Bluegrass Underground’s recent decision to move from Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville to a cave near Pelham is welcome news to many local music lovers and businesses.

The music series, featured on PBS nationwide, has hosted musicians performing more than 300-feet underground in the Volcano Room of Cumberland Caverns since 2008. Concerts at the new site, The Caverns, begin in early 2018. The property purchased by Bluegrass Underground is about 20 minutes from Sewanee at the base of Monteagle Mountain off Payne Cove Road.

Grundy County Mayor Michael Bradley said event producers want to keep the area rural and not alter the landscape, while bringing in great music.

“I think this is very, very positive for several different reasons,” Bradley said. “One reason is this is a world-class event that has come to Grundy County…It’s going to give us exposure, not to mention a lot of opportunities for entrepreneurs. This is going to be an economic boon for the county.”

Artists like Vince Gill, Widespread Panic, Chris Stapleton, Old Crow Medicine Show and Lucinda Williams are some of the bigger names who have performed at Bluegrass Underground.

According to a news release, organizers expect to host about 50 shows in 2018, adding that having a dedicated space will mean an expanded variety of acts and potential for more nationally-known artists.

“Bluegrass Underground has attracted not only national, but international attention,” said Todd Mayo, series creator and executive producer. “Based on its success in McMinville, the hope is that the popular event will bring in additional tourist dollars to the Grundy County area. The plan is to let Bluegrass Underground visitors know about all of the great attractions in the area.”

Autumn Gilliam, manager of Simply Southern in Pelham, said the restaurant, which serves breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday, may expand its hours once the concerts begin.

“We’re pretty excited about it,” she said. “We hope that it grows us and the businesses that surround us.”

Gilliam responded that it would be thrilling if an artist like Vince Gill happened to stop in for lunch.

According to show organizers, some of the advantages of the move from McMinnville (about an hour northeast of Pelham) is that The Caverns will seat more people and be more handicap accessible. The venue is also closer to both Chattanooga and Nashville and will provide a more flexible TV taping schedule with a permanent wiring, audio and lighting infrastructure.

“This is a dream come true to find a cave system that expands and improves the live and televised musical experiences of underground performances we have been curating since 2008,” Mayo said.

Another plus is expanded food and beverage options, including beer, Mayo added.

Sewanee musician Regina Rourk Childress said she has mixed feelings about the new concert attraction.

“As a musician and music lover, I’m very happy that the Bluegrass Underground will be closer by,” she said. “However, as a nature lover, I worry a bit about the impact of human encroachment on the cave environment. I wonder, Why does it have to be underground when there are so many empty buildings in lots of little towns all over Tennessee?”

The Caverns are connected to many other caves in the area, and organizers said most of those caves will remain open to spelunkers.

“In time we’d like to sustainably develop and share portions of these amazing caves for both educational and recreational purposes, allowing a wider audience to enjoy and learn from the underground beauty of Tennessee,” Mayo said.

This isn’t the first cave in the Pelham area to garner significant attention. Wonder Cave, about 10 minutes from The Caverns, was a tourist attraction which offered tours for many years until it closed in the early 2000s. A 2016 Vanderbilt Magazine article stated that more than two million people visited Wonder Cave, which first started offering flat-bottom boat tours in the late 1800s or early 1900s when it was owned by Sewanee alum and coal-mining entrepreneur Robert M. Payne.