Bluegrass Underground, a new monthly live bluegrass music show, is set to debut on WSM on August 29. It will air on WSM and in syndication on the last Friday night of each month at midnight (central time – technically, Saturday morning).

Each show will be recorded before a live audience more than 300 feet underground in The Volcano Room at Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville, TN – hence, the show’s name. The site is a natural amphitheater created by the actions of water and time over millions of years which the show’s producer, Todd Mayo, describes as one of the most acoustically pure natural spaces on earth.

“No man-made sound reaches inside the cavern and the living rock hued amid the eons is jagged and uneven, providing near perfect resonance. All performances will be entirely acoustic and unamplified. Each show will be recorded, mixed, and edited by our Grammy-Winning Recording Engineer, Phil Harris. The goal is to arrange the band around one large tube microphone to record and perform the way it was done in the Golden Age of Radio and Bluegrass. We will have plenty of other microphones on hand to compliment the recording where needed.”

The first two show tapings have been scheduled, and tickets are available now to be in the studio audience.

• August 16, 4:00-6:00 p.m. – The Steeldrivers
• September 27, 2:00-4:00 p.m. – The Grascals

Tim O’Brien and The Infamous Stringdusters are expected in shows later this year. Once the show gets going, video and audio archives will be added to the show’s web site.

Stations interested in carrying Bluegrass Underground should contact Todd Mayo by email.