Annie & The Caldwells
Either Orchestra
Cymande
Saving Grace w/ Robert Plant
Final day of #bigears
Yesterday highlights:
Saving Grace w/ Robert Plant.
Cymande- impossibly fab
Hailey Heynderickx
Annie & The Caldwells
Carlos Nino & Saul Williams
Either Orchestra - so groovy
Madison Cunningham
Nate Smith
Missed so many artists I wanted to see. yet, so much goodness for one day
SML with guests Jeff Parker and Mikel Patrick Avery at the Old Greyhound Station in Knoxville right now
#BigEars
With SML at the Old Greyhound Station in Knoxville a few minutes ago
#BigEars
A moodily-lit stage with a pianist, bassist, drummer, and a divine bald Black woman named Cecile McLorin Salvant, who is quite literally the greatest living jazz singer. Also, her style is impeccable. She’s wearing a crepey flowy black tunic kimono thing over a VIVID scarlet underlayer. And Vibram V-Soul five-toe sandals.
The rule that is consistently proved Every Single Time: If Cecile McLorin Salvant is playing near you, you go. #BigEars
with Fred Frith, Simon Hanes, Max Jaffee, Jordan Glenn, and special guest Nora Stanley on sax at Jackson Terminal in Knoxville earlier today.
#BigEars
A wide-angle photo looking into a high-ceilinged space, with a lighting truss in the middle of it. The walls and ceiling feature multicolored splotches from a projection system. There are a lot of people’s backs visible — they are all facing an unseen stage. To the left of the frame, in the extreme foreground, there is a white wall heavily lit with blue light. It has a vertical red “Fire Extinguisher” sticker on it. Immediately below the sticker is the metal hook where the fire extinguisher would have been.
#BigEars is, generally speaking, the most well-run festival I have ever attended.
Which is why the unventilated former Greyhound station, apparently with side rooms that are off limits due to major sketch and mold, is such an odd anomaly.
Marquis Hill Blacktet at the Point in Knoxville right now
#BigEars
At #BigEars today, I’ve seen both Bloodlines Interwoven and Saul Williams (like holy shit truly) and both are sticking with me.
with the delightful @gweniferraymond.bsky.social at Barleys in Knoxville, TN earlier today
#BigEars
Second half of day two of #BigEars: Couldn’t get a full look at Jeremiah Chu’s #eurorack cases, but there were definitely a #MakeNoise Mimeophon and Morphagene in there. Anyone into improvised music and synth shit should check out this SML album, to get a sense of what can happen when one member […]
Robert Plant's Nashville setlist features 80% non-Zeppelin material, marking a bold creative pivot for the legendary vocalist and Suzi Dian. #OngoingNow #RobertPlant #Nashville #MusicNews #BigEars
selfie in a big green field at the start of the parkrun course
me giving a thumbs up with three parkrun volunteers standing in front of a sign that reads “third creek greenway”
had a good time at the local #parkrun in knoxville. a really pretty course and super kind people. next year at #bigears we’ll have to do more recruiting;)
9:30am on day 3 of #BigEars and gotta show up to give love to music writers. John Schaefer in conversation with @natechinen.bsky.social, Grayson Haver Currin, and @annkpowers.bsky.social on how music writing is changing in the digital age.
🪐 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗺𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝘂𝗽𝗶𝗻 & 𝗣𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗼 𝗚𝘂𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲'𝘀 #𝗦𝘂𝗻𝗥𝗮 #𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗺 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗦
Sat March 28th, 9.30am, #Knoxville, TN #BigEars
Thu Apr. 2nd. #Birmingham, AL
Wed Apr. 8th #Philadelphia, @lightboxfilmcenter.bsky.social
Fri Apr. 10th #Harlem #NYC #MayslesDocCenter
m.youtube.com/watch?v=bOtv...
SUSS w/ Walt McClements.
Enjoyed the shit outta this.
#bigears
How can you sum up #BigEars in a picture? Well, here’s a guy (Walt McClements) playing trumpet and accordion at the same time.
With SML plus Ben Lumsdaine as well the great Marquis Hill at the Old Greyhound Station in Knoxville right now
#BigEars
Ken Pomeroy with SUSS #bigears
The most special thing about #BigEars is the collaboration. Ken Pomeroy joined SUSS for “Days Getting Darker” and “Bullseye”
Kaoru Watanabe’s Bloodlines Interwoven was one of my favorites today.
All the big feelings in this show #bigears
Day two of #BigEars so far: Masada (in this incarnation, John Zorn, Dave Douglas, Joey Baron, Greg Cohen). Exactly what one would expect / desire.
Uhlmann / Johnson / Wilkes: very mellow and diverting and good lord they are just handing out loop pedals at the Knoxville airport, huh.
Mary […]
In 2016, Allen premiered Memwars, a multimedia installation that paired stories about several of his songs with a large clutch of his drawings. But in this live version of Memwars, he takes a different approach, playing his songs with Jo Harvey Allen and with The Panhandle Mystery Band, featuring Richard Bowden on fiddle and mandolin, Bukka Allen on accordion, Charlie Sexton on guitars, and Davis McLarty on drums. Allen's songs are so often about empathy for the outsider, understanding for the misunderstood. He and Jo Harvey will intersperse those tunes with stories about their origins, sometimes as twisting and wild as the numbers themselves.
Terry MFin Allen. #BigEars.
David Byrne just got on my elevator with me and smiled and chatted with me briefly when I asked him how things were going. How’s everyone else doing today?
#BigEars
I’ve seen the Jeff Parker Expansion trio (Jeremiah Chiu, Ben Lumsdaine) in both a small room (last year at Sound and Gravity Fest in Chicago) and in a big room (here at #BigEars) and, I’m telling you: see them wherever you can. They’re incredible. Best JP project right now and that’s saying a lot.
Got a seat for Jimmie Dale Gilmore & Butch Hancock.
Legends. Sure to be an Ely tribute.
#bigears
Ghost Train 🚊 Orchestra with Karen Mantler, Joan as Police Woman, & Sam Amidon at the historic Tennessee Theatre.
Arrangements of the music of Moondog.
Fabulous!!
#bigears #bigears2026
My #BigEars struggle has always been between things I believe I should hear, from an intellectual growth perspective, and things that I think I will simply find beautiful.
And the joke is nearly always on me, because I can’t reliably predict which is which, nor can I reliably predict what I’m […]
Getting ready to play on the radio WDVX ‘s Blue Plate Special at Barley’s Knoxville, Big Ears Festival!
Tune in: March 27 Friday 12-12:30pm (EDT)
#BigEars #guzheng #古筝
Kicking off #bigears day 2 seeing great writer Grayson Haver Currin moderate a discussion with Don Was, Alex Bleeker (Real Estate, Taper's Choice), Jon Samuels (MJ Lenderman), and Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso) on the intersection of experimental music and jam bands.
