The Caverns Sessions

- Hidden deep beneath the Cumberland Mountains in Grundy County, Tennessee lies one of the world's most magical musical adventures, "The Caverns Sessions."

Three million years in the making, pure acoustics offer music from the heart of the American experience center stage and deep inside the mountain.

This time, welcoming Allison Russell.

Unstoppable... - It's deep-down musical diversity at "The Caverns Sessions."

Coming up next.

(cheering and applause) (musical intro) (musical intro) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) I was the queen of Westmount Park It was all mine after dark Old willow tree, it was my throne 'Til I, 'til I went home Father used me like a wife Mother turned the blindest eye Stole my body, spirit, pride He did, he did each night It's one for the hate that loops and loops Two for the poison at the roots Three for the children breaking through Four for the day we're standing in the sun Ooh, ooh Ooh, ooh Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, yeah Yeah... These are the best years of your life If I'd believed it, I'd have died Something told me that they lied Oh, I, oh, I survived I left home, I was just a child Slept in the graveyard, end of the mile When the sun came up and found my skin I rose, I rose again It's one for the hate that loops and loops Two for the poison at the roots Three for the children breaking through Four for the day we're standing in the sun Ooh, ooh Ooh, ah Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, yeah Yeah... (upbeat music) (audience applauding) - Hi.

I'm Allison Russell.

Together, we are the Rainbow Coalition.

This is a circle, y'all.

We're one half.

Y'all are the other half.

Let's get up to some joyful, creative communion tonight.

We're so happy to be here!

Our first time ever playing in a womb of the Earth, of our beautiful, miraculous Mother Earth.

We're so happy to be here for The Caverns Sessions.

We love y'all.

(upbeat music) Slipstreams and fever dreams Do you see what I can't see Tell me, tell me, tell me I want to understand From the coast of Africa To the hills of Grenada To the cold of Montreal That whip, that whip still falls It's one for the hate that loops and loops Two for the poison at the roots Three for the children breaking through Four for the day we're standing in the sun One for the hate that loops and loops Oh, oh Two for the poison at the roots Oh, oh Three for the children breaking through Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, yeah Four for the day Yeah One for the hate that loops and loops Yeah, yeah Two for the poison at the roots Yeah Three for the children breaking through Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, yeah Four for the day Yeah... Ah... (upbeat music) Ooh, ooh... (upbeat music) Ooh, ooh (upbeat music) Ooh, ooh (upbeat music) Ooh, ooh (upbeat music) Ooh, ooh... Yeah (cheering and applause) (cheering and applause) - [Allison] The Rainbow Coalition, y'all!

(gentle rhythmic music) (gentle rhythmic music) I used to dream I'd shed my skin And leave it lying on the ground Crawl away from where I'd been A new and wet and gleaming one But every scar and every bruise They shine like blue Botswana jewels What did not kill me, fills me With the power of a thousand suns... Woo... (gentle rhythmic music) (gentle rhythmic music) Every wound a rift, a hide A portal to another time Time slips and folds and flees and flies She teaches us we are divine Woo... (gentle rhythmic music) (gentle rhythmic music) (ethereal music) (ethereal music) We travel time back to the child Back to that inner garden wild And further up and further in To the indigo sky past the red sea cliff Where our wings unfurl We fly further still In and up and up and in Past the deathless stars Through the breathless void... (upbeat music) We burst through our skins Skins turn to asteroids Now the bountiful blackness Weds that pregnant silence And a song is born Those cold rocks transform Into gleaming planets With purple moons And rainbow rings gently coiling Circling, circling In the gravity of the burning suns We now embody Bright constellations, bright constellations Never seen before, a whole universe A whole blazing force, a whole blazing force Unstoppable Unstoppable... (audience applauds) (gentle rhythmic music) I used to dream but now I write I wield my words like spindles bright To weave a world where every child Is safe and loved, is safe and loved, is safe and loved And black is beautiful... And... good (audience applauding) (gentle rhythmic music) (audience applauding) (gentle rhythmic music) Oh, oh And black is beautiful And good... (cheering and applause) (cheering and applause) (peaceful music) (peaceful music) Yeah, I'm a midnight rider Stone bonafide night flyer I'm an angel of the morning too The promise that the dawn will bring you (upbeat gentle music) I'm the melody and the space between On every note the swallow sings I'm 14 vultures circling I'm that crawling, dying thing I'm the smoke up above the trees, good Lord The fire and the branch that's burning, Lord Maybe you were sleeping, Lord But, Mary, she's not weeping no more, no Ooh, yeah Yeah, I'm a midnight rider Stone bonafide night flyer I'm an angel of the morning too The promise that the dawn will bring you You... You... And I'm the sick light of a hurricane's eye I'm a violent lullaby I'm six fireflies, two streetlights I'm a suffocating, I'm a suffocating summer night Yeah (upbeat gentle music) I'm each of his steps on the stairway I'm his shadow in the doorframe I'm the tap, tap of a lunar moth I'm the stale beer on his breath (upbeat gentle music) Yeah... But his soul is trapped in that room And I crawled back in my mother's womb I came back out with my gold and my greens Now I see everything Now I feel everything, good Lord What the hell could they bring to stop me, Lord Nothing from the earth, nothing from the sea Not a God Almighty thing I'm a midnight rider Stone bonafide night flyer I'm an angel of the morning too The promise that the dawn will bring you You You... (upbeat gentle music) (upbeat gentle music) I'm the wounded bird, the screaming hawk The one who can't be counted out I'm the dove thrown into battle I can roll and shake and rattle Ooh, ooh Ooh, ooh And I'm the moon's dark side, the solar flare The child of the earth, the child of the air I am the mother of the evening star I am the love that conquers all Yeah, I'm a midnight rider Stone bonafide night flyer I'm an angel of the morning too The promise that the dawn will bring you Yeah, I'm a midnight rider Stone bonafide night flyer I'm an angel of the morning too The promise that the dawn will bring you You You You You... (cheering and applause) (cheering and applause) - Hey!

(cheering and applause) We got one last song for y'all.

Thanks, y'all.

This has been beautiful.

Thank you for making us feel welcome in Pelham, Tennessee.

(upbeat gentle music) Oh, I know your way Is hard to see today Bullets, they fly faster Than mothers' lullabies And the sparrows cannot sing For it is theirs to bring The souls of those lost babies Back to the sky... So it is yours to sing My child, my wild brightling With the love born In the cradle of time... And fight and fight and fight In the dying light For all lost and gone forever Clementine Requiem... Requiem The question is not if It was always when Go on, go on, my child Hope is a prairie fire Set your embers on the summer wind (upbeat gentle music) (upbeat gentle music) (Allison singing in French) And fight and fight and fight In the dying light For all lost and gone forever Clementine Requiem... Requiem... The question is not if It was always when But, go on, go on, my child Hope is a prairie fire Set your embers on the summer wind... Requiem... Requiem... The question is not if It was always when So, go on, go on, my child Hope is a prairie fire Set your embers on the summer wind... (gentle music) Set your embers on the summer wind... (gentle music) (cheering and applause) - I'm Allison Russell.

Thank you so much.

We love y'all.

Thank you, Caverns Sessions.

(cheering and applause) (cheering and applause)