Big Ears

The release of the lineup for Knoxville, Tennessee's annual Big Ears Festival is one of the high points and most anticipated moments of the year for me. My own personal Christmas Day. Ever since I first attended in 2018, Big Ears has been an important part of my life, almost to the point of being part of my self identity.

Back in 2018, VIP passes were $600. The Hyatt Place next to the Tennessee charged $150/night. Now it’s $1,475 for the pass and $900/night. I understand inflation and cost of living and all, but holy shit! Still, this is my big annual splurge for the year, but the lineup needed to be interstellar for me to shell out that kind of money. But I'm so underwhelmed by this year's announcement thar for the first time in nine years (excluding the two covid years), I'm going to pass. Some small part of me is dying inside. 

Not that there aren't some good to downright excellent performers in the announcement, especially in the undercard at the bottom of the list. My outre tastes generally leave me unenthusiastic about the headliners of any festival, anyway, and I'm almost always more intrigued by the undercard. This lineup is no different. Headliners Trio of Bloom with Nels Cline is interesting, as is Evan Ziporyn and Maya Beiser's interpretations of Philip Glass' Bowie symphonies, but Jeff Tweedy, Jim James, and Kevin Morby sound like the lineup of some 2010's indie-rock fest. Ditto Courtney Barnett, Sylvan Esso, and Mavis Staples. And Natalie Merchant? As a 2027 headliner? Really?

Part Two of the lineup, after the headliners, is the "separately ticketed" shows, the sets you have to pay to see after you've already paid for the festival pass. I saw Norah Jones back in 2003 and I've heard nothing from her since then that makes me want to hear her (or pay extra to hear her) in 2027. A Grateful Dead cover set? I hate the fucking Grateful Dead, man! And who outside of a certain circle in Nashville thought separately ticketing Nathaniel Rateliff was a good idea? I don't get it.

But paying extra for "separately ticketed" shows, which began two years ago, was never part of the draw to me for Big Ears, which leads us to Part Three - the curated sets, residencies, and :middle card. This is where things got interesting in years past, and the Bang on a Can 40th Anniversary is a great concept, as is William Parker's 75th birthday bash. But both the collective of composers and musicians and the avant-garde bassist have been Big Ears staples for as long as I've been attending. Personally, I've had it with Bill Frisell and would probably have passed on his sets even if I had attended. Vijay Iyer is a great jazz pianist but I've seen him many times now. Melvin Gibbs isn't really my thing (or headliners Robert Glasper and Kamasi Washington), Luke Schneider's country ambient is pleasant enough but not terribly interesting, and who has time for a 12-hour raga extravaganza even during a four-day festival?

Not to be negative though - I'd love to see SML and Jeff Parker's ETA IVtet again, and jazz musicians Craig Taborn, David Murray, and Tomeka Reid can always be counted on for good sets.  Those five right there should be the headliners according to me tastes and preferences. And it would be hilarious to see Sleaford Mods at Big Ears.

The meat of the matter for me, as I said up top, is the undercard. I like it that Adam O’Farrill, Amina Claudine Myers, Nicole Mitchell, Kahil El'Zabar, and the duo of Ava Mendoza & Hamid Drake are all in there, and I'm surprised to see Animal Collective's Avey Tare so low in the announcement. Ditto Godspeed's Efrim Menuck. Ingrid Laubrock, James Brandon Lewis, and Sylvie Courvoisier would be "must sees" if I were there next year. Ken Vandermark with Paal Nilssen-Love would be insane. Horse Lords are great, but they're currently touring and will be playing here in Atlanta next month. 

"Petra Haden Sings King Crimson" sounds like the most Big Ears set ever, but I suspect fans hoping to hear her wreck her vocal chords on 21st Century Schizoid Man will instead endure pop versions of Cadence & Cascade and I Talk to the Wind. 

So, yeah. No John Zorn and no Zorn-related artists Brian Marsella, John Medeski, and Marc Ribot. No. Julian Lage. No Mary Halvorsen. No Anna Weber. No Ches Smith or Shahzad Ismaily (at least as far as I can see although I wouldn't be surprised to learn they popped up somewhere in someone's set). No Meredith Monk or Myra Melford. No Oren Ambarchi or Mats Gustafsson. Nothing even related to Terry Riley.

So is it worth over $5,000 for the pass and four nights in an overpriced Knoxville hotel? Sure, I could save money with a General Admission pass ($450 for Early Birds), and stay a few miles outside of Knoxville and commute in daily, but it would hardly be the same experience I enjoyed so much in the past and would feel like a compromise. A lesser experience on top of a poorer lineup. But there's even more.

I have dire and dread feelings about the direction America is going. Bad things are going to happen leading up to and during the November midterm elections, and while I'm not saying that we will be under martial law or fighting some sort of civil war next April, I can't assure myself that we definitely won't be. I'm as equally unsure about the economy as I am about the sociopolitical future. Not to be a downer, but it feels like collapse is imminent on so many fronts. 

I'm finding it hard to convince myself that's it a wise idea to invest $5k, much less a GA $1,500, in a four-day music event that's not as good as in past years and that might not even happen in a worst-case scenario. 

Thank you for your attention to this matter.