Big Ears To Bring Thundercat, Warhol, Banhart To Knoxville March 26-29

 The event, featuring more than 100 concerts, films, literary events and more to be announced, will feature special performances including “Sons of Chipotle,” a project from John  Paul Jones and Finnish cellist Anssi Kartunun for the group’s North American debut performance, as well as “Sound For Andy Warhol’s KISS,” performed by Sonic Youth co-founder Kim Gordon along with guitarist Steve Gunn, Bill Nace and John Truscinski.

Other performances include Jason Moran & The Harlem Hellfighters, paying tribute to legendary ragtime innovator James Reese Europe, Tindersticks’ first U.S. concert in many years following a new recording, and The Acenstors, a third group for Sons of Kemet and The Comet is Coming saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings. 

There will also be psychedelic desert rock from Mdou Moctar, Haitian voodoo blues from Moonlight Benjamin, new adventures in electronic music with Caterina Barbieri and Sarah Davachi, Can singer Damo Suzuki, plus new sounds from the Egyptian underground from Maurice Louca and Nadah El Shazly.

Tickets for Big Ears will be available beginning Thursday, October 10, at 12:00p.m. EST.

Big Ears was started 10 years ago by AC Entertainment’s Ashley Capps, the Bonnaroo co-founder who continues to co-produce the event and whose company has done other focused, boutique events like Moon River in Chatanooga, Homecoming in Cincinnati, Forecastle in Louisville and others. 

Big Ears festival went “hugely” from 2009 to 2010 with lineups featuring indie-rockers like The National, Vampire Weekend and The xx. But Capps put Big Ears on hold for three years while focusing on Moogfest in Asheville, N.C. 

After its return, Big Ears became a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, which provided the best structure for the event to realize its broader goals of education and community outreach. AC Entertainment still produces the festival, and it operates and manages two of Big Ears’ leading venues, the Bijou Theater and Tennessee Theater.

Today, Big Ears has a symbiotic relationship with Knoxville: the festival showcases music and the city showcases itself, known as a a multi-venue event in a walkable, historic downtown district dotted with restaurants and hotels. 

“I like to say that we bring the world to Knoxville, but we showcase Knoxville to the world,” Capps, who sits on the Big Ears board, previously told Pollstar. He added that the 2018 festival attracted people from 48 states and a dozen countries and had a four-day attendance of 16,700. Ticket sales were up 20 to 25 percent through mid-February.

75 Dollar Bill

Andrew Cyrille

Annette Peacock

Anthony Braxton

Areni Agbabian

Aurora Nealand & the Royal Roses

Bang on a Can All-Stars

Caroline Shaw

Caterina Barbieri

Christian Scott

Damo Suzuki Network with the Sound Carriers

Dan Weiss Starebaby

Daniel Pioro & Valgeir Sigurðsson

Devendra Banhart

Diamond Curtain Wall Trio

Dos Santos

Efterklang

Electric Appalachia (William Tyler, Mary Lattimore, Eric Dawson of TAMIS)

Gyan Riley

Harriet Tubman

Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die

Jason Moran & the Harlem Hellfighters

Jeff Parker and the New Breed

Joe Henry’s 115th Dream

Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society

Kim Myhr

Kronos Quartet

Marc Ribot

Maurice Louca

Mdou Moctar

Meredith Monk

Moonlight Benjamin

mssv (Mike Baggetta, Stephen Hodges, Mike Watt)

Múm

Myra Melford’s Snowy Egret

MZM (Miya Masaoka, Zeena Parkins, Myra Melford)

Nadah El Shazly

Natalie Joachim

nief norf

Paul Lazar’s Cage Shuffle

Peter Brötzmann

Sarah Davachi

Saul Williams

Shabaka & the Ancestors

So Percussion

Sons of Chipotle (John Paul Jones & Anssi Karttunen)

Sound for Andy Warhol’s KISS (Kim Gordon, Bill Nace, Steve Gunn, John Truscinski)

Spektral Quartet

Steve Coleman and Five Elements

Sudan Archives

Tamino

Terry Riley

The Haden Triplets

The Necks

Thunder Music Ensemble

Thundercat

Tindersticks

Xylouris White