Bluegrass Underground Season 6

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.

Hear the Cox family, who contributed several songs to the soundtrack of O Brother, Where Art Thou?-the best-selling roots music album of all time. They returned to the national music scene recently with their first album in almost 20 years.

As his wife recovered from an accident that nearly paralyzed her, The Lone Bellow was born as a creative outlet for singer Zach Williams. Now a thriving part of Brooklyn’s Americana scene, The Lone Bellow Roots-folk-rock trio was recently nominated for Americana Duo/Group Of The Year.

Rolling Stone magazine explained veteran rockers DNC thusly, “Crunching hard rock is the Drivin’ part. Brittle country-ish balladry.” Hailing from Atlanta, GA, Kevn Kinney and Drivin’ N Cryin’ have for 30 years offered die-hard fans a blend that arcs from intimate acoustic folk to soaring (and searing) guitar-laden southern rock.

The Tennessee mandolin prodigy is all grown up and comes to Bluegrass Underground fresh from releasing her third solo album, the jaw-dropping, Bela Fleck-produced Weighted Mind. Of her, Fleck notes, “She plays the mandolin with a degree of refined elegance and freedom that few have achieved… Her vocals and songwriting matured to the level of her virtuosity.”

Seemingly born fully formed in 2012, this Birmingham, Alabama Soul band’s career hit the ground as big and strong as their sweat-soaked, seven-piece Soul-Funk sound, earning major raves from major media, including Paste magazine, Garden and Gun, Southern Living, Rolling Stone and NPR.

Led by Illinois native Jason Ringenberg, the Scorchers crashed out of Nashville and began smashing down the walls between genres with their own brawling brand of country-rock almost 35 years ago. As trailblazers for the cowpunk and alt-rock bands that would follow, Jason and the Scorchers have received the Americana Music Association's Lifetime Achievement Award.