Big Ears: Crush of global guests, many local friends

These locals had just as much fun as the legion of out-of-town — and out-of-country — visitors. From left, Jesse Fox Mayshark, Scott Schimmel, Lisa Sorensen, and Alan Carmichael at the Tennessee Theatre last Thursday for the Pat Metheny show.

First stop on Thursday was the opening reception at the Knoxville Museum of Art which featured the artwork — and the music — of Wayne White. These huge paper mache heads — and many other pieces of White’s — will be on display at the KMA through July 12. It’s fun stuff! Check it out! The museum has free admission.

Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon welcomed everyone. She explained that Knoxville is known as the “Maker City” and she was wearing a dress created by a local artisan from old quilts.

Ashley Capps is founder, executive, and artistic director of Big Ears, which is a non-profit organization with a $6 million budget. With him is Sara Houchins, the festival’s director of development and community relations.

I love the name of Wayne White’s band: Username Password. Ha.

Wayne White had a sweet sound that surprised me. White won three Emmy awards for work he did on set and puppet design for “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.” He also did several voices on the show. He’s done award-winning work on videos for Peter Gabriel and Smashing Pumpkins.

Steven Matijcio, executive director of the Knoxville Museum of Art, with Casey Madison, the museum’s design and communications coordinator.

When Username Password took the stage, they came in wearing these big heads! It was a riot.

Birgit Clark and Lou Gross. He is a sponsor of the Wayne White exhibit at the KMA.

Photographer friends. Eric Smith, left, and Alan Sims.

Another Wayne White work!

Benny Smith, left, and Tony Lawson of WDVX, a sponsor of the exhibit.

The food was great for a party! Clockwise from top left: roasted mushroom & coconut sticky rice cakes; corned beef & cabbage toast points with chilled potato puree & pickled mustard seeds; baked brie in puff pastry with golden raisins, pistachios, and Za’atar honey; and pimento cheese biscuits with tomato jam.

Pat Metheny at the Tennessee Theatre later that night. An American jazz artist and composer, he has three gold albums and 20 Grammy Awards. He is the only person to have won Grammys in 10 different categories.

Back out on Gay Street, we ran into our friends Mary and Bill Thorpe.

We headed to Boyd’s Jig & Reel in the Old City.

To see Bloodshot Bill, an award-winning multi-instrumentalist from Montreal known for “raw rhythm and honky tonk punk.” He was interesting.

That’s where we saw former Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero and we met Scott Hauenstein. He’s from Las Vegas and really liked Knoxville. “Your drinks are a lot cheaper here than they are in Vegas!” he quipped.

And we ran into Sara Houchins again!

Loved seeing all the bikes in the Old City on a Thursday night.

And the motorcycles.

We ran into our friends Cheryl Light and Michael Searcy at about 9:30.

And saw Jennifer Ackley and Jeff Talman on Gay Street.

As well as David and Tracy Dewhirst.

And Charles Glisson and Joyce Feld in front of the Tennessee.

A highlight of Friday was seeing electronic music pioneer Laurie Anderson at the Tennessee Theatre. She has invented several musical devices that she has used in her recordings and performance art shows. Oh, and she was married to Lou Reed.

The Tennessee Theatre is definitely one of the biggest stars of Big Ears. All our visitors rave about it.

I love the sweet little cotton boles inside the Tennessee.

Here’s another thing they raved about, but not necessarily in a positive way. Our dogwoods are pretty, all right. But Big Ears fell smack in the middle of tree pollen levels that were rated “very high to extreme.”

Saturday started with a donor brunch at Five-Thirty Lounge on top of the Hyatt Place on Gay Street.

That’s where we saw our friends John Winemiller, left, and RJ Hinde. John’s immediate past chair of the Big Ears board of directors.

Annie and the Caldwells is a family disco soul band from West Point, Mississippi. They performed at Jackson Terminal which is, unfortunately, a standing-only venue. So we didn’t stay for the whole set.

There was a good crowd, though.

More friends on the street: Jack Singleton and Becky Fuller.

Our next stop was Regas Square where Alan had picked us out a concert that turned out to be one of our favorites: keyboardist and vocalist Sami Stevens.

Our friend Dino Cartwright greeted us. He was working the venue as a volunteer the whole weekend.

Here’s Sami Stevens. She has a voice reminiscent of Nora Jones.

Her band: Matt Aronoff on bass, Jacob Drab on guitar, Peter Moffett on drums, and her husband, Kazemde George, on tenor saxophone.

She only performed 75 minutes, but we could have listened to her twice that long.

She was sweet, too, posing with Dino after the show.

Back out on Gay Street at Cradle of Country Music Park, some buskers got into the action. These two called themselves “Bestia Vatis,” whatever that means!

The streets were busy!

Another line was forming outside the Tennessee Theatre.

You learn through the weekend to eat whenever you get the opportunity! This guy was enjoying lunch while standing in line!

Here’s who we were in line for. Richard Thompson, a folk and folk-rock guitar virtuoso, singer and composer who founded the group “Fairport Convention” in 1967.

I have a list of restaurants that I’ve never been to but I want to sample. One of them was Suttree’s High Gravity Tavern because I’d heard they have fantastic ramen. So, after the Richard Thompson show, we hurried over and secured a spot at the bar.

I was so happy for Sunday to arrive because it meant that the time had come to see a show we put on our list the moment the Big Ears schedule was announced: the Blind Boys of Alabama who would play at the Mill & Mine. Although the Mill & Mine is a (dreaded) standing-only venue, we knew there were a few VIP seats available in the small upstairs loft. We got there early to secure a spot. Here’s Alan up there with a visitor we met from Delaware.

Here they are. Founded in 1939 in Talladega, Alabama, some say they are the oldest singing group in America.

Southern gospel. My favorite song? “Amazing Grace” sung to the tune of “House of the Rising Sun!”

Dancing with the crowd.

Worth the price of admission, right there. (You can see from this photo why I don’t like standing-only venues. I’m 5’2″. I can’t see a thing if I’m anywhere but front row in a crowd like this. Unless I’m in a balcony!)

We ran into our friend David Arning, also in the balcony!

And we saw Lorie Matthews and Wes Goddard on the way out.

We jumped on a city bus which was serving as a Big Ears trolley, and saw these two smiling volunteers: our friends Troy and Elizabeth Goodale.

I headed to the Civic Auditorium to see Chris Thile. He played Bach on the madolin, among other things.

He’s a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Award and also plays with the bands Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers. (Sorry for the blurry pic. I did not have good seats to this show.)

Back at the Tennessee Theatre, we concluded our Big Ears experience with Nels Cline and the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra. He’s perhaps best known for his work in the band Wilco.

We also saw a couple of members of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra on stage! Bob Adamcik, left, on percussion and Sean Claire on violin.

There we saw proprietor Martha Boggs, right, with our mutual buddies Linda Billman and Charles Manneschmidt.

And Karly Stribling and R.B. Morris, both in forefront, with some friends.

And, never ones to leave well enough alone, we had to have just one more thing! So we headed over to J.C. Holdway, who had decided to make a rare exception and were open on Sunday. Here’s Leah Smith making my favorite late night libation.

The Last Word!

And Alan couldn’t resist dessert!

Thanks to our friendly sommelier Jason Drotar for helping Alan select an accompanying wine.