Welcome back to Big Ears conversations about music.
I'm your host, Matt Marowitz. Today we're looking back at the
singular, transformative, and ever surprising experience that
is Big Ears, A convening where genres dissolve, curiosity
reigns, and the faithful followers of Sonic adventure
come together each spring in Knoxville, TN.
Big Years 2025 may be behind us, but it's echoes linger.
It's a festival I personally look forward to all year, a
beacon for the musically adventurous, a sanctuary for
seekers, and a reminder that music's possibilities are
endless when borders are erased. This year, I made myself a
promise. Go see what you don't know.
I hobbled on a bum knee, battled the head cold, and endured the
kind of FOMO that hits you not just from missing a festival,
but from being there and still not scratching the surface of
everything you hope to see. And yet, I witnessed sets of
music and conversations that shifted my understanding of what
music can do for listeners and communities 1. 212.
Joining me today to process the magic, the madness and the
missed connections are three of the sharpest music minds I could
gather who attended this year's festival.
Bill Parris, editor at brooklynvegan.com, who always
brings a deep knowledge and understanding of indie music and
underground culture. Natalie Weiner, journalist and
Co creator of the broadly Country and Americana Substack
newsletter Don't Rock the Inbox and a past contributor to
Billboard, The New York Times, Pitchfork and Texas Monthly.
And finally, Jenny Punter, a long time contributor and
publisher of Music Works magazine from Toronto, Canada,
who brings a vital international perspective and a keen year for
the experimental. Together we unpacked what made
Big Ears 2025 S unforgettable. From free jazz blowouts to
mystical bagpipes, from deep backstage hangs to late night
revelations. The music we saw, the artist we
missed, the genre defined performances that linger on in
our minds. And yes, all the ways this
festival continues to push us out of our comfort zones and
into something transcendent. Let's take a listen.
I'm Bill Paris, and I'm a senior editor at brooklynvegan.com.
I guess I can go with the thing that I was most excited to see
this year, which was Tinder Sticks.
And they played on Sunday at Tennessee Theatre.
It was their first US tour in like 1313 or 16 years, one of
those. And they were supposed to play
big years in 2020, which didn't happen.
And Front End Stewart Staples said that Ashley Caps had been
trying to get them to play basically since the festival
started. And they finally got it to
happen this year. And I've been a big fan since
the 90s. And their record from last
year's Soft Tissue was one of my favorite albums of the year.
And really, they didn't disappoint.
I mean, the Tennessee Theatre is just a great place to see a band
like that. The very like lush, like dark
cabaret if you if you've never heard them before, they're a
little bit like Nick Cave in the Bad Seeds without the violence,
I feel like or the threat of violence.
Just gorgeous stuff. Sounded great, looked great.
Wonderful show all around. Very happy to have gotten to see
them. My name is Jenny Punter and I'm
the editor of music works and magazine from Canada, Tinder
Sticks. You can't, you can't win them
all. I was a huge fan from way back
the original day, so I'm sorry I missed that.
But I did have an old days hit I'll mention as sort of my hit
because it was off the radar for me.
I had lots of shows that I knew, you know, I planned out to see,
but I hadn't really read the description of immersion, which
featured Colin Newman from Wire. And I'm a huge was a huge fan of
Wire. I still listen to the band from
time to time. You know, they continued to make
albums for quite a while. And so it was pretty exciting to
go into that space and see the show.
The duo show that they put on. It was like very much the same
kind of rhythms and bubbly drone vibe that Wire had, and not
quite the eloquently verbose lyrics of Wire, but but still
very meaningful. And it was a packed room.
So I was actually quite excited to see that was a short set, had
fantastic visuals. That was actually in Regis
Square. So yeah, that was definitely a
highlight for me. My name is Natalie Weiner, and I
wrote about figures for Don't Rock the Inbox.
I mean, for me, I think the highlight, honestly, was
Emmanuel Wilkins, Blues Blood. I mean, I'd seen him before, you
know, going back a long time at, you know, different winter jazz
fests and whatever. But I was just so impressed by
the way that the set came together.
I mean, it was just, it felt like right in that sweet spot of
like super ambitious, you know, conceptually because it is kind
of like, you know, a concept album for him.
The the chef on stage was obviously like such a unexpected
element. I hadn't seen him perform this
music before, so I I hadn't seen that aspect of it.
And yeah, it's definitely just, I found it like, such a
wonderful way to make literal the idea of like, cooking in
jazz, you know? I mean, that's like jazz slang,
right? Like, they're cooking.
They sound good. And like, here was a guy
actually cooking, you know, with like a hot plate and he's like
chopping in and putting stuff in a pot.
And, you know, the smell of what he was cooking started to like
waft over you, you know, like 1520 minutes into the set.
And it was just, you know, making that kind of a multi
dimensional experience, you know, multi sensory experience.
I don't know. And the music itself, I mean, it
was just so like emotional and heartfelt and it didn't, didn't
at all feel like, you know, playing to play.
It felt like he was really conveying something.
What did the chef cook on stage? That, I don't know.
They didn't like say. I think one of the things I love
about Big Ears, this was also my third time too, I came last year
and then in 2016 is like how it is been adding all these really
sort of appropriate things like conversations and art and it all
really works. And on the food side, kind of
like a like sort of a last minute decision.
I went on Sunday morning to see Daca Braca, the Ukrainian group
who were who I'd seen here in Toronto before, but they, I
missed them the night before and they and they were set up in the
tent at the mill and mine making borscht.
And so there was a guy from a local Ukrainian restaurant who
told this amazing story about how he gone foraging for
mushrooms. And as he was, he and and his
colleagues were kind of making this enormous pot of borscht,
which would they were going to be serving to folks later.
I missed that. I missed the soup.
But and then in between, members of the band would would get up
and sort of sing traditional song from local ceremony.
So this was the kind of thing where it's not just us being in
a room watching artists on a stage, but like, like getting
into their lives a little bit more and things that inspire
them, like whether it's visual art or video or, or even just
when they play with other artists and you're not expecting
to see them on stage. Like that is such a special
vibe. And food now is now an extra
element, I guess. So maybe we'll see more more
cooking on stage in future years.
This was my first figures actually.
And so it was like learning to navigate all the different
venues around Knoxville, you know, and kind of like, I
probably the most similar festival I've been to is Winter
Jazz Fest, you know, And so I'm used to sort of like bouncing
between venues in that context. But it it's just, if you're not
familiar with the lay of the land, like how long do I have to
get to this place? But you can't walk everywhere.
Yeah, exactly. Jazz for the first time.
I mean, I, I, yeah, like sometimes in in big cities, you
might get a super local festival.
But Toronto, we've got a a bunch of them and they're mostly kind
of rocket pop type festivals where there's multiple venues
and just you can't, you can ride your bike around, I guess.
But I think this is this is definitely attraction,
especially for the 60 plus crowd.
Those original big years folks is like you can walk everywhere
there's a bus. But and I think that is
something that it makes it closer to like a European
festival. Some of the European festivals
where you can, well, you can't really take in everything
anymore, which which I think you could almost do in the early
days, but. But the nice thing is that there
might be another venue on your way to what you're going to see.
And then you think, oh, I'm going to drop in and then you're
like, you see, maybe you stay and you miss the thing or, or
maybe it's a solo artist and you stand at the back and you see a
few and you're like, this is really good.
I'm going to keep moving on. So I went to the Susan Alcorn
tribute and I was really happy I did.
So there was a huge number of her former collaborators and
she'd been at Big Ears before and magazine I edit had done a
story on her and she played up here in Canada a number of
times, had collaborators up here.
But it was really interesting to hear the music with a without
her in a way. And it was, it was really
beautiful. I didn't stay for the whole
thing, but but I thought that was really special for the for
the festival to be able to respond in that way as they as
they did with at least one other show.
I know, I know of. So rather than cancelling
something that they had planned, to be able to celebrate
someone's music in that way, it was really quite wonderful.
I was also at the Alcorn Tribute and it was really.
Yeah, there you go. Great taste, guys.
We were all in the in the same room.
No, it was so good. And I wanted to like reinforce
also what Bill said before. Just like the longer the
festival went on, the more I was like, I think I'm actually just
going to not like try and hustle over and catch half of 1 and
half of the other or whatever. I'm just going to like enjoy
this and really try and let myself like immerse myself in
what I'm hearing, you know, because it's like, obviously
your eyes are bigger than your ears almost or something.
You know, you're like, your eyes are bigger than your stomach.
You want to go see everything. And I realized I had walked like
24 miles at the end according to my phone.
And it's like, OK, I can just, I'm here already.
I can just like, listen to what I'm listening to.
I loved going to see anything at the Tennessee Theatre.
It's just AI mean. It's a comfortable, nice, great
sounding, great staff venue. I don't know.
I was at I was at Mill and mine a lot.
I think just because I'm kind of like an indie rock guy and
that's the indie rock venue at at Big Ears really.
And like some bands are are better suited for that place
than others, like Lancome and Explosions in the Sky, like have
the right kind of sound for the acoustics there.
But it's a nice, it's a nice place also because you've got
like a few restaurants and stuff right by there that are easy to
like pop into if if you need to eat something quick or whatever.
Sometimes like I, I think like even though we were just talking
about how it's so easy to walk anywhere that you want to go, I
think, you know, halfway through the festival, you're aware that
you're halfway through the festival.
And I found myself kind of going like, OK, I'm going to pack it
in. So I'm going to stay in the, you
know, Regis Millen mine standard in the Jackson Terminal kind of
area and the point maybe and just kind of stay there and
resist temptation even though the walk isn't that bad.
Like you know you can maybe kind of catch 2 sets that are at the
same time and 1st part of 1 and the second part of another one.
I was just shocked by the number of like cool venues in
Knoxville. I was like, how?
How did these all survive like all year long?
I mean, the Bijou Theatre was really cool.
I mean, I love the Tennessee Theatre too.
I mean, that's like jaw-dropping when you walk in.
It's unbelievable, you know, like, how does that exist?
But yeah, they were all pretty great in their own way.
I mean, the Jackson terminal space is cool too, you know,
just for like a, a chill vibe, you know, But yeah, I, I don't
know, kind of no, no duds. I would say.
It's all just cool, and in different ways.
On Sunday, I don't know, I was doing a bunch of things and I I
heard like field work with BJ and Tyshawn and Steve was like
really amazing. And I was like, you know, it's
one of those I did see, but, you know, I've seen DJ like tons of
times before, but I I saw Tyshawn Trio, which I just never
seen, you know, I don't, you know, get down to New York too
much. And and there's a lot of jazz
artists that don't make it up to Toronto.
We just have a bit of a problem up here with that.
And so, you know, I think that that probably like some people,
you know, a lot of folks, you know, mostly Americans who are
who are going to the festival where certain artists just don't
come to their city. So sometimes that's a priority.
But yeah, like quite a few people told me about that one
and it was a bummer for me. Ambrose solo set, I kind of wish
that I had been able to go to that, but it was like full by
the time I got over there. But yeah, similar to what you're
saying, like I live in Dallas now.
I did used to live in New York, so I had kind of like, you know,
the run of any kind of stuff I wanted really.
But living in Dallas, like most jazz etcetera, improvised music,
art music artists, like, really don't come through here at all.
And it was my husband's first, like any kind of Jazz Festival.
So there were a lot of people that like, I had seen previously
and I really wanted him to get to see, you know, and that kind
of thing. Or just people that, you know, I
hadn't gotten to see in a long time, you know, since I moved
and I wanted to see them and that kind of thing.
So yeah, definitely is a treat, a special treat if you live in a
place where you don't have access to like most of the stuff
all the time. I like Knoxville because it
feels like a small town, but it's like the one that's invaded
by, you know, a whole bunch of of weird artie weirdos, you
know? And yeah, just to tie with
everything we've talked about so far, just the experience of just
being in this, you know, on the same streets and you're just
running into like strange people and are are famous people and
they're just out and about. And Knoxville is a very
welcoming place. And I've enjoyed all three years
that I've gone and I hope to continue.
It's definitely a really cool city.
I had no idea what to expect. I mean, besides like UT college
town, but no, I I really enjoyed it.
I was honestly I think I want to echo.
I can't remember who said it, but just, I think it was Jenny
like about it feeling like European, you know, because to
me the shows did really feel like just the level.
This isn't about Knoxville specifically, but I guess about
the festival, but just like the level of attentiveness and the
level of fullness at like every single set.
It really did feel like European like and I like I studied abroad
in Paris. So this is a long time ago at
this point, but but I did go to a lot of shows when I lived
there and I was so shocked by how, you know, people.
Obviously we all know like people in Europe like Revere,
like American jazz and improvise music, like it's much more
respected there and plenty musicians like make all of their
living like touring Europe, et cetera.
But it did have that feeling, that same feeling of like, oh,
these are a bunch of people who are really like treasuring this
experience and like listening extremely attentively.
And like I, I saw Allison Degroote and Tatiana Hargraves
together, which was like a really wonderful kind of old
time music set and they were like, you guys are being too
respectful, you know, because it's really kind of like it's a
folky dancy music, you know, and everyone's just like, so like
reverent, you know, which is good.
And I think like, I especially recently in my concert
experiences, I feel like people have been honestly like
increasingly rude. And I don't know if that's just
like our era or something, but it was, it did feel like I'm not
in America right now. Like with the level of just like
just packed rooms for like out jazz, you know, like lines out
the door for like super avant-garde stuff that would
normally be in like a really, really tiny club somewhere.
And everyone just like completely like so excited about
it, you know? So yeah, that was that was
surprising and definitely invigorating for me personally.
Before we go, we want to take a moment to honor someone who's
quiet magic has long rippled through American Music and who
gave us one final gift at this year's festival.
Michael Hurley, the legendary folk musician, storyteller,
cartoonist and true American original, passed away just days
after forming 2 deeply memorable sets at Big Ears 2025.
His final show was on Sunday at the Jig and Reel, the most
intimate venue in the entire festival.
I was there, standing alongside Natalie Weiner, surrounded by
friends and strangers, drawn in by that same quiet magnetism.
It was my first time seeing him live, same for Natalie.
And I remember thinking how surreal it felt finally hearing
that voice in the room after Jim Mcnee and Ashley Capps had
talked him up to me for years. They spoke of him with such
reverence, like a secret you carry close.
None of us could have known it would be one of his last
performances, but in hindsight, it felt like the perfect
goodbye. No grand stage, no spotlight.
Just Michael, his songs and a room full of love.
This episode is dedicated to his memory.
Rest easy, snob. Thank you for the music.
And the heart of the Forsaken world.
He ain't like you and I, with bones always breaking and no
place to go live. He's in the box, so dark and
wet. He got so much time he ain't
even worried yet. The hog of the Forsaken.
He is the important crime. Big Ears Conversations about
Music is a production of Big Ears Festival.
The show is produced by me, Matt Merrill.
Trevor Smith is our editor. Ashley Capps is the executive
and artistic director of Big Ears Festival.
For more information, visit bigyearsfestival.org.
Forsaken. He'll leave you one more chance,
which if you won't be taken, you'll leave it for the end.
It sings out in the wilderness. He sings for friend and foe.
He sings of these and those times as well as the time to go.