It was great to see Bluegrass Underground on the front page of the Tennessean on Saturday. Shelley Mays captured some wonderful images from the Cadillac Sky show. Check out her online slide show here http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SPECIAL0370.

All my favorite singers couldn’t sing. Now there’s one less of them still performing. We’ve seen musicians retire and unretire before, but unless David Berman is pulling our leg, Silver Jews are now no more. The band’s performance Saturday night at McMinnville, Tennessee’s Cumberland Caverns was their last, and included this emotional take on American Water’s indelible “We Are Real”. But first, Berman gives a brief introduction: “If you’re in a position in your life where you need to make a change, this is the best time,” he says, citing all the changes going on these days. One of the most recent historical changes, the inauguration of President Obama, flies in the face of the work of Berman’s father, whom the Silver Jews main guy recently revealed to be right-wing lobbyist Rick Berman. Strange victory, strange defeat.

Update: “Smith and Jones Forever” is now on YouTube as well.

via “Introduction / We Are Real” / “Smith and Jones Forever” (Live at Cumberland Caverns; final show) | Pitchfork.

Billed as a celebration/funeral for the band (introduced as “the late, great Silver Jews”), the Cumberland Caverns gig saw them perform just 15 songs — a de facto greatest-hits set — as selected by the notoriously stage-shy Berman himself. It was equal parts morose and exuberant, often somber, sometimes sweet and always self-effacing, not to mention a tad bit shambolic. Sort of like every moment of the Jews’ 20-year semi-career.

Decked out in matching ensembles — jet-black suits, blood-red shirts (though Berman’s was more gingham-y) — the Jews took the stage to the echoed whoops of the roughly 300 who managed to score tickets (and actually find the Cavern). Berman led off with a grateful speech that managed to incorporate his former job as a janitor, popcorn theft and the Loews movie theater chain. Then the band was off and galloping, plunking its way through “We Are Real,” a standout from 1998’s American Water.

via MTV Newsroom » Silver Jews Say Farewell 300 Feet Underground.

Say what you will about The Spin’s penchant for impunctuality; we know when to show up on time. Even after a near two-hour car ride to a dank hole in the ground in McMinnville, even when it involves being wrangled and herded down a path with confused-looking hipsters and families led by tour guides–all looking more than a bit like cattle–we know when to show up on time. And as we descended into the depths of the Cumberland Caverns, we overheard a preteen ask his father, “How long did it take ‘em to build this?” Damn. And we thought our generation was doomed. Keep an eye out for that one.

It was shortly before 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon as we made our way into Cumberland Caverns’ Volcano Room, a large chamber dimly lit and musty with cave stank. We quickly spotted a few dozen familiar faces–mostly those of Nashville show-goers and musicians, though Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox was also in the mix. We managed to share a few words with William Tyler, who, gleeful over the locale of his final show with the Jews, informed us that their performance was being shot on 16 mm film for a project that will hopefully be released sooner rather than later.

via Nashville - Nashville Scene - Nashville Cream - The Spin: Silver Jews Final Show at Cumberland Caverns’ Bluegrass Underground.

The marriage of natural wonder and modern ingenuity are unmistakably evident in Cumberland Caverns’ Volcano Room. Located an hour and a half southeast of Nashville in McMinnville, the caverns are breathtaking, and the Volcano Room, as Bluegrass Underground creator and producer Todd Mayo puts it, “could be the most unique venue around.”

via Nashville Music - Silver Jews take their swan song underground - page 1 - Nashville Scene.

Being that Tim O’Brien epitomizes roots music, it is only appropriate that he and some of his best pickin’ buddies could be found at the root of the Cumberland Plateau - literally - in early December.

Tim O’Brien and Friends - banjo deviant Danny Barnes, flatpicking guitar whiz Bryan Sutton, and much-in-demand bassist Dennis Crouch - put on a tremendous show in the Volcano Room, part of the series of caves that make up Cumberland Caverns near McMinnville, Tennessee, for the December installment of the Bluegrass Underground series.

click to read the entire review

The most unique concert hall in the Southeast—if not the world—rests some 300 feet below the Cumberland Plateau and just outside McMinnville, Tenn. Carved by millions of years of underground river flow, the Volcano Room, one of the caves that make up the labyrinth of Cumberland Caverns, has become home to the monthly concert series known as Bluegrass Underground.

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Har, har, har, har, har! No, really though, that was pretty hilarious. See, the Bermans and their musical cohorts, all of whom put together make The Silver Jews, will be playing a show for a very famous radio station from right here in Nashville called WSM (home to the Grand Old Opry) - but wait, there’s a catch. The show will be played in a place called Cumberland Caverns, a place lots of us in the Tennessee area visited on field trips as children, and a place which happens to be a freaking cave.

Yes, the Jews will be playing Aloyisius, Bluegrass Drummer, among a bunch of bats and stuff. This is trippy, I know.   The date is January 31st (bring a jacket, January+cave=cold) and the time is at 3pm. It’s a Saturday so you’ve no right to complain about the 3pm start time, well actually you have no right to complain about anything being inconvenient about a Silver Jews show in a natural wonder.

Original Post:   It’s Hard to Find a Friend: The Silver Jews Are So Underground! .

Tim O’Brien’s recent holiday show at perhaps Tennessee’s most unique concert venue, Bluegrass Underground, will be aired Friday and Saturday (Dec. 26 and 27) on WSM 650 AM, XM/Sirius and various other local affiliates.

“I thought the band Tim brought was one of the best he has ever played with, with Danny Barnes, Dennis Crouch and Bryan Sutton,” said Nashville-based sound engineer Phil Harris, who produced, recorded, and mixed O’Brien’s concert for broadcast.

Read Full Article at BluegrassJournal.com

By now perhaps you’ve heard about Silver Jews’ Jan. 31 Bluegrass Underground show at Cumberland Caverns . According to the BU website, Arnett Hollow will be opening. Mr. David Berman himself anticipates great things. Straight from the horse’s mouth [sic]:

well monotonix will be in fur one pieces playing drums with dinosaur bones and zildjan clamshells. I think i want William Tyler to depcit Chakha from Land of the Lost; tony crow will be deposited inside a Lascaux-Wildlife printed tuxedo from Petsmart Couture…but seriously there will be some major items. one thing i can tell you is that the silver jews credo "what we do is symbolic" is definitely in play here. I wouldn’t be surprised if this wasn’t the last silver jews show. We have a couple of shows in south america in the summer but that’s it.

So there you have it. Whether or not Willy T. dons a Cha-Ka body suit, I’m thinking this could be the show of the year. At the very least, it will be the finest spelunking-rock-and-roll hybrid event of the winter season.

Original Article:
http://blogs.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/2008/12/bermans_thoughts_on_silver_jew.php

Doing their part to keep underground music alive, Pavement offshoot the Silver Jews are due to play a super-subterranean show on January 31 at McMinnville, Tennessee’s Cumberland Caverns.

The lo-fi country-rock outfit will tape an afternoon performance for a midnight radio broadcast of “Bluegrass Underground” on Nashville’s WSM radio [via Pitchfork.com]. The show is open to the public, so dig out that spelunking gear and come on down, literally.

Original Article:
http://www.spin.com/articles/silver-jews-play-underground-cave

Boy, one day you’re averse to the very idea of touring, and the next, you’re 333 feet below the surface of the Earth, playing your country-rock for the radio. Strange as it might seem, come January 31, Silver Jews will head to McMinnville, Tennessee’s Cumberland Caverns to play an afternoon “Blueglass Underground” show due for a midnight broadcast on Nashville’s famed WSM radio. The gig is open to the public, and the Jews go on at 3 p.m. local time, with an as-yet-undetermined support act down for the 2 p.m. slot. And I reckon if you wait around long enough, there will be bats!

Silver Jews recently wrapped up their fall tour, so the spelunker’s dream show stands as their next public appearance. Bide the time until then with Silver Jew, the recent documentary on the band that Drag City released last month.

Original Article:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/146931-silver-jews-to-play-gig-in-an-underground-cave

Bluegrass Underground, the new live performance radio show we posted about last month, debuts tonight (8/29) on WSM. The show features a live performance by The Steeldrivers, recorded August 16 more than 300 feet underground at Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville, TN.

The show’s premise is based around the unique environment where it is recorded, this underground cavern completely removed from any sound generated at the earth’s surface. Each month, a new episode will be taped before a live audience, using as few microphones as possible to capture the natural acoustic sound, and aired on the last Friday night of the month.

Producer Todd Mayo told us that this first concert taping was a sellout, and that The Steeldrivers put on a whale of a show.

Full Article:
http://www.thebluegrassblog.com/steeldrivers-on-bluegrass-underground/

Award-winning Warren County journalist and filmaker Todd Jarrell came out to Bluegrass Underground and produced this piece for NPR…

Cumberland Caverns lie just about an hour’s drive southeast from Nashville, and they’re like many caves in the region: deep and dark. But unlike the others, one room of this expansive cave system seems to be an acoustical oddity that has audiences flocking to hear its very special sound. WPLN’s Todd Jarrell traveled out to Warren County to listen.

Audio for this feature is available here.

Transcript below…

JARRELL: Hunched over a dimly lit audio mixing board, recording engineer Phil Harris concentrates on dialing in the sound before the first show of a new concert series titled, Bluegrass Underground. Harris, a Grammy Award-winning producer, says this venue is very different from any others he has worked…

HARRIS: “I mean the room is fantastic. The sound in here is phenomenal. It has a really nice warm sound unlike a lot of other manmade things that you encounter.”

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MCMINNVILLE — Bluegrass fans most likely listen to their favorite artists and albums on the radio or in concert, but they have probably never experienced anything quite like “Bluegrass Underground.” On Saturday, Aug. 16, bluegrass fans need to prepare themselves for a journey that will take them to the center of the earth where they will discover a world of bluegrass magic.

Cumberland Caverns of McMinnville is hosting the syndicated radio show “Bluegrass Underground,” airing on 650 WSM. The show will be recorded before a live audience 333 feet below the earth’s surface in The Volcano Room, a naturally-occurring amphitheater where time and water have worked together to make one of the most purely acoustical spaces on earth.

Todd Mayo, the show’s producer, stumbled upon the idea for “Bluegrass Underground” when he and his family took a Memorial Day tour of the caves.

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