generation stars of bluegrass. The show is rounded out with Mike's dry wit and the band's sense of fun.

Success for ‘Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out’ was nearly an overnight occurrence for this group after its forming in 1991. Led by the International Bluegrass Music Association's (IBMA) 2-time "Male Vocalist Of The Year", Russell Moore, IIIrd Tyme Out, consisting of Moore (guitar), Steve Dilling (banjo), Justen Haynes (fiddle), Wayne Benson (mandolin), and Edgar Loudermilk (bass), has walked away with IBMA's "Vocal Group Of The Year" award 7 consecutive years. All in all, the band has garnered 50 industry awards since their inception in 1991. Their a cappella renditions of many songs, featuring one of the most respected lead vocalists of all time, can rarely be matched and their superb instrumentation, from some of the best musicians in the business, provides even more quality sound to their rich vocal blend.

Donna Ulisse

Country music fans remember Donna Ulisse from her time as a traditional country artist on Atlantic Records in the 1990’s with national television appearances on “Hee Haw”, NBC’s “Hot Country Nights”, “Nashville Now” and “Crook and Chase. Bluegrass fans are getting to know her for her songwriter driven brand of bluegrass, often called “bluegrass without borders” after enthusiastically receiving her 2007 release “When I Look Back” as well as her current release “Walk This Mountain Down”, both produced by guitarist Keith Sewell and both self-penned collections of songs. “Walk This Mountain Down” is currently in the top 30 of the Americana Music chart. Ulisse’s show with her band The Poor Mountain Boys offers the audience a unique insight into the stories behind many of the songs she has written as well as some great picking.

The Steep Canyon Rangers’ deep dedication to bluegrass is heard in every note they play. But it’s the band’s amazing songwriting talent that makes them truly exceptional. With a sound firmly rooted in bluegrass tradition, their ability to draw musical elements from hardcore honky-tonk, classic country and blues sets them apart from the rest of the pack.

SteepCanyon.com

Barry Scott and Second Wind is a Bluegrass Gospel group based out of the hills of northern Georgia. God has been generous towards Barry's musical experience and talent. He has played and sung with some of the best bluegrass and gospel singers over the past two decades of his life.

After nine years with Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Barry felt the Lord was leading him towards a new direction in his musical career. Second Wind was formed with the purpose of telling the world about God's wonders. They are a high-spirited and entertaining group of men that you will enjoy in your church as much as you would enjoy at your bluegrass festival.
Please check out our website for more info and complete schedule.

BarryScottOnline.com

The Traveling McCourys

Ron McCoury on mandolin, Rob McCoury on banjo, Jason Carter on fiddle, and Alan Bartram on bass , with featured guests on guitar and vocals, is the latest incarnation of the most awarded band in the history of bluegrass -The Del McCoury Band. Known for their individual prowess on their instruments and their rapidly expanding reputation as collaborators with the members of numerous musical icons from Vince Gill to the Allman Brothers and Phish, this touring unit blends the best of the Appalachian tradition with the improvisational magic of jazz. Unique live collaborations are the hallmark of their performances, and demonstrates why critics and musicians across the country hail them as the best bluegrass band in the world.

Visit The Travelin' McCourys on MySpace

Ronnie Bowman

As a songwriter Ronnie Bowman has earned a great deal of respect not only among Bluegrass professionals, but also in Country Music. Both Brooks & Dunn, and Kenny Chesney have brought Ronnie Bowman originals to #1, and Lee Ann Womack also included a song by Ronnie on the multiplatinum selling album “I hope you Dance”. Ronnie Bowman has achieved remarkable heights in his musical career as an award-winning
Bluegrass songwriter and vocalist, and a respected, successful writer in Country music. Continuing to play the festivals that endear him to the music he loves, (and has contributed so much to over the years) remains an important focal point for him.

Visit Ronnie Bowman at myspace.com/ronniebow