We're all Cave Folk
- Ryan P. French
- Sep 9
- 3 min read
I’m not going to lie, I am a little geeked right now.
For anyone who knows me, you know I am a music NUT. I mean, my best buds and I are the guys who curate the Spotify list of the next 100 artists you’re going to be listening to—not just the ones on repeat right now.
Music is not a talent of mine. I can’t play an instrument (other than mad air drums and a little fiddle), I can’t sing, and I literally can’t even dance. But music is a large part of who I am and my family's identity. Music pulses through my veins as an adrenaline rush I cannot explain. I gravitate toward lyrics with meaning, cleverly woven into songs that change the way you feel, the way you breathe, heck—the way you live.
My wife and I exchange concert tickets for anniversaries and birthdays, and our kids start learning concert and festival life along with walking and potty training.
I grew up sneaking out onto “The Farm,” otherwise known as Bonnaroo, just a half-mile or so from my grandparents’ house in Manchester. I quickly found myself at the smaller stages while some of the headliners were on the main stage. I am a “mid-card” junkie, always looking from the bottom up. I love pointing out big artists’ names in small print on a 15-year-old poster and remembering when I saw them before they were them—if you know what I mean.
Today, The Caverns Sessions kicks off Season 14 on PBS stations across the country. It’s set to air on my PBS broadcast this Thursday at 9 p.m. This one is special because The Caverns is a massive driver of tourism. All year long, it brings fans from across the country right here to Middle Tennessee. Since 2018, the venue has generated over $87.8 million in visitor spending, supporting 146 jobs across the area. An amazing 73% of ticket buyers are from out of state, creating real tourism investment that is absolutely critical to this region:
493,167 total visitors, with over 359,000 traveling from outside Tennessee
$87.8 million in total economic impact
$5.9 million in state sales and liquor taxes paid
$1.5 million in local sales and occupancy taxes paid to Grundy County
$1+ million in direct local wages from job creation across five counties
$1.5 million invested in national and regional marketing since 2018
With that being said, when the opportunity opened to underwrite The Caverns Sessions on PBS, our team knew we had to find a way to make it happen. The Caverns team, from top to bottom, is committed to this region. They are deeply connected to the needs, wants, and goals of the area. We’ve had the pleasure of working with them for years across various events and opportunities, but this—this was more. This was a way to support what I feel is a calling card for the South Cumberland, for South Central and Southeastern Tennessee, and for the entire state.
The impact they make goes far beyond my bandwidth of musical nerdiness, but I understand how important they are—how important that impact is. They’re not just another music venue; they are rewriting the narrative and uplifting the culture of an entire community.
So yes, is this one of the coolest professional moments of my life? Absolutely. But the gravity of it all is not lost on me. The Caverns is an important part of our region’s future. The Caverns Sessions is a calling card for music across the entire state, and this is where important work and cool work come together.
I hope you tune in and enjoy Season 14 of The Caverns Sessions. A special thank you to the entire team at The Caverns and to our partnering communities that made this possible: the City of Winchester and Winchester Main Street, Shelbyville-Bedford Tourism, and the South Cumberland Tourism Partnership.