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Bands shine during musical weekend
Marty-StuartWEB
Marty Stuart performed in the Caverns.
James Clark
Updated: Mar 28, 2017, 6:24 PM
Published: Mar 28, 2017, 7:22 PM

Warren County’s biggest underground music weekend of the year strummed, plucked and wailed its way to a memorable finish Sunday at Cumberland Caverns as filming for the seventh PBS season of Bluegrass Underground came to an entertaining close.
Twelve bands performed over three days, highlighted by Marty Stuart, Blues Traveler, and The Mavericks.
“It was an incredible spread of artists and the crowd was with us all the way,” said Bluegrass Underground producer Todd Jarrell. “It was a great cross pollination of music and music brings people together.”
Asked about his favorite act, Jarrell said he was especially impressed with the Sunday afternoon show from Rhonda Vincent and the Friday night show from The Mavericks.
“If you asked 12 people about their favorite performance, you’d probably get 12 different answers,” said Jarrell.
The Chamber of Commerce held an event called Taste of the Underground which was meant to complement Bluegrass Underground entertainment. All Taste of the Underground events were held at Park Theater either before or after the concerts at the cave so visitors could attend both.
Saturday night brought a Battle of the Bands to the Park Theater stage, a battle won by an Asheville, N.C.-based band called The Broadcast. The band featured the piercing vocals of singer Caitlin Krisko, who showed she can hit all the notes.
Winning Battle of the Chefs was The Yardbirds, a food truck which offered delightful dishes on a tortilla-type shell.
All visitors to Taste of the Underground could vote on their favorite band and chef.
Sunday morning, there was a Taste of the Underground brunch held before the shows at the cave that afternoon. The brunch featured a sneak peek of the new breakfast restaurant coming to downtown McMinnville.
As for when season seven of Bluegrass Underground will air on PBS, Jarrell said select PBS audiences will be able to see the show the first Wednesday of September. The show will go wider later in the month.
Bluegrass Underground is aired on 80 percent of all PBS markets, Jarrell said. That includes New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Chicago.
“I talked to a lighting professional who flew in from California,” said Jarrell. “He had seen the show on PBS and wanted to see the lights in person.”
Local farm partnership brings fresh beef to Warren County Schools
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Published: Apr 2, 2025, 11:31 PM

Warren County Schools has beefed up lunch menus this school year through a new community partnership. Thanks to a collaboration between the district’s School Nutrition Department and Barton Creek Farms, students at Warren County High School, Warren County Middle School, West Elementary, Eastside Elementary, and Dibrell Elementary are enjoying locally sourced, farm-fresh beef in their lunches as part of a pilot program.

The initiative, spearheaded by Terri Mullican, Director of School Nutrition, has already shown great promise in its first few months. The partnership with Barton Creek Farms, located in Rock Island, Tennessee, ensures that the beef served is not only local to Warren County but of the highest quality. Barton Creek Farms specializes in farm-to-fork beef, with grass-fed and grain-finished cattle. Each calf is born and raised in Rock Island and goes through USDA-inspected processing, ensuring it meets the strictest safety and quality standards.

“When the opportunity arose to provide fresh, local beef, we knew it was a no-brainer,” Mullican said. “The fact that it’s a product from right here in our community makes it even more special. We can’t wait to implement it district-wide.”

Barton Creek Farms delivers fresh ground beef to the district monthly, and the nutrition

department incorporates it into homemade recipes such as lasagna, meatloaf, chili, and tacos.

As of now, the beef is being served at five schools, but the ultimate goal is to expand the program to all ten lunch-serving schools in the district.

The pilot program originated from a conversation between Mary Roller of Barton Creek Farms and Mullican. Roller, recognizing the farm’s potential to support local schools, reached out to gauge the district’s interest in serving local beef to students. Around the same time, a Warren County school board member contacted Mullican to share information about a similar partnership in neighboring Dekalb County, which helped push the initiative forward.

The timing worked in the district’s favor, as the nutrition department was able to fund the purchase of the beef using existing resources, eliminating the need for additional funding. Now that the pilot program is enjoying a successful run, the department has budgeted to extend the partnership district-wide for the 2025-26 school year.

Dr. Grant Swallows, Director of Schools, praised the program’s economic approach to student nutrition.

“This pilot is a perfect example of how we can use local resources to continue providing nutritious, healthy meals for our students,” he said. “We are grateful for partnerships like this one that benefit both our students and our local community. We always strive to support our local businesses when we can because our community is so good to us.”

In addition to working with Warren County Schools, Barton Creek Farms also partners with local restaurants to offer farm-fresh beef on their menus. The farm’s offerings include ground beef, steaks, roasts, and custom cuts by the quarter, half, or whole cow, meeting diverse consumer needs.

As the program continues to grow, the district hopes to expand its focus on farm-to-school meals, benefiting students’ health and connecting them to the agricultural roots of the community