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.

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.

Online video of the SteelDrivers‘ performance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien this past Friday (7/18) can now be viewed on the NBC website.

To see their segment, click the July 18 show link, and then you’ll see a thumbnail image of the band in the video timeline.

NBC maintains these archives for about two weeks online, so the SteelDrivers’ set should be available until the end of July.

The SteelDrivers will be tonight’s (7/18) musical guests on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, which airs at 12:30 a.m. on NBC television.

Since their debut release earlier this year, the band has gathered one stellar review after another for their blending of blues-inflected original songs with bluegrass instrumentation.

The SteelDrivers consist of Mike Henderson on mandolin, guitar and vocals, Chris Stapleton on guitar and vocals, Tammy Rogers on fiddle and vocals, Richard Bailey on banjo, and Mike Fleming on bass.

There will be some bluegrass offered during this week’s big CMA Music Festival and Fan Fair in Nashville.

Though the event officially begins on Thursday (6/5) and runs through Sunday (6/8), there is a kickoff concert tonight (6/4) at 10:00 p.m. hosted by Marty Stuart which will feature sets by The SteelDrivers and Old Crow Medicine Show.

On Thursday there will be a stage dedicated largely to bluegrass music. From 11:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. (local time) the Chevy Plaza stage will include performances by Sierra Hull, SteelDrivers, Dan Tyminski and Mountain Heart.

Jim Van Cleve, fiddle man with Mountain Heart, passed along a few of the public and media events where they will be involved this week.

“We are really excited, and feel very fortunate to be involved with something of this magnitude, especially on so many different levels. CMA Music Festival is a giant affair, and Mountain Heart is going to be a very visible presence there!

We’ll be performing on the Chevy Music Stage, set up just outside the Sommet Center on Broadway, on Thursday afternoon at 2:45. We’ll be doing lots of TV and radio interviews, including XM and several country radio stations. We’re also signing autographs in the GAC and Grand Ole Opry booths in the truTV Fan Fair Hall at the convention center. To start it all off on Wednesday, we’re going to be riding in the Chevy Kickoff Parade that travels right down Broadway. We’ve all been practicing our ‘Princess Waves,’ too, so we should be ready to roll. lol.

From Nashville, we’re heading to Enterprise, Alabama, for the first-ever BamaJam Music & Arts Festival on Saturday. The festival runs Thursday through Saturday and has a ridiculously great lineup of artists from country, bluegrass, acoustic and Americana. We’re talking about everyone from Ralph Stanley and Ricky Skaggs, to Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top and Hank Jr., to Trace Adkins, Little Big Town, Yonder Mountain String Band and Old Crow Medicine Show. It’s going to be a blast!”

This weekend’s Grand Ole Opry broadcasts once again has something for bluegrass fans - both on radio and TV.

The Friday Opry (5/2) will include a show from Mountain Heart, in the 10:00-10:30 p.m. segment, and the guys will be back on Saturday evening as well.

Joining them on Saturday will be The SteelDrivers, who are stoked about their Opry night.

“The SteelDrivers are excited and especially looking forward to this Saturday night’s Grand Ole Orpy performance because it will be on the TV segment of the show. The televised portion of the Opry is on the GAC channel and airs from 7:00pm to 8:00pm. We are schedule to perform two songs starting around 8:45 (EDT). Needless to say, The SteelDrivers wish to thank the Opry for affording us this wonderful opportunity. Hope you can tune in.

After the Opry, we hit the Briley Parkway expressway and head to downtown Nashville to play our home away from home, the world famous Station Inn. Two sets of hard chargin’ bluegrass are on tap starting around 9:00pm.

One footnote, Richard Bailey, the SteelDriver’s banjo player, was recently married to Ms. Mandy Haynes on April 23rd. It was reported that instead of the traditional marriage vows, the couple just said, ‘If you can’t be good, be gone.’ Congratulations.”

The Steeldrivers paid a visit this week to Michael Jonathon’s Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour. The show airs live on Monday evenings from Lexington, KY in both audio and video formats, and the shows are available for online viewing after the fact.

Their performance can now be seen on the Woodsongs web site, where they perform a number of songs from their recently released, self-titled project on Rounder and talk with Jonathon about their music.

Singer-songwriter Carrie Newcomer also guests on this show.

The SteelDrivers is a recently formed band comprising personnel who have a long association with mainstream country music in Nashville - Chris Stapleton (guitar and lead vocals) with Tammy Rogers (fiddle and harmony vocals), Mike Henderson (mandolin), Mike Fleming (bass and harmony vocals) and Richard Bailey (banjo). Bluegrass seems to be the common factor for them at the moment; for all it’s a return to a genre with which they have had past involvement.

This eponymous CD (Rounder 0598) is their first and it’s a great mix of blues, soul and bluegrass, blended in proportions that the like of which has never before been heard or seen. This is bluegrass with a difference.

All of material was written by Stapleton, mostly with band-mate Henderson but sometimes with other notable writers such as Kevin Welch and Jerry Salley. Although they are original songs, Drinking Dark Whiskey (Gary Allan), If It Hadn’t Been For Love (Darryl Worley), Midnight Tears and Heaven Sent have been recorded by others and in the process have helped to blur the edges between country, Americana and bluegrass music forms.

All of this came before the band was formed about two years ago.

The bluesy opening cut, Blue Side Of The Mountain, sets the tone for most of this collection of 11 songs. With the two following tracks, Drinkin’ Dark Whiskey and Midnight Train to Memphis, we have songs with classic themes written and performed in a modern and original style. They are characterised by Stapleton’s rasping vocals that show traits of Delta blues and Appalachian soul with a rockin’ rhythm.

Midnight Tears and If You Can’t Be Good, Be Gone are more straight-forward, with more controlled lead vocals, without loosing its edge and neat harmonies based on a good solid rhythm and great instrumental interplay from banjo, mandolin and fiddle.

If It Hadn’t Been For Love is a grafting of a bluesy cry with a harmonious chorus and a funky chunking rhythm, while To Be With You Again starts as a solo lament, before the tempo picks up and there’s a more positive feeling; a sense of hopefulness.

The ballad-paced Sticks That Made Thunder is an exception to the rule, having a romantic fancifulness, embellished with a playful fiddle that brings a certain Celtic feel to the song.

Creativity and originality are the common factors here. The ingredients are the same as those that Bill Monroe drew together during the early part of the last century but Henderson, Stapleton, Fleming, Bailey and Rogers use those ingredients and speak individually and collectively in quite different ways.

The SteelDrivers stretch the edges of bluegrass music and in so doing have created a niche for themselves. It will be very interesting to see how the band’s career develops.

This morning, The Wall Street Journal is running an article titled Bluegrass With a Difference. The piece is about Nashville based band, the SteelDrivers.

The article trumpets bluegrass music as the music to listen to if you want something real in your ears. I couldn’t agree more heartily. The writer, Jim Fusilli, holds up The SteelDrivers as champions of that cause.

He covers the background of each member in brief, with special attention being given to lead singer Chris Stapleton. The story is told of the formation of the band, along with a summary of their signature sound, and an explanation to the WSJ readers as to why they should give bluegrass a try.

If you want to hear real country music — the kind with just-short-of-reckless picking on acoustic instruments and naturally vivid vocal harmonies — these days you turn to bluegrass.

He goes on to suggest specifically listening to The SteelDrivers as the subject of his article. He lays particular emphasis on the honesty of the music these guys make in comparison to main stream, commercial country.

The SteelDrivers’ music is organic and unsoiled by studio trickery, the kind that has plasticized contemporary country.

One has to wonder, with the WSJ being the go-to source for financial news, does this article indicate increased monetary success for bluegrass? We can hope…

The SteelDrivers can be seen and heard on this week’s edition of Unplugged at Studio 330 at CMT.com.

They perform music from their recent self-titled debut release, and talk about the band, the material they write, and what sets them apart from other new bands on the bluegrass scene.

Members include Richard Bailey on banjo, Mike Fleming on bass/vocals, Mike Henderson on mandolin/vocals, Tammy Rogers on fiddle/vocals and Chris Stapleton on guitar/vocals.

You can watch the songs and discussion segments online at CMT.com.

There are also a couple of clips of The SteelDrivers on YouTube from the recent Joe Val Festival near Boston.

Mixing bluegrass and blues influences in their music - rhythm’n'bluegrass, as they like to call it - is the signtaure sound of The Steeldrivers, whose debut CD is due on Rounder early in 2008.

Their self-titled project features all-original music written within the band, all of them veterans of the music business who now find themselves in Nashville. Richard Bailey is on banjo, Mike Fleming on bass, Mike Henderson on mandolin, Tammy Rogers on fiddle with Chris Stapleton on guitar, and also taking the primary lead vocal spot.

A complete track listing and audio samples from The Steeldrivers can be found on the Rounder web site. The CD will be released on January 29, 2008.

UPDATE: We just heard from Rounder Records, and they tell us the release date has been pushed up to January 15.

Rounder Records has announced the signing of The Steeldrivers to the Rounder label. The band is based in Nashville, TN and composed of the following musicians.

• Mike Henderson - mandolin
• Chris Stapleton - guitar
• Richard Bailey - banjo
• Mike Fleming - bass
• Tammy Rogers - fiddle

Several members of the band have impressive resumes that read like a who’s-who of bluegrass and classic country. Not only that, but the song writing skills of this bunch of pickers is impressive as well. I’m told the band’s debut album is currently being mixed and contains all new original songs.

The Steeldrivers are booked by Roe Entertainment and more information about the band members, along with a tour schedule, can be found on the band’s website.