A music fan who’s willing to listen to almost any kind of music, and who can appreciate it for what it is – that person is said to have “big ears.” Hence the name of the Big Ears Music Festival, the gathering in downtown Knoxville every spring known as the most eclectic music festival in the world. 

The Eagles, meanwhile, were in town on Saturday, playing Hotel California in its entirety and a set of greatest hits. No disrespect to the Eagles or their fans (I’m one too), but you don’t need big ears for Life in the Fast Lane.

Larger-eared people were downtown, traveling among a dozen venues listening to artists from around the globe. As noted in my story about Days 1 and 2 of Big Ears, I navigated a mostly Americana path. 

Here are some favorites from Saturday and Sunday: 

Sierra Ferrell 

Sierra Ferrell had news for us midway through her show at the Knoxville Civic Center on Saturday, April 1. “I’m pregnant.” A pause. “April Fools!”

Thankfully, she had far better real news – she’s working on a new album. She performed three songs from the album, which will be her second label release after 2021’s stellar Long Time Coming.

All three songs are typically excellent. One is a rousing, uptempo fiddle workout with the chorus, “Can I drive you crazy, yes I can” that sounds like it’ll be a concert highlight for years to come. Another is a meditation on the cycle of life, death and rebirth in which her tears are too salty to water the rose, but come spring, “I’ll be living in the garden again.” 

A cover of John Anderson’s “Years,” her selection for last year’s tribute album Something Borrowed, Something New, showed off the raw power of her voice, something that doesn’t often show up in her own songs. 

Ferrell is riding up the escalator of popularity, snagging the Emerging Act of the Year award in September from the Americana Music Association and increasingly selling out her concerts. She’s one of those artists who wins over fans who then become missionaries for her work, telling their friends, “Hey, you gotta listen to this!” 

Seriously, you gotta listen to Sierra Ferrell. You might end up like one enthralled fan at this show, her first Ferrell experience, who turned to her boyfriend at the conclusion and said, “I want to marry her!”

Adia Victoria

Adia Victoria took the stage at noon on Saturday, less than eight hours after the cell phones of everyone in Knoxville screamed with tornado warnings. Morning dawned sunny, but one step inside The Standard and you were in a dark and smoky blues club. And I do mean smoky. I was 15 feet from the stage and could sometimes barely make out the band. 

I saw Victoria two months ago performing with just her husband and musical partner, Mason Hickman. In a semi-acoustic setting, Victoria’s songs are a slow burn. With a full band, they scorch. 

Much of Victoria’s music is informed by her being a Black woman in the South. She grew up in an evangelical church being told that her very flesh was evil, and the source of sinful thoughts and urges in grown men. 

She rejects all that. Rages against it. To the folks who say, “if you don’t love the South; leave it,” she responds with an expletive. This is our home too, she says in her opus “South’s Gotta Change,” the title providing a solution.

On Saturday, the music echoed the howl of the lyrics. The guitar slashed like lightning, bass and drums thundered, and Victoria wailed and screamed. 

From above, a tarp covering a window flapped in the wind. When it let in the sun, a beam of light would come down like a spotlight on the crowd, like a benediction from heaven. 

Peter One

Peter One took the most interesting path to Big Ears. He was a star in the mid-1980s in Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire), in western Africa. He recorded an album, Our Garden Needs Its Flowers, and played stadium shows. He left to escape unrest and to try to make it big in America. It didn’t work, and eventually he started working as a nurse in Nashville. 

A discovery of his album by the proprietor of Awesome Tapes from Africa led to a reissue in 2018. That caught the ear of Jason Isbell, who had him as an opener for several shows in 2022 and 2023, with more to come. Peter One makes his Grand Ole Opry debut on April 14, and a new album drops in May. 

A track from the upcoming album, Come Back To Me, was a highlight Saturday. To a gentle marching beat, “Birds Go Die Out Of Sight (Don't Go Home),” tells the tale of a friend who wanted to return to Ivory Coast despite the danger there. He did return anyway, and died not long after. 

Peter played at Big Ears with a crack band of Nashville hotshots, including Josh Halper on guitar, Luke Schneider on pedal steel, Agustin Escalante on keyboards, Austin Hans Seegers on drums and Trevor Nikrant on bass. Most are playing with him on tour as well, and they clearly adore him. With his gentle nature, I suspect he was a great nurse, but he’s no amateur musician. As Isbell said, “You can tell this man has performed many times for many people... you feel like you’re seeing somebody who is a legendary singer.”

He sings in French, English and Guro, but you don’t need to understand the words to understand the song. His music – folk and ’70s country filtered through Africa – tells the tale. 

Danielle Ponder

Danielle Ponder was sick. Sipping tea and coughing between songs, she wasn’t 100% on Sunday. Her 75% is about 200% for most singers. She’s got a big, force-of-nature voice and the musical chops to know when a passage calls for something less. 

Ponder was a public defender in Rochester, New York, and five days from 40 years old when she took the leap last year to music full time. She released Some of Us Are Brave in September. It’s soulful exploration of joy, sorrow and hope, of life lived hard and relationships gone tender. They sound great on a record, better in concert. “What a joy it is to be alive,” she sang, and we all agreed. 

The world didn’t need another cover of “Creep,” or so I thought until Ponder launched into Radiohead’s classic to conclude her show. Her rendition stunned the crowd to silence, no easy feat on a street festival stage just after noon. She brought delicacy to the whispery parts, powerful emotion to the crescendos. 

She’s opening for Lucius on tour. She’ll be the headliner soon. 

Quick hits

Los Lobos: Los Lobos might be the least rock-star-looking band on earth. If you ran into them at Home Depot, you wouldn’t give them a second look. But they remain A-list rock stars on stage. Fifty years into their landmark career, they’re still enthusiastic about their huge catalog of great, great songs. 

Lucius: Does anyone sing like Lucius? Vocalists Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig sing every note together, exactly the same. Their voices never diverge, neither takes a solo. It works. The effect is like the tightest choir you’ve ever heard. 

Ibeyi: The Tennessee Theatre is beautiful - a restored 1928 grand old movie palace, but it might not have been the best setting for Ibeyi. The sedate setting contrasts with the multilingual melting-pot pop of twin sisters Lisa-Kainde and Naomi Diaz, born in Cuba and raised in France by their French-Venezuelan mother. The music makes you want to get up and dance; the cushy seats say "sit." But most of the theater couldn’t resist shaking it anyway.

Etran De L'Aïr: The music of Etran De L'Aïr, from the central African nation of Niger, is loud and hypnotic. The drummer plays frenetically, the guitars intertwine with repeating notes and voices often wail in unison. Elements rise out of the mix and sink back down. It all creates a swirling, shimmering effect that draws in the listener. 

The lines: Big Ears’ policy of clearing the venue of fans after every show, and of allowing VIP passholders first entry, leads to long lines before many shows. The lines move pretty quickly though, and there’s an upside – it’s a great place to chat with strangers and make new friends. 

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