Blank’s Big Ears Guide • Big Ears Creator Ashley Capps Interview • Madame Weezy’s Big Ears Horoscopes • Schedule
The phenomenal success of Big Ears Festival is the culmination of a lifetime of projects for its head and founder Ashley Capps.
Growing up in North Knoxville, he was the kid who listened to music that fellow classmates had never heard of. He was the kid who drove to Atlanta or other cities to experience artists live when they didn’t come to his hometown. He later became the host of his own popular radio show, and in the early 1980s he found his footing as a local upstart concert promoter. In the decades that followed, he became one of the biggest independent promoters in the country, co-founded the Bonnaroo Festival and, through his company AC Entertainment, booked and organized a number of other major festivals and events.
After selling AC Entertainment and his interest in Bonnaroo a few years ago, Capps focused on Big Ears, the project that seemed closest to his heart. Add the festival to the years of promoting shows that never would have been presented in Knoxville were it not for Capps, and there’s no doubt that his artistic tastes and interests have had a huge impact on the city’s art scene overall.
“It was through music that I kind of learned how to explore the world,” says Capps over lunch at Hungry Sumo in Fort Sanders. “The thought that in some way what we’re doing might be a catalyst for others to do that, as well, is very rewarding for me. But you can’t force it. The real opportunity is being able to create an environment and an ecosystem where those who are interested in those types of experiences actually have the ability to experience them without having to necessarily go to New York or Europe. … That it can actually happen here in my hometown here in the Southern United States, that does feel like a wonderful accomplishment and a cultural victory that I’m very proud of.”
Big Ears certainly does that. Since it was founded in 2009, Big Ears has brought some of the most acclaimed and adventurous artists in the world to Knoxville. And while many East Tennesseans are regular visitors to the event, it also draws thousands of music fans from all over the world as well. The event is regularly cited by Rolling Stone, The New York Times and other major publications as one of the best music festivals in the United States.
The four-day festival utilizes nearly all of downtown’s best venues, including the Tennessee and Bijou theaters, the Knoxville Museum of Art, the Civic Auditorium, Mill & Mine, The Standard and even downtown churches for concerts and events.
Capps says that, as far as planning the festival, the biggest problem is actually “a very good problem to have.”
“In the early days, it was sometimes a challenge to convince artists to play the festival, and now it’s a challenge to manage all of the artists that want to play the festival.”
Performing at Big Ears is not only prestigious, it’s a place where artists know their new or edgy projects will be met with enthusiasm by both fans and fellow creators. Artists often collaborate for the first – and sometimes only – time at the event.
“The festival has evolved to where it has an extraordinary profile among artists and musicians worldwide,” says Capps. “Hundreds, if not thousands, of great artists want to play the festival every year. … As a music fan myself, I have a hard time saying no to artists who I really respect and whose work I really love. I just hope that we can do it the next year. In fact, this year we’re well on our way to planning 2026.”
When Capps, now 70, begins ticking off all the acts, his enthusiasm is still that of a teenager who can’t wait to tell you about this new act he just heard.
Among the high spots for 2025 are:
“Beth Gibbons from Portishead’s first solo show ever in the United States. She’s kicking off her tour at Big Ears, and it’s also her first tour as a solo artist after a very acclaimed album last year.”
“Anohni and the Johnsons. Anohni played the festival back in 2009, a concert that people who were there at the Bijou are still talking about. Anohni seldom tours, and the new record is the first in I think five or six years.”
“Esperanza Spalding has been on our radar forever. She’s a renaissance woman and just one of the most amazingly talented artists of our time.”
“I’m really excited about the singer-songwriter element, especially some of the young women who are some of our finest singer-songwriters of the moment. Julien Baker’s new project with Torres, this is her new collaboration post-boygenius. And Waxahatchee made one of the best records of last year. Cassandra Jenkins is another singer–songwriter who has been one of the most compelling artists of the past few years. The record she made during COVID was part of my regular soundtrack for a long time.”
“Nels Cline, best known as guitarist with Wilco, but one of the most creative musicians on the planet. He’s coming with two different bands, but he’s also going to play with Jenny Scheinman’s band, which features a three-guitar line up of Nels Cline, Bill Frisell and Julian Lage. They’re on the new record, but I think this will be the first live concert that they’ve all been able to play with Jenny.”
“DakhaBrakha, the Ukrainian band, blew people away when we first brought them in 2017. We had them at Bonnaroo in 2016. They’re just a riveting live band. We’ve wanted them to come back for the past several years.
“Rufus Wainwright. Saw Rufus Wainwright in San Sebastian, Spain, last summer, and it was just an amazing concert. Rufus is such a powerful performer.”
He adds that King Britt is curating a stage. Both Bela Fleck and Bill Frisell are premiering new bands during the festival. The North American premiere of Jonny Greenwood’s 8-hour pipe organ piece “133 Years of Reverb” will be presented at St. John’s Cathedral, while Church Street United Methodist Church will present “Structures of Silence” by ambient music pioneer Steve Roach.
Each time he seems finished, Capps remembers another performance that he’s excited about and becomes effusive. He also says he has a list of performers who have yet to play the festival that he emails each year to see if they’d like to perform. He’s afraid to jinx the possibility by mentioning their names.
One of the things that Capps is considering is that the day will come that he will be too old to be as involved with the festival’s planning. Pre-pandemic, his team with AC Entertainment organized the event. When the festival returned after taking two years off and following the sale of AC Entertainment, Capps had to assemble an entirely new staff. He hopes that, during the next three to five years, he will have put together a team that could carry on without him.
Big Ears has tripled in size and scope since 2019 and is being recognized as one of the fastest-growing cultural organizations in the Southeast. He says the group gets regular inquiries to create other events, which is something Big Ears may pursue in the near future.
At the moment, though, Capps is focusing on making Big Ears the best it can be.
“I want Big Ears to be as open and welcoming to as many people who want to be a part of the experience,” he says. “I don’t really worry about people who don’t want to be a part of the experience. It’s certainly not for everybody. For many people, music may be a really casual thing in their life. It’s not something they passionately pursue, and I can imagine how Big Ears is somewhat befuddling to them. But, as a wise man once counseled, you can use your time on the people who get it or you can waste your time on the people who don’t. Fortunately, we’ve cultivated an audience who really get it, and they’re selling out the festival for us every year, and that to me is a dream come true.”
bledsoe@blanknews.com
