Monday’s Washington Post included a special feature by Jedd Ferris, who explores the bluegrass scene in and around Nashville.

Ferris, the managing editor of Blue Ridge Outdoors magazine in Charlottesville, VA, reminds readers about the historic links between bluegrass and Music City and points out that those links are stronger now with many well-known bluegrass personality being residents in the region. Of course, the IBMA also has its offices in the city’s Music Row district.

Additionally, he visits three of the best-known venues famous for presenting bluegrass music, the Ryman Auditorium, the Station Inn, both in downtown Nashville, and, further afield, central Tennessee’s Cumberland Caverns, home of the concert series, Bluegrass Underground.

The full story, with a photo slide show, can be accessed online.

Starting next week (2/14), the live bluegrass radio series Bluegrass Underground will move to a weekly, Saturday evening slot on WSM AM 650 from Nashville.

The new time is 6:00-7:00 p.m. (ET), just ahead of the Saturday Grand Ole Opry broadcast.

Live concerts are held monthly in The Volcano Room at Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville, TN – in an underground cavern 300 feet below the surface.

Bluegrass Underground producer Todd Mayo explains how a monthly concert can turn into a weekly program.

“The show is still taped once per month but we have added a second act to each show, and will be able to produce enough content (with a few months having second shows added) to move the show to a one hour, once per week progam.”

You can find lots of photos, as well as video and audio clips from past concerts, on the Bluegrass Underground web site. Here’s one from an appearance by The Infamous Stringdusters late last year.

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. He also sent along some photos that demonstrate the dramatic surroundings where they record.

Tonight’s show airs at midnight central time, broadcast on WSM AM 650 in Nashville, and simulcast via audio streaming on wsmonline.com.

Here’s a video clip that gives an even better look at the concert hall.

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.