Big Ears Festival / March 21st-24th 2024

Not related to this year's lineup (c'mon, AC, throw me a bone on the schedule...) but just learned that Art Ensemble of Chicago is playing in Columbus, OH in two weeks and I am LOSING MY MIND.

Schedule is now on the back-end of the site. I will pull the whole thing together in the morning and share it here. Of note:
Headliners/venue closers by night:
Knoxville Civic: Adrianne, Laurie, Herbie, Jon Batiste
Tennessee: Charles Lloyd, Rhiannon, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Julian Lage
Mill & Mine: Unwound, Carl Craig (late night), Son Rompe Pera (late night), Medeski/Ribot/Russo
Bijou: Frith Drawing Sound, Darcy James Argue, Shabaka, Aoife O'Donovan

Ticketed La Monte Young set will be at Old City PAC, 6:00 PM Thursday and noon Saturday. New venue is Regas Square right by Mill & Mine. Jackson Terminal appears to be fully programmed all four days. Blacktronica acts are clustered at individual venues each day.Definitely a couple schedule gaps, but it's just about there. Silkroad Ensemble will open the day at Mill & Mine on Sunday. Tyondai Braxton no longer on the lineup or the website. garageland called it on Joan Shelley/Myriam Gendron at Jig & Reel.

Alright folks, read 'em and weep.

Please remember that nothing is final and everything can move. I do not know set lengths, I just plugged this into last year's template. There are clearly a few (sometimes major) schedule gaps to be filled--Mill and Mine, Bijou, and Tennessee probably each have 1-2 more acts coming Sunday. But from my experience doing this the last two years, the core of it is here. I will post if there are dramatic shifts, but otherwise I'll just keep updating this document as I see things until the official schedule releases in about a month.

Shew, Sunday is brutal. Thanks for doing this.

Thursday:
Threadgill’s Very Very Circus > Secret Chiefs 3 > Unwound

Friday:
Joanna Sternberg > Faun Fables > Fred Frith / Ikue Mori > Jana Horn Slauson Malone1 > claire rousay > King Britt > DJ Heather > Suzi Analogue > Carl Craig

Saturday:
Kassa Overall > Colin Stetson > Threadgill Make A Move > Fred Frith Solo > David Vireilles > Kokoroko > Armand Hammer > Roc Marciano > The Messthetics w/ JBL

Sunday:
Harvest Time Project > Void Patrol > billy woods > FlySiifu > Medeski/ Ribot / Russo

There’s a few names I need to see as to what’s up (Jana Horn and Eli Winter Trio) that could potentially change this up a bit.

That’s what I feared. I’ll be there then.

Stetson and Ahleuchatistas are my only must-sees at JT, but I remember how bad the rush was for Caroline last year in that exact time slot. Hoping the expanded schedule means they just treat it as a venue. That and the Regas Square room really bolster that north side of the fest. Not sure I'll make it to the Point for anything this year, even just those few extra blocks really made it a tough push the couple times I was there in 23.

bigearsfestival.org/film/

Film is up and I’m already buying popcorn for the Elephant 6 documentary.

Look I'm just saying, there's still a couple pretty big blanks at the Tennessee

Everything I have in the schedule is from the website EXCEPT set length. But all start times are real as of Sunday night There were some big shuffles last year, lots could happen! But I think the core stuff is locked in.

Joe Henry with Julian Lage trio added to Sunday at the Tennessee.

Just read this in the email “I’m thrilled that I will be joining forces with Julian’s trio to perform a set of my own songs on Sunday, the 24th (The Tennessee Theatre), at the civilized hour of 6pm.”

I definitely chuckled.

Threadgill is one of my biggest draws and I was planning on hitting all four (except Air), but it looks like he's only playing with Zooid and the trio with Iyer and Prieto now. Make a Move and Very Very Circus are now referred to as "repertory ensembles" with Darius Jones on sax in the former, Yosvanny Terry in the latter--I'm 95% sure this is new since the initial announcement (and maybe even in the last couple weeks).

New JBL single has me coming to grips with skipping Roc.

Schedule updated accordingly. Keating 7:15 Thursday at St. John's. Jakob Bro at Regas Square on Sunday, no time yet but it'll slot in around 5 PM if things hold. Interesting that Blade is in this trio but not performing Thursday with Charles Lloyd given that he's on Lloyd's new album.