Big Ears Festival 2025 – A Musical Journey

A Path Through the Jigsaw Schedule of Big Ears Festival 2025

by John Diliberto 3/26/2025

The sold out Big Ears Festival 2025 takes place this weekend March 27-March 30 in Knoxville Tennessee and it is always a cornucopia spiral wrapped in electronic wires, overflowing with folk strings and free jazz horns. And that’s before you pour it out and find more. This year in particular is a feast of ambient, electronic and post-rock sounds, including Tortoise, Explosions in the Sky, Immersion, SUSS, Michael Rother, Anoushka Shankar, and topping it all, Steve Roach.

There are fifteen performance venues and well over 100 acts, all scheduled in conflicting and overlapping times. In a typical year, (well, Big Ears is never typical) there are a lot of hard choices, but this year, that is amplified since there are more core artists for me than ever.

Given that, here is my planned path through Big Ears Festival 2025. I try to see full concerts and I’ll do that again this year, but I know there will be deviations. Here’s my rationale for my choices, and at the end, I’ll just give you a list of my route.

Thursday 3/27
Right away on Thursday there is a conflict. I love Marissa Nadler, the diva of the downer. She’s playing The Point at 6:10, a very cool, deconsecrated Church, but she is up against Rich Ruth, the project of guitarist/keyboardist Michael Ruth, playing The Standard at 6:15. He has a great band working somewhere between progressive rock, post rock, fusion and ambient. And lately, he’s been getting into heavy metal. It would be a great roaring way to start the festival. This could be game day call, but likely Rich Ruth.

Immediately following that is one of the big conflicts. Steve Roach is playing at Church St. United Methodist Church while Immersion and SUSS are playing a triple bill at Regas Square, not one of the more auspicious venues at the festival. However, since Roach is playing all three nights, I will go with Immersion and SUSS this time. Their album together, Nanocluster Vol.3 was the Echoes March CD of the Month. Their show, with each band doing a separate set and then coming together, is long, from 7:30 to 10. Seeing that will force me to miss Tortoise at the Mill and Mine at 9 as well. Also looking cool in this slot is Joel Harrison who will be interpreting Miles Davis’s In a Silent Way.

The next timeslot presents more possibilities. I’m going to see Barry Altschul’s Axiom 5, an electronic and ensemble project. I’ve loved Altschul’s playing for decades, going back to Chick Corea’s Circle, Paul Bley, Anthony Braxton and Dave Holland’s Conference of the Birds. I saw him a few years ago and he was still wailing. (See review.) He’s playing at 10pm at one of my two favorite BE venues, the Bijou. I’d love to catch Carlos Niño and Friends, doing a spacey sort of free jazz in a meditative mode, but they are at the opposite end of town, at Jackson Terminal. They start at 11pm so I doubt I’d make even a portion. That leaves Darkside at the Mill and Mine at 11:30. This kinda post-rock band, centered by Nicholás Jaar on electronics and Dave Harrington on guitar, has gone full krautrock on their new album, Nothing.

Friday 3/28
I’m starting Friday early with my one movie stop. They screen several music-oriented films and documentaries during Big Ears and I’m always reluctant to see them. Why watch music on film when there is so much live music? But the film, Eno, is screening at the Regal Riviera Cinema 3 at 10am with no schedule conflicts so I will catch that.

From there I’ll go to hear music that influenced Brian Eno and see the Philip Glass Ensemble performing Music in Twelve Parts, Pts. 1-6. That’s a 2-hour performance at 12pm in the Tennessee Theater, my other favorite BE performance space. But I’ll only catch part of it, because I’m moderating a panel at 1:30pm called A Journey from Space Music to Ambient & Beyond with Steve Roach and violinist and author Linda Kohanov. I’ll talk about all things ambient with this musician who has been doing it for 45 years. Unfortunately, that means missing missing Cowboy Sadness and the Nels Cline Singers.

After my panel, it’s going to be a random decision who I see. There’s a lot of avant-garde sets against each other, including multi-instrumentalist More Eaze, avant-garde classical violinist and composer Modney, and drummer Tyshawn Sorey’s neo-classical work, “Chromatic Light (Afterlife)” inspired by Morton Feldman and the Rothko Chapel.

Then I’ll catch the Sun Ra Arkestra with Yo La Tengo. I’ve not been thrilled with what I’ve heard from the Yo La Tengo side of this collaboration, but the Arkestra’s solo performance is in conflict with something else later, so I might catch this at 3:30pm at the Knoxville Civic Auditorium. There’s only so much time to catch them with 100-year old bandleader Marshall Allen.  From there it’s to percussionist and composer Thor Harris who operates on the edges of minimalism when he isn’t slamming percussion at deafening volumes with Swans.

Singer Jessica Pratt comes next, playing at the Tennessee Theater at 5:45. After that, there’s a bit of a gap with a combination of nothing that is interesting me and/or it’s a scheduling conflict. So it could just be dinner.

But that is followed by Steve Roach at 8:30pm at Church Street United Methodist Church, doing a two hour set. Steve will have his full arsenal of modular, analog and digital synths along with the digeridoo and an immersive visual experience that will be perfect for this venue. That’s followed by the opposite end of the spectrum, with Taj Mahal at the Tennessee. He’s 82 years old now and I’ve never seen him before.

The night ends with Les Claypool’s Bastard Jazz and what is sure to be a wild conclusion to the evening, with the Primus bass player and Sean Lennon collaborator. Chops will be flying.

Saturday 3/29
My day starts early with the second panel I’m moderating. Across the Horizon Presents: The Third Wave of Ambient, featuring Michael Rother of Neu! and Harmonia, Bob Holmes of SUSS, and harpist Mary Lattimore. We’ll be talking all things ambient and more, because all these artists are more than that. That’s at 10am at Old City Pac.

I’m following that up with the second half of Philip Glass’s Music in 12 Parts, performed noon to 2pm at the Tennessee. I will leave a little early to catch Wadada Leo Smith at the Bijou at 1:30. He has several performances at the festival, all with different types of ensembles, but I want to catch his regular group roaring through some tempestuous improvisations.

Then it’s across the street to Julia Holter at the Tennessee from 3:15 to 4:30. Not sure which Julia we’ll get, the avant-garde one or the haunting singer-songwriter. Sadly that means missing Channel Beads and Beak>.

There’s a bit of a gap in there and I might catch small portions of William Basinski or Joel Harrison’s Free Country. They’ll be filling a gap, but sometimes that’s where discovery happens.

Michael Rother comes next. The searing German guitarist played in Neu! and Harmonia and has released a string of incredible solo albums over the last 5 decades. He’ll be playing music drawing from all of that. I saw him in Philadelphia in 2010 and it was extraordinary (read review). He’ll be at the Mill and Mine at 6pm-7:15pm. My least favorite venue because it’s usually set up for SRO.

Sadly, that means missing the Sun Ra Arkestra and harpist Lara Somogyi, both of whom I would love to see.

Anyway, I’ll end the night with SUSS and their Across the Horizons performance, which will include several collaborations. That’s at the Mill & Mine at 10pm.

Sunday, 3/30
Last day of the festival and I’ll be as exhausted being there as I am writing about it.

There are WAY fewer conflicts this day which makes me think they could’ve spread things out more to satisfy my needs, because of course, my needs are paramount at Big Ears, not.

I’m starting the day late at 2:30 with guitarist Marissa Anderson at the Point. She is a phenomenal finger-style player honing a lot of traditions in Americana.

I’ll follow that with Kahil El’Zabar Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, a jazz unit whose roots going back to the AACM with his group formed in 1974. I’ll follow that with more jazz from trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith once again, this time with his Radio Light & Orange Wave Electric. Although I lok at the scedule that might not be possible because my next “must-see” show is Anoushka Shankar all the way across town at 7pm at the Tennessee. She’ll surely be playing music from her wide ranging series of recent EPs that move from pure ambient to pure raga, almost.

The night will end with Explosions in the Sky, returning after a long hiatus. I don’t know if they’ll play their American Primeval score or go to earlier tracks, but from past experience, it will be exhilarating and mesmerizing as they weave their guitars from melodic meditations to sonic assaults.

That’s my path through Big Ears 2025. Things can change. Artists can get cancelled or added; my mood could shift; events or people could move me in one direction or another. There are only four things that are always true at Big Ears Festival.
Scheduling Conflicts will occur
Hard choices will have to be made
You will miss out, so forget FOMO
You will be amazed, exhilarated and enlightened by the experience.

MY PATH THROUGH BIG EARS 2025

Thursday 3/27
Ruth Rich
SUSS/Immersion/Suss & Immersion
Barry Altschul’s Axiom 5
Darkside

Friday 3/28
Eno film
Philip Glass Ensemble
A Journey from Space Music to Ambient & Beyond with Steve Roach.
Sun Ra Arkestra with Yo La Tengo
Thor Harris and Friends
Jessica Pratt
Steve Roach
Taj Mahal
Les Claypool’s Bastard Jazz

Saturday 3/29
Across the Horizon Presents: The Third Wave of Ambient
Philip Glass Ensemble
Wadada Leo Smith
Michel Rother
SUSS Across the Horizon Nights.

Sunday 3/30
Marissa Anderson
Kahil El’Zabar Ethnic Heritage Ensemble
Wadada Leo Smith
Anoushka Shankar
Explosions in the Sky.