By Olivia DeWan, contributor
When you think of a stage, you probably picture a raised platform, flashing strobe lights and a black backdrop. But last month, Dogwood Tales — a local, four-piece Harrisonburg band — was the latest group to perform in a far more unconventional setting: a cave.
“There is nothing more Shenandoah Valley-core than playing in a cave,” said Ben Ryan, a founding member of Dogwood Tales. “We were invited to play at Subterranean Sound and instantly accepted. This is a once in a lifetime thing.”
Grand Caverns has been the oldest, continuously operated show cave in America since 1806, as well as a National Landmark since 1973. Starting in 2024, Subterranean Sound at Grand Caverns has brought artists together to perform within its cave networks. Since then, the musical showcase has featured many Virginia bands playing intimate shows to an audience of only 75 people.
“We are heavily trying to focus the Subterranean Sound series on local Virginia-based artists and provide a variety of music and genres for the series,” Lily Whitman, a parks coordinator at Grand Caverns, said. “The series currently has 13 shows every weekend from January through March. Overall, this event is something that many staff members at Grand Caverns have been wanting for a while.”
Subterranean Sound continues with upcoming sold-out performances, featuring Chamomile and Whiskey on this weekend and Strong Water on March 14-15.
Dogwood Tales was thrilled to be one of those 13 bands.
“I had been to Grand Caverns before and I loved it,” Ryan said. “Getting to play there was a magical experience.”
Having the opportunity to play inside the ancient caverns is a rare occasion.
“We actually have a lot of Dogwood Tales fans on staff, which made them a huge standout for reaching out to invite them to the series,” Whitman said. “Their genre-bending mix between indie-alt and country really allowed them to stand out as a type of sound we did not have present in the lineup as we were starting to put it together.”
Dogwood Tales formed in Winchester while most of the band was still in high school before relocating to Harrisonburg in 2017. At one point, they even lived across from Crayola House — the former show house that hosted scores of bands over the years until July 2024 — fully immersing themselves in the city’s music scene.
“We’ve become so unintentionally influenced by the physical area we live in,” Ryan said. “As we get older, I feel like we just love Harrisonburg more and more.”
Ryan said that playing at Subterranean Sound felt like giving back to their roots in the Shenandoah Valley.
“It was a really special movement for us,” Ryan said. “It just felt very right for our band to play.”
Each room of the caves has a different set of acoustics and reverb, crafting the sound of the bands who play there into something unique.
“Because of the natural acoustics and its influence in the cave, the music and sound resonate so beautifully that we wanted to focus on that natural sound with an unplugged, stripped-back, acoustic series,” Whitman said. “While some bands have opted to amplify a few things here and there, almost all of the sounds and music you hear in the cave from this series is purely as is. You would be surprised how many people would pay to artificially replicate that exact sound in a studio, yet here we are experiencing it with our own ears in a natural setting.”
Dogwood Tales sold out their set with Subterranean Sound and will be back in Harrisonburg at the Golden Pony on April 19.
“I feel really lucky people want to come to see us play,” Ryan said. “That’s what’s special about living in a small town. You feel like you have the support of a lot of folks, it’s a very prominent feeling to run into those people at the grocery store or downtown.”
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