This was my first time to go all the way through three days with Big Ears. I have to say it’s really as amazing as you’ve heard from your avant-garde friends. Concerned I might be out of my depth and find very little with which to relate, I could not have been more wrong. The cumulative experience opens new aural worlds while offering windows into connections not previously imagined. I’ll walk you through my final two days and then I’ll end with a few thoughts.
I started my second day with the Kronos Quartet. It may seem a little repetitive that I saw them so much, but not so much. First, I only knew them around the edges and wanted to sink further into their sound. Second, they paired with so many people that I really got to double-dip by seeing them with guests. Sometimes their sound helped me bridge my way to less familiar sounds.
This show featured folk music and they took the audience around the world with folk songs from numerous cultures. The pairings for the day were selected with the folk theme in mind. The first set ended with several songs shared with Sam Amidon. Particularly moving was Sam’s rendition of a shaped-note song learned in his youth. The odd tonal shifts perfectly matched Kronos’ own sound.
The second set ended with a pairing of sounds with Rhiannon Giddens of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and recently of solo fame. The versatility of the amazing Kronos musicians stood front-and-center as they moved through several of her folk/traditional songs. The absolute drop-dead highlight came at the very end when she sang Mahalia Jackson’s “God Will Take Care of You.” Chills throughout the house. Rhiannon’s vocal range and depth of feeling for these old songs makes for a powerful experience.
I didn’t have much time to take in the “scene” around downtown. I did hear multiple languages spoken on the sidewalks, which is something that long-term readers know I enjoy. I also ran into a photographer using 80’s equipment – 1880’s, that is. I don’t know that he was any part of the festivities, but he fit in. I also didn’t make any of the “secret” shows. The schedule was just too full of awesome from the beginning to the end.
I caught a Nels Cline and Norton Wisdom show at KMA. Norton does sequential art live while Nels (recently of Wilco) plays ambient guitar with his fingers, teeth and vocals via guitar pickup. It took me a bit to get into the idea that Norton would shape a painting before shifting or obliterating it for another. Someone in the audience likened it to sand painting – not intend to be permanent. I’m not sure I caught every meaning and connection, but it was one of the more interesting shows. A side note: I left a lens at this show and when I returned, the staff had found it and secured it for me. Kudos, Kudos, Kudos.
After that it was back to the Tennessee Theatre for a final round of Kronos, this time with Laurie Anderson. I’m pretty sure I didn’t understand everything I heard in this show, but I didn’t expect to. I’d never seen Laurie Anderson and knew to expect to be stretched a bit. She, along with the Kronos Quartet, matched that expectation. Poetry, other readings and fascinating instrumental interplay highlighted the night. Many of the shows, including this one, featured a screen with images behind the performances. I couldn’t see the entire screen the entire time, but I suspect it wouldn’t have made the obscure symbols and messages any more meaningful. Thankfully, the musical and spoken performance was enough.
I heard Max Richter in the Bijou backed with a small orchestral ensemble and accompanied by a reader. This was the most sedate of the performances I saw. It also included electronic samples, which was not unusual through the weekend. This was followed by the most joyful and fun performance of the week: Tune Yards. Love, love, love. Mostly percussive and mostly female, this combo rocked the packed Tennessee Theatre. Equal parts indie and soul, but predominantly joyful and high, high energy. Easily far and away the most sheer fun event of my festival experience.
For Sunday, I decided to pace myself a bit. One of the choices festival goers have to make is whether to attend full or near-complete shows and miss most of them or to sample a bunch of them without hearing full shows by anyone. For me, the choice was easy: I wanted to hear full shows. I did leave some a few minutes early in order to be at the next show when it started. That said, I attended only three shows on Sunday, but they were each spectacular. I was afraid after Tune Yards I was ruined for the weekend. Not at all.
I started the day with a full show by Rhiannon Giddens. She delivered the promise of her short set the previous day with Kronos. It turned out to be the kick-off show for her first solo tour and she’s taking along band-mates the Carolina Chocolate Drops who were in attendance at the Sunday show. After a delayed start due to sound issues, the show stunned from beginning to end. She hues to a very traditional set list with a few newer songs sprinkled in, but the arrangements and delivery make them seem very fresh. The hour-and-a-half show could have gone three hours and I don’t think the packed house would have objected.
Next, I walked to the Knoxville Museum of Art for a show with the wonderful composer, Terry Riley. Sound check was underway when I arrived and at show time, he, his son Cyan Riley and violinist Tracey Silverman simply kept playing. The entire performance was similarly informal and warm, yet precise and elegantly played. I found myself thinking about the similarly mellow performance by Max Richter and feeling this was somehow more visceral. I stayed for an hour-and-fifteen-minutes of the two-hour show and loved what I heard. I did wish for three things I’ll mention: chairs (why were we on the floor?), a visually appealing back-drop and better lighting. The first made for a pretty uncomfortable show and the other two made attractive photographs virtually impossible.
The reason I cut out of that show after just over an hour was because I wanted to see the entire Bill Frisell show at the Bijou. I’m so glad I did. The jazzy (and sometimes bluesy with a modern twist) sounds would have been enough to keep me happy, but the focus of the show was the great flood of 1927, which is of a particular interest to me for various reason. Featured was footage from the pre-flood Mississippi Delta, the flood, the aftermath, the migration and the cultural renaissance that followed. Very few words appeared on the screen. The video footage in the film by Bill Morrison left me speechless and really not wanting to follow the three great performances – and particularly this one – with anything else. My experience felt complete.
So, it was spectacular and I’m exhausted. I saw eleven shows in three days, took around 400 photographs, weeded through them, edited the remaining pictures and wrote about the experience. But it was so good, it was worth the work. The value to the city can’t be overstated. It puts on a cultural map like no other event. Nothing else attracts the media attention – like the three reporters from the New York Times, Rolling Stone, etc. – and people from all over the world.
We felt international and “big city” for a weekend and that’s a good thing. Today people are traveling home to places all over the world and, hopefully, they are taking with them good impressions of Knoxville. I felt particularly proud of each of the venues from the Standard to the Tennessee and Bijou Theatres and the Knoxville Museum of Art, which looked resplendent dressed up in its Richard Jolley best.
For next year, I’d encourage anyone who has an interest in music to attend. Make your best choices and know that you can’t really go wrong. I didn’t write about the electronic music which played all weekend at the Standard. I decided not to go there, but it might be your thing. By all accounts “Hive” was the stuff. I also didn’t attend movies because I love music too much. I wondered if there should be a Big Ears Movie Festival the weekend before, just to whet the palate for alternative goodness.
You can see my complete photo albums of the Festival on the Inside of Knoxville Facebook Page: Day One, Day Two, Day Three.