New Series To Premier Nationwide this Fall 

PBS On Board For Musical Adventure

NASHVILLE, TN. – March 5th, 2011 – Organizers of the acclaimed radio-concert series BLUEGRASS UNDERGROUND today announced a television partnership with PBS to bring the unique “musical adventure” series to national audiences. The series will air the first of 12 episodes beginning in mid-September, 2011. BLUEGRASS UNDERGROUND is taped inside the Volcano Room, deep within Cumberland Caverns near McMinnville, TN.

The BLUEGRASS UNDERGROUND concert series has aired weekly since 2008 on country music’s flagship radio station, 650 WSM-AM and in syndication. But now a partnership of BLUEGRASS UNDERGROUND creator Todd Mayo’s Loblolly Ventures, WCTE-DTV (PBS), and Emmy award-winning producer Todd Jarrell has developed the series for national distribution on PBS.

 “The goal for BLUEGRASS UNDERGROUND television has always been a national slot on PBS and we’re pleased that PBS is as excited as we are about the series. BLUEGRASS UNDERGROUND presents the two best cultural exports of Tennessee:  our rich, musical culture and our abiding natural beauty,” says event creator Todd Mayo, president of Loblolly Ventures. “The majestic quality of the cave and the diverse authenticity of the musicians who comprise Season One combine to make this series an immersive musical adventure.”

 As Mayo puts it, this series is, “A little bit Bluegrass, a little bit Underground,” as performing artists run the spectrum of Bluegrass-Americana-Roots music including Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Darrell Scott, 18 South, Mike Farris and The McCrary Sisters, Cherryholmes, Justin Townes Earle, Mountain Heart, Will Hoge, John Cowan, Monte Montgomery and The Farewell Drifters.

 This exciting and eclectic live concert series is recorded live to tape in High Definition by Cookeville’s PBS member station WCTE-DTV. Audio is rendered in 5.1 Surround Sound by Hugh Johnson, who also serves as Vince Gill’s audio engineer. Concert lighting is designed by Allen Branton, whose clients have include the recent Hope for Haiti special, as well as Michael Jackson, U2, Madonna, The Who, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys and many more. Directing is Jim Yockey, whose television career in live music events includes work with Frank Sinatra, Alan Jackson, Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris and the Judds, to name just a few.

 For Todd Jarrell, producer for BLUEGRASS UNDERGROUND television, this combination of creative talent promises audiences,  “a full-on presentation of one of the most visually amazing and acoustically true venues there is—bar none.” Together, Jarrell and WCTE (Cookeville, TN-PBS) have collaborated to present Jarrell’s award-winning films onto the national PBS system including the TREE SAFARI series, CRANK: Darkness on the Edge of Town, and TUBA U: Basso Profundo.

 ”We are so proud to be presenting BLUEGRASS UNDERGROUND,” says WCTE CEO Becky Magura. “This program will be a tremendous asset and a welcome addition to WCTE’s current musical offerings such as JAMMIN’ AT HIPPIE JACK’S, the Bryon Symphony Orchestra’s BACKSTAGE series and the annual SMITHVILLE JAMBOREE.”

 In announcing that Underwriters of the television series will include the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, Nissan and The City of McMinnville, Producer Todd Jarrell adds, “When they say on PBS that ‘This program has been made possible by…,’ it is literally quite true. We could not produce this series without our sponsors support and to them we are truly grateful.”

 Discovered in 1810, the 32-mile long Cumberland Caverns system is a registered U.S. National Natural Landmark, attracting thousands of visitors from around the world each year. The subterranean descent takes visitors past an underground pool and waterfall to the 500-seat natural amphitheatre carved by water over 3.5 million years. The Volcano Room lies about 600 feet inside the main opening of the cavern.

 While touring the cavern during a family vacation, Mayo was struck by the value of the Volcano Room as a top music venue.  He and wife Jen formed their production company, Loblolly Ventures, and BLUEGRASS UNDERGROUND was born.

 Mayo took his cavern-recorded music program to WSM AM 650, the most consequential and influential broadcaster in the history of country music and an icon of Nashville. WSM wisely scheduled BLUEGRASS UNDERGROUND to air on Saturday evenings just prior to the Grand Ole Opry, the longest-running show in broadcasting and a landmark of American culture.

BLUEGRASS UNDERGROUND tickets are available in advance or at the event.  Upcoming shows include Ralph Stanley on March 12^th and Emmitt-Nershi Band on April 23^rd.

RALPH STANLEY COMING TO BLUEGRASS UNDERGROUND MARCH 12

“I’ve just seen the Rock of Ages, Jacob’s Ladder  hanging down.” Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys; “I’ve Just Seen the Rock of Ages” recorded in 1977.

 March 12, bluegrass music’s own Rock of Ages comes to Bluegrass Underground. Dr, Ralph Stanley, the last surviving leader of the original four bands that formed the cornerstones of bluegrass’ first generation, will make his debut at Cumberland Caverns.

In 1946, Dr. Ralph and his guitar-playing brother Carter were the first band to copy Bill Monroe’s new bluegrass sound. In 1947, they were the first to record Monroe’s signature song, “Molly and Tenbrooks,” scooping the Father of Bluegrass himself (they learned it from a live performance of the original bluegrass band, Monroe, Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Chubby Wise and Howard “Cedric Rainwater” Watts).

That Ralph Stanley is still on the road, still leading his Clinch Mountain Boys 65 years later is amazing. That he is enjoying the widest recognition and greatest popularity of a career that began when Harry Truman was president is a bona fide miracle.

Ralph almost retired when Carter died 45 years ago this year, but he persevered, with an array of lead singers and bandmembers that included Ricky Skaggs, Keith Whitley, Larry Sparks, Charlie Sizemore, Roy Lee Centers, Curly Ray Cline and Jack Cooke. And while, for most of his career, Ralph was best known for his tenor harmony singing and alternating hard-driving bluegrass banjo with old-time clawhammer style, his unlikely crossover success and Country Male Vocal GRAMMY came for his eerie, a cappella solo version of “Oh Death” in the Coen Brothers’ Oh Brother Where Art Thou. His autobiography, Man of Constant Sorrow, won him the 2010 IBMA Print Media Person of the Year award. I was also a nominee in that category, and I’ve never been happier to lose to anyone.

There is no one like Ralph Stanley anymore, but the truth is, other than imitators, there was never anyone like Ralph Stanley. No one else presented bluegrass with that staunchly old-time approach.

The other three original bluegrass bands, Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys, Flatt & Scruggs and Reno & Smiley  all updated mountain music, adding contemporary touches. And although Carter had a smooth, radio-ready vocal style, when Ralph stepped to the microphone, it was the purest old-time mountain sound. He composed dozens of beloved banjo tunes – “Clinch Mountain Backstop,” “Hard Times” “Old Time Picking’,” “Master tone March” “Ralph’s Banjo Special.”  And his signature songs include “Little Maggie,” “Pretty Polly” “How Mountain Girls Can Love” “If I Lose,” “White Dove,” “Rank Strangers,” “The Fields Have Turned Brown” – the complete list would crash your hard drive.

The Stanleys spawned dozens of imitators. The Southwest Ohio bluegrass scene I played in and wrote about from the late ‘70s through the ‘80s produced two of his best lead singers – Larry Sparks and Roy Lee Centers, part of a Stanley-centric scene that ran up from Kentucky into Michigan along what is now the I-75 corridor. Part of that was due to the fact that Ralph and Carter recorded for Cincinnati’s King Records, their longest and most important  association with any record label, and they frequently performed in the region.

Dr. Ralph has always said he wanted to preserve that old-time style of singing and picking and he has succeeded far beyond his wildest dreams. The Stanley Sound is alive and well.

And best of all, despite some health setbacks, including the installation of a pacemaker in January, the 83-year-old creator of that Stanley Sound is also alive and well and still on the road.

When I interview artists who come to Bluegrass Underground for WSM’s Bluegrass Underground radio show, the common thread that runs through all of them is that, even for musicians who practically live on the road, their visit to the BGU stage in Cumberland Caverns’  Volcano Room, 333 feet underground, is one show they’ll never forget.

March 12, when the Rock of Ages himself comes to Bluegrass Underground, that promises to be an event that no one there will ever forget.

 Larry Nager

Ralph Stanley’s Bluegrass Underground Top 10
“Dream of a Miner’s Child”

“How Mountain Girls Can Love”

“Hide Me Rock of Ages”
“Rocky Island”

“Stone Walls and Steel Bars”

 “Great High Mountain”

“Mountain Picking”

“On a High, High Mountain”

“Breaks of the Cumberland”

“I’ve Just Seen the Rock of Ages”

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