BY ALAN SHERROD In the last year and a half, the simple act of walking has taken on even more importance, oddly thanks to the scourge of the Covid-19 pandemic that made socially-distanced outdoor exertions one of the few…
Big Ears Festival To Open ‘SITES & SOUNDS’ on Friday with R.B. Morris — Live From the Bijou Theatre
All over the U.S., it is a time of struggle for artists and arts organizations — a struggle to balance the need to continue the creative energy of live performance, with the absolute requirement for safety in the face of…
Tuesday Arts Miscellany: June 30, 2020
It has been three and a half months since our last Miscellany, the absence reflecting the lack of substantial art and music news to report. Unfortunately, the pandemic is not over and the necessary vigilance in keeping ourselves and others…
How to Listen to Fennesz, Big Ears Glitch-Ambient Artist
BY ANDREW SWAFFORD When I began wading into the waters of ambient music, one of the first artists I encountered was Fennesz. I listened to his 2004 album Venice – or I should say, I listened to the beginning…
Big Ears 2020 Film Lineup: Rare Experiments from International Auteurs
BIG EARS FESTIVAL 2020 ANNOUNCES FULL FILM LINEUP • Curated by The Public Cinema • • STANDARD DEFINITION, a program of artist cinema from the early digital-video era • Visiting artists JESSICA SARAH RINLAND and LILY KEBER • STEREO VISIONS,…
Arts Administrator Aaron Greenwald to Join Big Ears Festival as Managing Director
Since its first season in 2009, the Big Ears Festival has continued to find ways to grow and evolve, intriguing new music attendees year after year, and creating a performance gravity that has subsequently grown Knoxville’s art and music scene.…
Big Ears 2019: Some Overlooked Festival Gems
Overlooked is a bit of a loaded word when it comes to the Big Ears Festival. The festival features so much music unlike anything you’ve ever seen, that it’s truly impossible to see it all. For an introvert like myself, FOMO became a relatively new and profoundly constant state-of-mind throughout the weekend. Some of the most talked about performances of the weekend — such as Spiritualized, Mountain Man, the Messthetics, and Dejohnette Coltrane Garrison, only the last of whom I saw — simply conflicted with other performances on my schedule. So having missed some of the most impressive and mind-bending performances, how can I even refer to other acts as overlooked? Big Ears just offers so much.
Big Ears 2019: Making Everything Seem Possible
By Alan Sherrod With minds mostly boggled and ears now feeling oversized, 2019 Big Ears Festival attendees have drifted back to their corners of the world, left to replay in their minds their adrenaline-fueled, four-day romance with music and…
Strolling Through Big Ears – Part 2
Well the weather cleared up for Friday and Saturday, sunshine and warmer weather prevailed, and you couldn’t have asked for nicer days to be strolling around downtown. Hope the visiting Hawaiians felt more at home.
The Pilot Light and Big Ears
Let’s talk about the Pilot Light. The Old City club, which will hit its 20th(!) anniversary next year, has hosted a mind-boggling number of acts in its time, many if not most that are right at home in the Big Ears universe, with many festival alumni having performed there before they were later booked for the big show. It’s a natural venue for the festival, along with Big Ears stalwarts the Tennessee Theatre, Bijou and KMA, a venue for the original festival in 2009.