Bluegrass Underground

The bluegrass band 18 South kicks off the performance series, which is taped in Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville, Tenn.

Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder perform.

Singer-songwriter Will Hoge performs.

Mike Farris and the McCrary Sisters perform.

Cherryholmes perform.

Singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle performs.

From multiple Grammy wins to The Hunger Games' soundtrack, 2012 is a breakout year for The Civil Wars. Intricately woven phrasing and airtight harmonies mark the minimalist duo's powerfully ballads and astonishingly frank songs on the paradoxical nature of love.

The thirteen time Grammy winner plays the dobro with unprecedented speed and haunting lyricism. Douglas is one of Nashville's most in-demand session players and is a longtime featured member of Alison Krauss & Union Station.

Singer-songwriter Sarah Jarosz performs.

Jim Lauderdale performs.

Raised on show business in a family band, David Mayfield made his name with award-winning progressive bluegrass group Cadillac Sky. The singer/guitarist mixes acoustic-alternative and cutting-edge Americana with great showmanship.

Singer/mandolinist Doyle Lawson and his band perform progressive bluegrass and compelling a cappella Gospel.

Season 3 kicks off with Old Crow Medicine Show.

The singer/violinist, multi-instrumentalist performs indie-folk rock with guest Tift Merritt.

Infamous Stringdusters perform.

The folk-pop duo Johnnyswim perform.

Yonder Mountain String Band, a Colorado-based bluegrass group, perform.

Ben Sollee, a singer-songwriter and cellist, performs.

The Season 4 premiere features the successful jamband Widespread Panic who meld southern rock, blues-rock, funk and hard rock in a stellar performance.

Steep Canyon Rangers perform.

Cellist Dave Eggar, singer Amy Lee (of Evanescence) and dance troupe Hammerstep perform.

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit perform.

The David Grisman FolkJazz Trio perform.

Singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams performs.

Leftover Salmon perform in the Season 5 premiere.

Jerry Douglas' Earls of Leicester perform.

Singer-songwriter Amos Lee performs.

Lee Ann Womack performs.

The bluegrass/jazz great is joined by his wife on clawhammer banjo.

The Michigan-based Americana group Greensky Bluegrass performs.

Savor the Underground debut of a group that personifies “Americana”: Guitarist-singer-songwriter Rawlings with Gillian Welch, Punch Brothers bassist Paul Kowert, fiddler Brittany Haas and former Old Crow Medicine Show guitarist Willie Watson.

Welcome these relative newcomers, a 10-piece band fresh out of Houston and fronted by the massive-voiced singer Kam Franklin and influenced by classic rock 'n' roll, country, Latin and southern hip-hop as much as Stax/Volt or Muscle Shoals era.

Join monster mandolinist (and chef) Frank Solivan and his band, Dirty Kitchen, whose sturdy matrix of bluegrass veined with jazz, blues, country and jam band delivers on their main rule: “No filler.”

Hurray for the Riff Raff - with Alynda Lee Segarra, who hopped freight trains across America before settling in sultry New Orleans - promises to turn the Volcano Room into the French Quarter with a high-energy, funky, folky N'Awlins groove.

Enjoy a set by this Mississippi-raised musical force of nature-a Grammy winner, eight-time CMA Musician of the Year, soulful singer, hit songwriter and Muscle Shoals session musician who boasts a following of fans devoted to the art of the song.

Described as a mash-up of jam band, blues, funk, soul and Southern rock, the songs of JJ Grey, the "North Florida sage and soul-bent swamp rocker," reflect the area around Jacksonville, where he was raised.

Enjoy the irresistible Cuban groove of the genre-leaping Grammy-winners fronted by the transcendent vocals of Raul Malo. The band has won awards from the Academy of Country Music, the Country Music Association and the Americana Music Association.

Listen to the group variously described as blues-rock, jamband and acid-Americana. Rolling Stone described their sound as “electrifying…boast[ing] a vintage rock vibe that’s at once quirky, trippy, soulful and downright magnetic.”

Hear a Georgia-born, internationally acclaimed band that defines the drive and precision of top shelf bluegrass. Celebrating their 25th anniversary, the group is a top pick on Amazon.com and a favorite of discerning bluegrass fans everywhere.

Tune in for a set from a singer-songwriter who traveled from the Land Down Under to Tennessee’s “Show Down Under.” From a well-known producing/performing musical family, Chambers is one of Australia's most successful and celebrated country artists.

Don’t miss this performance by the five-time Grammy-winner. With a bio that boasts stints with Lester Flatt and Johnny Cash, Stuart is unsurpassed as a rhinestone showman and folk philosopher who has proudly remained to country.

Enjoy a performance by a singer-songwriter deemed one of Nashville’s hottest new country roots artists. Winner of Americana’s 2016 Album of the Year, Millsap performs on guitar, harmonica and slide guitar.

Reaction to Billy Strings come in two varieties: “Who is this guy?” and “That kid can play!” Strings won IBMA 2016 Momentum Awards Instrumentalist of the Year (for guitar, banjo and mandolin) and was voted #1 in The Bluegrass Situation’s Top 16 of 16. Michigan-raised from a long line of players, Billy Strings is a phenomenon whose articulation and entire approach is totally authentic.

With a distinct "indie folk grit," Berklee-trained Tasjan has always considered himself a songwriter first even as he built creds with glam-rockers New York Dolls, southern rockers Drivin’ N Cryin’, arena rockers Semi Precious Weapons and British rockers Alberta Cross. Imbued with wry wit, a sharp tongue and a lot of heart, his songs harken John Prine, Tom Petty, Guy Clark, and Steve Goodman, solidifying him as one of the most intriguing songwriters to emerge in some time.

Raised on a Kentucky farm, The Father of Newgrass and King of Telluride has long since established himself as roots royalty, soaking up honors such as an Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award, three Grammys, and multiple International Bluegrass Music Association trophies. After a lifetime of channeling energy toward jazz, folk, blues, reggae, country swing, and bluegrass, Bush still strives relentlessly to create something new.

This gifted septet conquers every stage they play. Songs penned in English, Spanish and French have led to tours in Venezuela, Canada, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Russia, France, China and Portugal. Traditional Latin rhythms, Classical influences and American Roots-Rock sensibilities offer a fresh, truly singular approach perhaps best described as “Pan Americana.”

With multiple awards from both Grammy and IBMA, this singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist grew up singing in church and in school, becoming a lifelong devotee of Old Time and Bluegrass music. First touring nationally in the 1980’s with Colorado Bluegrass band Hot Rize, O’Brien’s range over original compositions and traditional arrangements.

Formed in 1992, Lettuce was founded on a shared love of funk artists like Earth, Wind & Fire and Tower of Power. Lettuce brilliantly infuses their psychedelic/hip-hop sensibilities to bring a refreshing vitality to classic funk. Their tight sense of unity springs from a camaraderie that's only intensified over the lifespan of the band, deepening a sonic freedom with the infectious energy of an incendiary live show.

Truly iconic, profoundly influential, and a catalyst for an entire movement in country rock and American roots music, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, continues to add to their legendary status. With multi-platinum and gold records, strings of Top 10 hits, multiple Grammy, IBMA, CMA Awards, the band's accolades continue to accumulate.

Singer-songwriter and violinist, road warrior, and recently minted MFA in creative writing, Amanda Shires cuts her own genre blended roots-rock with fierce-sweet violin, soaring vocals and critically acclaimed compositions. Shires was Americana’s 2017 Emerging Artist of the Year and won for Best Americana Album with husband Jason Isbell’s band, The 400 Unit.

Nashville-based singer-songwriting bluesman and four-time Grammy Award winner, Keb’ Mo’ has been described as "a living link to the seminal Delta blues that traveled up the Mississippi River and across the expanse of America." A musical force defying typical genre labels, Mo’s post-modern blues style harkens many eras and genres, including folk, rock, jazz, pop and country.

Ritter is a vocalist, musician, New York Times best-selling author, painter, and consummate live performer - a true artist. Best known for his distinctive Americana style and narrative lyrics, Josh Ritter is — two decades into a storied career — unafraid of growing, changing and constantly challenging then estimable, earlier versions of himself. Josh Ritter, it seems, may just be getting started.

Lucero’s first gig in Memphis was for a crowd of six. But for a band with a 20-year string of successes and aural iterations, who carried the alt-country torch back in the '90s and helped pave the way for “Americana,” Lucero have returned to what inspired them in the first place. They tour behind a streamlined sound honoring their seminal southern and rock influences.

Two talented boys from a working class Maryland family, the Brothers Osborne bring us a “twang-and-crunch,” equal parts country and rock into one of the freshest, most identifiable sounds to come out of Nashville in recent years. Five-time Grammy nominees, The Brothers Osborne reign as back-to-back ACM Vocal Duo of the Year Awards as well as the two-time CMA Vocal Duo of the Year.

Featuring Brandi Carlile, Sarah Jarosz, and The Wood Brothers.

Featuring Leon Russell, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Old Crow Medicine Show.

Featuring The Mavericks and Sweet Lizzy Project.

Featuring Kathy Mattea, Lauren Morrow, and Lucinda Williams.

Featuring Widespread Panic and Billy Strings.

Featuring Keb' Mo', The Suffers, and St. Paul & The Broken Bones.