Musicians are fans at 2019 Big Ears Festival

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Haven't you heard?  Thursday the critically-acclaimed Big Ears Festival kicked off and the music continues in Downtown Knoxville through Sunday.

Before noon Thursday, fans formed a line that extended from the Knoxville Visitors Center to the TVA Towers for a chance to see the free WDVX Blue Plate Special concert.  That's where Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi gave the standing-room crowd a free taste of the eclectic sounds the festival offers.

Giddens, well-known as a founding member of the Grammy-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, is doing her best to entertain all types of audiences through this weekend.

"I am in Knoxville doing several things," smiled Giddens.  "I am here for the Knoxville debut of the ballet 'Lucy Negro Redux' with the Nashville Ballet at the Tennessee Theatre, which I co-composed the music and also perform on-stage with Francesco Turrisi. We're also here to do our own duo shows because we have a new record that comes out in May."

Giddens can entertain just about any audience.  She can sing opera, compose music for ballets, play old-time fiddle and banjo, and belt out lyrics in several languages. She is just one of more than 120 musical acts performing through Sunday at Big Ears.

Giddens says you can hear the difference between Big Ears and a typical music festival.

"It's incredible. The nice thing about this festival is it is an indoor festival. It's a venue festival.  So, it allows different kinds of music that wouldn't really work for an outdoor festival.  I think it allows musicians to actually go see other musicians," said Giddens.  

The lineup this year allows Giddens to both perform and be a fan.

"We're here the whole weekend.  I specifically requested that we could be here through Sunday so that we could see some of the amazing folks that are lined up here," said Giddens.

This festival that now draws fans from around world to Knoxville only began 10 years ago.  In 2009, it was the personal pet project of AC Entertainment founder Ashley Capps.

"Big Ears is a visionary festival. What Ashley has done is brought all these kinds of music together from all over the world. It brings a lot of things to Knoxville people would never see all together in one weekend," said Giddens.

"At last check, we had people from 23 countries and 48 states at the festival so far," said WDVX general manager Tony Lawson.  "Just think about it economically, what it brings to East Tennessee.  It brings a lot of money here.  It also brings a lot of culture.  It brings a lot of folks here to discover East Tennessee."

The musical feast has something for fans of all tastes to relish the art that resonates with everyone. 

"What music does is it's the great leveler.  It's the great 'bringer-together' of people. A music festival this diverse, I think is a beautiful thing," said Giddens.

The Big Ears Festival features more than 100 performances from local and regional artists and runs March 21-24, 2019.  The festival also supports film, visual arts, and poetry. 

General admission day-passes to the festival cost around $75.  However, there are many free events throughout the next few days, including WDVX events at the Knoxville Visitors Center as well as Barley's. 

LINK:  2019 Big Ears Festival schedule

Big Ears 2019 will include the second edition of its all-night, 12-hour drone concert and a series of panels and workshops.

The Big Ears film festival was recently dubbed one of the 25 coolest film festivals in the United States.

Knoxville native Yves Tumor is also someone to keep an eye out (or ear out) for at this year's festival.

The festival said "an experimental answer to SXSW” will return under the direction of Paul Harris and Darren Hughes of Knoxville’s Public Cinema.

In 2019, Big Ears presents more than 10 distinct special programs that are unique to the festival altogether or are in some of their earliest performances.

LINK: Full 2019 Big Ears Festival lineup

1. ABSTRACT BLACK
2. ABSÎNT (AURORA NEALAND, BILL FRISELL, TIM BERNE, DAVID TORN)
3. ACME
4. ALIEN FLOWER SUTRA
5. ALTERED STATESMAN
6. ALVIN LUCIER
7. AMIRTHA KIDAMBI’S ELDER ONES
8. THE ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO
9. ARTIFACTS TRIO
10. AVEY TARE
11. AVISHAI COHEN QUARTET
12. BÉLA FLECK
13. BÉLA FLECK & EDMAR CASTAÑEDA
14. BILL FRISELL & THOMAS MORGAN
15. BILL FRISELL AND THE MESMERISTS FEATURING TONY SCHERR, KENNY WOLLESEN AND THE FILMS OF BILL MORRISON
16. BILL FRISELL’S HARMONY FEATURING PETRA HADEN, HANK ROBERTS & LUKE BERGMAN
17. BLACK DUCK
18. B|_ANK
19. BROOKLYN RIDER
20. CAPS
21. CARL STONE
22. CARLA BLEY TRIOS WITH ANDY SHEPPARD AND STEVE SWALLOW
23. CARLA KIHLSTEDT
24. CARNIVAL OF SOULS WITH LIVE SCORE BY MERCURY REV'S CLEAR LIGHT ENSEMBLE FT. STEVE SHELLEY, TIM BERNE, BEN NEILL, MIMI GOESE, JIM SCLAVUNOS, JESSE CHANDLER, JONATHAN AND GRASSHOPPER
25. CHRIS ELDRIDGE
26. CLARICE JENSEN + JONATHAN TURNER: FOR THIS FROM THAT WILL BE FILLED
27. COLUMBIA ICEFIELD
28. THE COMET IS COMING
29. COUPLER
30. DARK INSIDE THE SUN
31. DAVID TORN
32. DEJOHNETTE COLTRANE GARRISON
33. DEREK GRIPPER
34. DRAGNET GIRL WITH LIVE SCORE BY COUPLER
35. EVAN PARKER / MATT WRIGHT TRANCE MAP+
36. EVER PRESENT ORCHESTRA FEAT. STEPHEN O’MALLEY AND OREN AMBARCHI PERFORM THE WORKS OF ALVIN LUCIER
37. FIRE!
38. GABRIEL KAHANE
39. GIRI & UMA PETERS
40. HAROLD BUDD
41. HAWKTAIL
42. IAN CHANG
43. IE
44. INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE
45. IRREVERSIBLE ENTANGLEMENTS
46. JACOB CLARK
47. JERUSALEM IN MY HEART
48. JLIN
49. JOAN LA BARBARA PERFORMS WORKS BY ALVIN LUCIER
50. JOAN LA BARBARA: VOICE IS THE ORIGINAL INSTRUMENT
51. JOEP BEVING
52. JON MUELLER
53. KARA-LIS COVERDALE
54. KAYHAN KALHOR
55. KAYHAN KALHOR & BROOKLYN RIDER
56. KIERAN KANE AND RAYNA GELLERT
57. KIM KASHKASHIAN
58. KIM KASHKASHIAN AND ROBERT LEVIN
59. KRISTÍN ANNA VALTÝSDÓTTIR
60. KTL
61. KUKANGENDAI
62. LARRY GRENADIER
63. LONNIE HOLLEY WITH NELSON PATTON
64. LONNIE HOLLEY AND THE MESSTHETICS
65. MAKAYA MCCRAVEN
66. MARY HALVORSON'S CODE GIRL
67. MARY LATTIMORE
68. MATHIAS EICK QUINTET
69. MATT NELSON
70. MATT WILSON'S HONEY & SALT
71. MERCURY REV
72. MEREDITH MONK & VOCAL ENSEMBLE CELLULAR SONGS CONCERT
73. THE MESSTHETICS
74. MIMI GOESE & BEN NEILL
75. MOOR MOTHER
76. MOSAIC INTERACTIVE
77. MOUNTAIN MAN
78. NASHVILLE BALLET: LUCY NEGRO REDUX CHOREOGRAPHY BY PAUL VASTERLING WITH MUSIC BY RHIANNON GIDDENS & FRANCESCO TURISI AND POETRY BY CAROLINE RANDALL WILLIAMS
79. NATE WOOLEY
80. NIEF-NORF
81. NIK BÄRTSCH’S RONIN
82. NILS FRAHM
83. OREN AMBARCHI
84. PARKER / SCHLIPPENBACH / LYTTON TRIO
85. PETER ASKIM
86. PETER GREGSON
87. PUNCH BROTHERS
88. RACHEL GRIMES: THE WAY FORTH
89. RAFIQ BHATIA: BREAKING ENGLISH
90. RALPH TOWNER
91. RHIANNON GIDDENS AND FRANCESCO TURRISI
92. RICHARD THOMPSON: KILLED IN ACTION
93. ROBERT LUNDBERG
94. ROOMFUL OF TEETH
95. SERPENTWITHFEET
96. SETH HOPPER
97. SHAI MAESTRO
98. SHANE PARISH
99. SIMA CUNNINGHAM
100. SONS OF KEMET
101. SPIRITUALIZED
102. ST. JOHN’S CHOIR: ARVO PÄRT’S PASSIO
103. SUN OF GOLDFINGER (DAVID TORN, TIM BERNE, CHES SMITH)
104. TASHI DORJI & TYLER DAMON DUO
105. TATSUYA NAKATANI
106. THEO BLECKMANN: BERLIN - SONGS OF LOVE AND WAR, PEACE AND EXILE
107. THEO BLECKMANN: HELLO EARTH! THE MUSIC OF KATE BUSH
108. THIS IS NOT THIS HEAT
109. THIRD MAN BOOKS PRESENTS CAROLINE RANDALL WILLIAMS, KENDRA DECOLO, CIONA ROUSE
110. THUMBSCREW
111. TIM BERNE’S SNAKEOIL
112. TIM STORY PRESENTS THE ROEDELIUS CELLS
113. TRIPTYCH (EYES OF ONE ON ANOTHER), FEATURING ROOMFUL OF TEETH, COMPOSED BY BRYCE DESSNER, LIBRETTO BY KORDE ARRINGTON TUTTLE, FEAT. THE WORK OF PATTI SMITH & ESSEX HEMPHILL, DIRECTED BY DANIEL FISH, PRODUCED BY ARKTYPE / THOMAS O. KRIEGSMANN
114. UNCLE EARL
115. VERY VERY HOT EVIL
116. VIJAY IYER AND CRAIG TABORN
117. WADADA LEO SMITH SOLO: REFLECTIONS AND MEDITATIONS ON MONK
118. WADADA LEO SMITH’S NDA, PERFORMING “DIVINE LOVE” WITH BOBBY NAUGHTON AND DWIGHT ANDREWS
119. YUNOHANA VARIATIONS WITH YOSHIMIO, SUSIE IBARRA, AND ROBERT AKI AUBREY LOWE
120. YVES TUMOR
121. 12-HOUR DRONE ALL NIGHT FLIGHT: DREAMS OF THE WHIRLWIND