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.

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.

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.

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

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.

The Volcano Room can be found some 300 feet below ground, an awe inspiring room and perhaps the most unique concert hall in the world. The result of millions of years of subterranean water flow, the Volcano Room has near perfect acoustics and offers music fans a unique listening experience.

Despite having played host to, in months past, such noted bands as The Steeldrivers, The Grascals, and The Infamous Stringdusters, the Volcano Room hadn’t yet seen a line up with the pedigree like the one O’Brien brought to the stage. Sutton easily ranks as one of the finest guitar pickers in bluegrass, Crouch recently recorded with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss on their collaboration Raising Sand, and Barnes has been a banjo innovator since his years with The Bad Livers.

The quartet ripped through a number of the tunes from O’Brien’s 2008 release Chameleon, with highlights being the raw energy of “Red Dog in the Morning,” a somber rendition of “The Garden,” and the always inspirational “Where’s Love Come From.” Tim and friends also hailed the holiday season with the festive Bill Monroe tune “Christmas Time’s a’Comin’,” and Sutton previewed some of the new original material from his upcoming Sugar Hill release with “The Kitchen Girl.”

The hallmark of the evening, though, had to be “Makin’ Plans,” a song Tim has played live fewer than half a dozen times in the last twenty years. A special request, this playing marked the first time Tim had played it with a full band since he recorded the tune for Sugar Plums, the Sugar Hill Christmas collection from the ’80s.

For music fans in the Southeast, a trip to Cumberland Caverns should become a top priority.  It is a completely surreal musical experience. Upcoming shows include Cadillac Sky in early February and Steep Canyon Rangers in April. You can find more info at www.bluegrassunderground.com.

Written by David Stallard
via… Honest Tune Online – Tim O’Brien goes “Underground”.

In the 50-odd years that Cumberland Caverns has been open to the public, thousands of visitors have passed through the Volcano Room, but it was a recent visit by music fan Todd Mayo that led to the series genesis. “My wife and I were like so many other visitors going down to the caverns,” says Mayo. “We went through the Volcano Room and we were awed by its majesty. It’s spectacular. Being a music fan, I asked the tour guide if they ever had live music down there. They had not. We finished the tour and I wouldn’t shut up about it. I’d had ideas about shows before, but at that moment it crystallized.”

Mayo gained the support of legendary WSM Radio—the home of the Grand Ole Opry—and enlisted the help of Grammy-winning sound engineer Phil Harris. It soon became obvious to all involved that they were on to something incredible. Says Harris, “The natural acoustics in the Volcano Room rival the finest studios in Nashville. Taken with the cave’s natural features and 350 million years of evolution, there isn’t another performance space like it anywhere on the planet.”

Both musicians and audiences alike have been taken with the opportunity to participate in a subterranean concert. Bluegrass phenoms The Infamous Stringdusters played the series’ third show in November, and bass player Travis Book noted that it was unlike anything the band had ever done before. “Playing in the cave was completely surreal,” he says. “Being underground brought about a lack of distraction, and the sense that what we were doing at that moment was so completely unique—unlike anything else that was going on in the world at the time—made it truly special.”

Mayo has heard audience members echo these sentiments. “We’re really pleased with the audience response,” he says. “It’s amazing to see the looks on their faces. It’s a musical adventure because most of the people that come to the Volcano Room have never done anything like this before. I’ve been told more than once that it is almost a spiritual experience. That tells me we’re off to a good start.”

via Underground Bluegrass: The Concert Hall in a Cave – Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine .

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! .

“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

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

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

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

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/

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.”

JARRELL: This is the Volcano Room, and there is nothing manmade about it. Waters once covered this area in Tennessee, flowing underground to carve out these rocks, rooms and passageways.

The Volcano Room lies 333 feet below the ground. Ninety-nine percent humidity helps the room feel warmer than its constant 56 degrees. Still, at times you can see your breath. The ceiling—three stories high—arches over an area large enough to seat perhaps 500 people at lengthy picnic tables set out on a dirt floor half the size of a football field. A stage—also dirt—stands only a congenial foot or two above the open seating.

(Applause)
EMCEE: “Ladies and Gentlemen Welcome to Bluegrass Underground. We are excited to have you with us and very proud to have… The Steeldrivers!”
(Applause)

(SONG: East Kentucky Home)

JARRELL: Discovered in 1810 by one Aaron Higgenbotham, the cave opened to the public in 1956. Now each year more than 26,000 visitors like Todd Mayo come to hike, crawl and even camp in Cumberland Cavers’ 27-mile system. Mayo is a partner in Nashville’s Mayo-Gossett Media Group, a radio production company…

MAYO: “I had been talking about wanting to do a show focused on bluegrass and acoustic music for some time and the venue was kind of an X-factor in the deal and happened upon, in the course of the tour, the Volcano Room and I turned to my wife at that point and I said, ‘Wow, this is it.’

JARRELL: Mayo brought sound engineers into the Volcano Room—among them Phil Harris—who confirmed that the acoustics were, in fact, very special

HARRIS: “What makes this room so amazing is the absence of echo.
It amplifies the sound and then as the sound dissipates out into the cave it doesn’t come back.”

(SONG: Where Rainbows Never Die)

JARRELL: The sound pours from the stage, flowing like a current through the rapt room back and back into well-worn pathways that crook and climb and disappear—along with the music—somewhere off into the bowels of the earth.

(Where Rainbows Never Die fades out)

JARRELL: Between sets and the band relaxes in the dirt-floored stone dressing-cave tucked behind the stage – not exactly your typical “green room”.

FLEMING: “Yea, it’s a little Flintstone-ish. We’re back to the Stone Age.”

JARRELL: Steeldrivers’ bassist Mike Fleming…

FLEMING: “But you know people in the audience seem to be enjoying it. And I think the whole attraction of being underground, in a cave, listening to music is quite a neat concept, tell you the truth.”

JARRELL: For guitarist Chris Stapleton whose father was a Kentucky coal miner, it’s a personal paradox…

STAPLETON: “I played music so I wouldn’t have to go underground and here I’m playing music underground. Just doesn’t make much sense, I don’t guess. I wanted to take a picture of it and send it to my dad and say this is where I’m playing. (laughs).”

JARRELL: For his part Todd Mayo had no doubts that the Volcano Room of Cumberland Caverns would make an exceptional venue for his Bluegrass Underground concerts…

MAYO: “It performed admirably, as I think it’s probably been doing for at least three and a half million years.”

JARRELL: And for a man promoting the concept of “Cavegrass Music,” that alone is some uncommon quality assurance. For Nashville Public Radio, I’m Todd Jarrell.

(SONG: Blue Side of the Mountain)

By Todd Jarrell at Nashville Public Radio… http://wpln.org/?p=1008

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.

“I’ve been wanting to do a show, but I didn’t know where — you know, I was looking in Nashville… at an old, historic theatre — and so, when we came to this room called the Volcano Room, I told my wife… ‘This is it.’ I had a practical vision: you can put enough people right here.”

Mayo is particularly excited about the un-amplified, acoustic setting the musical performance will have, thanks to the caverns.

“The acoustics in the cave really are incredible. The huge thing about it is that the performances are entirely un-amplified, not just acoustic, but without any amplification whatsoever.” said Mayo. “It’s the old way of listening to live music, and the cave’s acoustics make it akin to listening to a concert inside a recording studio that’s 3.5 million years in the making.

“I do see this evolving into kind of an ‘Austin City Limits’ for acoustic music… basically, the un-amplification that we’re using here is kind of a unique thing, besides, of course, the visual in the cave and the novelty of doing it somewhere like this,” added Mayo.

Teddy Jones, the marketing director of Cumberland Caverns, is equally as excited about the location of the show. “Cumberland Caverns is proud to be making musical history here in the hills of Tennessee. As far as we know, nothing of this nature has been done in any cave, anywhere.”

Before guests arrive for the concert, there are a few things they need to know about the experience.

“We generally say the tour is mildly strenuous. If someone is used to walking on a daily basis, or can get around and hike just a little bit, then there should be no problem. It’s not handicap-accessible, but for the most part it’s very easy to get around. It is an adventure,” said Jones.

Aside from the caverns being lit by indoor lanterns, the guides will be carrying flashlights to help guests move around the caves.

The caverns are a constant 56 degrees, no matter the season. Those who work at Cumberland Caverns jokingly refer to the cool temperature as “Nature’s Air Conditioning.”

“Aug. 16 is going to be a perfect day to be in the caves,” said Jones, talking about the relief the caves give from the summer heat.

Guests will want to wear appropriate footwear for hiking, and may want to bring a pullover, although the 99-percent humidity in the caverns offsets the potential chill of the underground temperature.

The concert is from 4-6 p.m., and Mayo asks that guests arrive by 3:30 p.m. in order to be guided and seated before the show starts.

“What we’ll do is have a couple of different groups, and we’re just trying to tell everybody to come early because I mean, you have to have a tour guide. This is a historic landmark, and you have to be escorted, so we’ll try to have the people that come early — we’ll take a group of them up — and then take another group, and then right before the show, take the last group on up. I guess we’ll have to figure something out about the stragglers because you know there are always will be some, particularly with people that have never been here,” said Mayo.

The bluegrass journey will begin when tour guides lead concert-goers through the cave entrance into a different world. Descending below the earth’s surface will take visitors past underground pools made of pure water. The pools are home to albino blind crayfish that have adapted to the cave’s darkness. Waterfalls trickling into the caves from the earth’s surface feed the crystal-clear pools.

Bluegrass fans who attend the show will also see actual tools used by saltpeter miners during the Civil War to make gun powder.

After the 15-minute hike through this other world, eager fans will arrive at The Volcano Room. A chandelier, weighing 1,500 pounds, hangs from the ceiling, decoratively illuminating the underground concert hall. Guests will be seated in front of the stage on rows of folding chairs and at tables that are always present for tourist-use in the cavern. Underground concessions and restrooms are available for use, making the location ideal for guests.

Because of the un-amplified nature of the concert, Mayo wants to keep the crowd intimate, limiting it to 300 guests.

Once guests are comfortably in place, the ancient silence and darkness of the enormous cavern will then be interrupted by the sounds of some of the greatest bluegrass musicians on, or under, the earth.

Each month “‘Bluegrass Underground’ will feature established and up-and-coming traditional and progressive bluegrass and acoustic musicians in an otherworldly venue, without amplification, to a worldwide audience of music-lovers,” said Mayo.

“The show will feature traditional bluegrass but also brands of acoustic music, country, Americana, folk, and will also feature bluegrass covers of non-bluegrass music.”

The show’s debut performance will be by Nashville bluegrass band The Steel Drivers, made up of Richard Balley, Mike Fleming, Mike Henderson, Tammy Rogers and Chris Stapleton. The Steel Drivers’ highly-praised debut album arrived in January of this year, and the band made an appearance on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” last month. Mayo is excited and thankful to have such a big-name band to perform at the first “Bluegrass Underground.”

The second show will be Sept. 27, performed by The Grascals.

Future performances will include Tim O’Brien and The Stringdusters.

“Bluegrass Underground” will be heard on the last Friday night of each month on 650 WSM in McMinnville and 1320 WMSR in Tullahoma. Mayo is hoping to nationally syndicate the show, and is searching for a station to host it in Cookeville.

Sound engineer Phil Harris, 2007 Grammy-winner for Best Country Instrumental for his recording of Doc Watson and Brian Sutton, will record, mix and edit each show.

Tickets can only be purchased on the show’s Web site at www.bluegrassunderground.com. Each ticket is $15.

“It’s a pretty good deal because the actual adult ticket (at Cumberland Caverns) is a $15 ticket to take a tour of the cave, and the concert tickets are $15, and you’re getting a (partial) tour and a show for $15,” said Mayo.

“Bluegrass Underground” will be a fun monthly entertainment choice for the whole family.

“With gas prices being so high, many folks are going on ‘staycations’ instead of vacations, where they do things closer to home. ‘Bluegrass Underground’ and Cumberland Caverns would fit right in there,” said Mayo.

This show is expected to be a musical event that makes history. Mayo and Jones are expecting it to reach the heights of Grand Ole Opry.

“They’ll be talking about ‘Bluegrass Underground’ after we’re gone,” said Jones.

Cumberland Caverns is open May 1-Aug. 31 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sept. 1- April 30 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. The caverns are located just off Hwy. 8, six miles southeast of McMinnville via U.S. Hwy. 70S. Look for yellow signs that point the way to the entrance.
By NICOLL BURLESON

Read the original article… Cookeville Herald-Citizen Online:
http://www.herald-citizen.com/index.cfm?event=news.view&id=A315D0CF-19B9-E2E2-67DBC18E6AFE74BD