Brandi Carlile Kicks Off New 'Bluegrass Underground' Season with Fantastic Performance

by Julian Spivey
Americana singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile graced the stage of The Caverns on PBS’s “Bluegrass Underground,” which originally aired on PBS on Friday, August 3, for a special one-hour episode featuring her brilliant work, most of which appears on her latest release By The Way, I Forgive You.
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​Carlile’s By The Way, I Forgive You, her sixth studio album, was released in February to critical raves and has remained one of the best albums of the year and has earned her multiple nominations for the Americana Awards & Honors, which will occur next month during AmericanaFest in Nashville.

“Bluegrass Underground” debuted in 2011 and features roots music from the Americana, folk, country and bluegrass genres in The Volcano Room, 333-feet below ground in the Tennessee Cumberland Caverns, making for one of the most interesting and beautiful music venues in the United States.

Carlile said: “[It’s] one of the coolest gigs we’ve ever played – it’s kind of like Red Rock if you could go in the rocks,” referencing the famous Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado.  

She opened her set, which consisted of 10 songs on the episode, with the opening track from her latest release “Every Time I Hear That Song,” which has one of the best melodies and choruses you’re going to hear from any song in any genre this year. It would be one of six songs from the album performed on the show.

My favorite performances of the show – and two of my favorite songs of 2018 period – were “The Mother,” which is a beautiful tribute to Carlile’s first daughter Evangeline, and “The Joke,” a terrific anti-bullying sentiment which NPR called: “a country-rock aria dedicated to the delicate boys and striving girls born into this divisive time.”

Among the older stuff in Carlile’s repertoire performed during the show were “Raise Hell” from her 2012 release Bear Creek and “The Eye,” from her Grammy-nominated 2015 release The Firewatcher’s Daughter. One of the true highlights of her performance was a cover of Elton John’s 1971 song “Madman Across the Water.” John was a major influence on Carlile and she taught herself to play piano as a kid after being introduced to his music.

Other performances during the fantastic broadcast from By The Way, I Forgive You included “Whatever You Do,” “Party of One” and the upbeat “Hold Out Your Hand,” which served as a rip-roaring finale to the program and got the audience thoroughly energized.

The one-hour special, “Bluegrass Underground” episodes are typically 30 minutes in length, was a precursor to the show’s eighth season, which will premiere in the fall and include performances from Turnpike Troubadours, Mary Gauthier, Kathy Mattea, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Flatt Lonesome and more.

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