Steve Wildsmith

The Clayton Center for the Arts over on the Maryville College campus got a test run when it opened at the beginning of the year, but now officials are preparing for the facility’s first full season of performances.

Clayton Center Executive Director Robert Hutchens unveiled the 2010-11 season for the center this week, and it includes something for everyone — literally — including some big names in jazz and bluegrass. Here’s what’s headed to Maryville this year:

• Neil Berg’s “100 Years of Broadway” (8 p.m. Sept. 17 in the main theater): Five of Broadway’s leading performers as well as an all-star New York band come to town to perform the most beloved and memorable songs from a century of Broadway musical history, including recent as well as more traditional hits. Not only do they perform — they do so as the characters and scenes from which the songs come.
• Richter/Uzur (7:30 p.m. Oct. 26 in the Lambert Recital Hall): A duo fusing rock , folk and classical  to create a sound that is modern, traditional and unique.
• Sam Bush with Missy Raines and New Hip (8 p.m. Nov. 5 on the main stage): One of the season’s headliners, Bush has been called “The King of Telluride,” “The Founder of New Grass” and “The Heir to Bill Monroe.” He’s an award-winning master of banjo, fiddle, and mandolin and has shared the stage with such luminaries as Lyle Lovett and Garth Brooks. Raines is a seven-time winner of the International Bluegrass Music Association Bass Player of the Year Awards and will be performing with her band, New Hip.
• Robert deMaine and Andrew Armstrong (7:30 p.m. Nov. 16 in the Lambert Recital Hall): First chair cellist of the Detroit Symphony (deMaine) and internationally renowned pianist (Armstrong) perform an evening of intimate classical music
• American Spiritual Ensemble (8 p.m. Jan. 15, 2011, on the main stage): Part of the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration on campus, featuring the spellbinding singing of John Wesley Wright, who entertained at the center’s opening-night gala. He’s just one member of the ensemble, a group of professional soloists who combine their voices in a chorus of tribute to the soul-stirring spiritual.
• The Aluminum Show (8 p.m. Jan. 21 on the main stage): Like Pilobolus and The Blue Man Group, the Israeli troupe of “dancers”  has defined its own genre.  Clad in  imaginative, often bizarre, structures of recycled aluminum, the  performers execute a choreography of shapes and colors that surprise, intrigue and enchant
• Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana (7:30 p.m. Feb. 1 on the main stage): An evening of culture and art featuring dancers celebrating the national dance and songs  of Spain.
• “All Shook Up,” the musical (8 p.m. Feb. 11 on the main stage): Featuring the songbook of Elvis Presley, telling the story of a teenage rebel shaking up a small town.
• “The Comedy of Errors” (7:30 p.m. March 9 on the main stage): The Acting Company of New York City presents one of Shakespeare’s most farcical, accessible plays.
• The Passing Zone (7:30 p.m. March 19 on the main stage): Comedy-juggling team that’s been in the Guinness Book of World Records four times, they’ll juggle everything from human beings to chainsaws.
• “An Evening With Groucho Marx” (6:30 p.m. March 26 in the William Baxter Lee Grand Foyer): Actor Frank Ferrante transforms himself into the legendary screen and comedic legend for a night of dinner theater in the Clayton Center’s foyer.
• Chris Brubeck and Triple Play (8 p.m. April 8 on the main stage): The son of legendary jazz composer and pianist Dave Brubeck comes to town with Joel Brown and Madcat Ruth to perform their melange of blues, rock, folk and, of course, jazz.

And those shows are on top of what’s already been announced:

• “On Golden Pond,” presented by the Foothills Community Players, Sept. 10-12 and Sept. 16-19 on the main stage
• “Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran,” a talk by Roxana Saberi at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 15 on the main stage (admission is free)
• Wood and Strings Puppet Theatre at 9 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Sept. 28 on the main stage;
• British rock band The Boxer Rebellion (fronted by Blount County native Nathan Nicholson) at 8 p.m. Oct. 12 on the main stage. Tickets are now on sale (via box office walk-up only for the time being) and are $12, $18 and $20; and
• Nations of Unity present “An Evening of Native American Entertainment,” 7 p.m. Oct. 30 on the main stage; $25/$12 children.

As far as ticket sales go — 12 of the events are being offered in subscription series of different sizes through Sept. 19.  Patrons who buy a series of five to seven performances will receive a 10 percent discount; those wanting 8 to 11 performances get a 15 percent discount; and those who purchase tickets for all 12 get a 25 percent discount. Regarding single-ticket sales — excluding the Groucho Marx dinner theater show, the average ticket price is $16.09 for adult economy tickets (average price for students and seniors — $12.50).

To reserve seats for any of the shows, call the Clayton Center box office at (865) 981-8590, visit the center online or go by the box office between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets go on sale Thursday, Aug. 19.

Gonna be some NASCAR star power and female hotness on Saturday at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson, 1820 W. Lamar Alexander Parkway in Maryville. Here’s a press release on who’s coming to town:

WHAT: The Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America will stop at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson on its 3,800-mile trek from Indian Wells, Calif. to Randleman, N.C. to raise awareness of and funds for Victory Junction. On May 8, at 11:30 a.m., a public celebration will be held at the dealership to welcome the riders.

Former NFL great and Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker; actress and supermodel Niki Taylor; legendary NASCAR driver Harry Gant and nearly 200 additional participants are scheduled to join NASCAR driver and racing analyst Kyle Petty (and his wife, Pattie) on the Ride.

Victory Junction provides a medically-sound camping experience to children with chronic and terminal illnesses.

Call the dealership at (865) 977-1669 for more information or visit the Charity Ride’s website at: www.kylepettycharityride.com

This weekend, a lot of media attention will be focused on Knoxville, where the groundbreaking Big Ears Festival will be taking place. Hats off to Ashley Capps and his company, AC Entertainment, for putting together a truly spectacular festival of underground, avant garde, off-the-radar pop and unheard-of classical genius; we’ll have a few artist profiles of our own in this coming Friday’s Weekend entertainment section.

A little closer to home, however, there’s still big things happening. Starting Friday night, the newly built Clayton Center for the Arts will kick off its grand opening weekend with a concert by country artist Jo Dee Messina; tickets are still available and range from $36-$46. We put together a nice little Clayton Center package, including an interview with Jo Dee, a look at last-minute preparations for the grand opening gala on Saturday night and a timeline of the center’s construction, in last Friday’s Weekend. But that’s just the beginning of Clayton Center goodness taking place over the next several months. A few concerts have been announced already, a few are late additions to the lineup, and a few are outright surprises. Here’s a roundup of what’s coming to the Maryville College campus as the center’s season gets into full swing:

• Identical twins Richard and John Contiguglia will continue the grand opening weekend with a concert of piano duets at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 28, in the center’s Recital Hall; tickets are $26 for adults/$11 students.
• The BANFF Mountain Film Festival takes place at 7 p.m. Monday, March 29, in the Main Hall; tickets are $10 advance/$12 at the door.
• Mezzo-soprano Delores Ziegler and tenor John Wesley Wright will perform a joint vocal recital at 8 p.m. Monday, March 29, in the Recital Hall; $15.
• Alcoa Middle School and High School will perform choral concerts, respectively, at 6 and 8 p.m. April 8; tickets are $6 adults/$4 students.
• The United Way “April Foolies” fundraiser is at 7 p.m. April 10 in the Main Hall; $10.
• FREE: Maryville College Community Concert Band spring concert at 4 p.m. April 18.
• FREE: Maryville College Jazz Band concert, 7:30 p.m. April 22.
• Appalachian Ballet Co.: “Peter Pan and Other Works” at 7:30 p.m. April 24 and 2 p.m. April 25; $16.
• Orchestra at Maryville College, Maryville College Community Chorus and Maryville College Concert Choir: spring concert at 7:30 p.m. April 26; tickets TBA.
• FREE: Spring concert for the Youth and Children’s Chorales, 7:30 p.m. April 27.
• Dr. Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys with Cherryholmes, 7:30 p.m. April 29; $24.50, $29.50 and $36
• Maryville College Department of Theatre: “Our Town” at 8 p.m. April 29-May 1, 2 p.m. May 2. $7.
• Ball in the House (five-man R&B/pop vocal band) at 7:30 p.m. April 30; $20.
• FREE: Alcoa Middle School Band (at 6 p.m.) and High School Band (at 8 p.m.) concerts on May 4.
• Dance Ensemble Performance, 7 p.m. May 6 and 7. Tickets TBA
• Women of Courage Celebration featuring Amanda Ingram, 7 p.m. May 7. $50.
• Vanilla Ice with The Jaystorm Project and DJ Eric B., 7:30 p.m. May 8. Tickets (on sale Friday, March 26) Are $19, $26 and 39 in advance.
• FREE: Maryville High School Orchestra concert, 7:30 p.m. May 10
• FREE: Maryville Middle School Orchestra concert, 7:30 p.m. May 13
• Wood & Strings Puppet Theatre, 7 p.m. May 14; $12/$5 students
• Van Metre School of Dance, 7:30 p.m. May 29; tickets TBA
• Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Concert Series: Johnny Bellar, Adam Granger, Joe Collins and Cindy Gray at 7 p.m. June 14; $15
• Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Concert Series: Adam Masters, Mary Flower, Rusty Holloway, Jeff Jenkins and Robert Shafer at 7 p.m. June 15; $15
• Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Concert Series: Barbara Lamb, Keith Yoder, Jim Pankey and Ivan Rosenberg at 7 p.m. June 16; $15
• Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Concert Series: Russ Barenberg, Casey Henry, Pat Kirtley and Marcy Marxer at 7 p.m. June 17; $15
• Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Concert Series: Pete Huttlinger, Steve Kaufman and Friends, Kamp Kompanions at 7 p.m. June 18; $15
• Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Concert Series: Tyler Grant, Andrew Collins, Mike Clemmer, Richard Starkey and Kathy Barwick at 7 p.m. June 21; $15
• Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Concert Series: Gary Davis, Mitch Corbin, Tim May, Rolly Brown and Radim Zenkl at 7 p.m. June 22; $15
• Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Concert Series: Carlo Aonzo, Kathy Chiavola, Chris and Sally Jones, Ned Luberecki and Keith Yoder at 7 p.m. June 23; $15
• Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Concert Series: Alan Munde, Roland White, Emory Lester, Mark Cosgrove, Murphy Henry and Casey Henry at 7 p.m. June 24; $15
• Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Concert Series: Beppe Gambetta, Sharon Gilchrist, Steve Kaufman and Friends, Kamp Kompanions at 7 p.m. June 25; $15

Beyond that, the fall season is currently being booked, and while official announcements have yet to be made, there are a few hints out there online. Bluegrass goddess Missy Raines lists on her website an Oct. 7, 2010 date at the Clayton Center with fellow bluegrass maestro Sam Bush.

Friday is the big day — tickets go on sale for upcoming events at the almost-completed Clayton Center for the Arts, construction of which is wrapping up on the Maryville College campus.

Earlier this week, readers of The Daily Times got a glimpse of the new Steinway pianos in the recital hall; starting Friday, they can begin planning their social calendars around several of the events taking place at the center in the coming months. Those events include:

• Maryville High School Orchestra Valentine’s Day concert with special guest Mark Wagner: 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 14. Tickets are $11 adults in advance/$14 at the door and $6 students.
• Jo Dee Messina: 8 p.m. Friday, March 26. Tickets are $36, $46 and $56.
• Grand opening gala: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 27. Tickets are $20.
• Contigula Brothers recital (benefit for the Adams Foundation, in the center’s Recital Hall): 2 p.m. Sunday, March 28. Tickets are $26 adults/$11 students.
• BANFF Film Festival: 2 p.m. Monday, March 29. Tickets are $10 advance/$12 day of screening.
• Delores Ziegler/John Wesley Wright vocal recital (in the Recital Hall): 8 p.m. Monday, March 29. Tickets are $15.
• Dr. Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys with Cherryholmes: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 29. Tickets are $24.50, $29.50 and $36.
• Ball in the House (five-man R&B vocal group): 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 30. Tickets are $20/$16 students/$11 Maryville College students
• “Our Town,” a production of the Maryville College Department of Theatre (in the center’s FLEX Theatre): Thursday, April 29 thru Sunday, May 2. $7/$5 Maryville College students
• Wood and Strings Puppet Theatre (in the FLEX Theatre): 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 14. $12 adults/$5 MC students

In addition, the Clayton Center for the Arts will serve as a local Tickets Unlimited outlet, allowing visitors to the box office to purchase tickets for most Tickets Unlimited events in the East Tennessee area. For more information, visit the center’s website, call the box office at 981-8590 or visit in person at 502 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway in Maryville. The box office opens for business at 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 5.

Blount County resident Ashley King Marsh wasn’t too keen on trying out for CMT’s game show “The Singing Bee,” but her mama made her do it.

Sure, it seemed like a good idea at first, she told The Daily Times — after all, she’d been a fan of the show in its previous incarnation on NBC and its new life on the Country Music Television network.

“It’s 60 percent country and 40 percent rock or pop now, so it’s mainly geared for the country listener,” said Marsh, who — as a fill-in deejay for WIVK-FM, 107.7, had more than a passing knowledge of country music.

“I’m a big fan of the show and was following CMT on Twitter when they announced they were going to hold auditions in Nashville last November,” she added. “I started gathering friends and family to all go up and try out, but when the time got closer, they started slowly backing out on me. Well, my mom and I were going to be in Nashville that weekend anyway, and at first I didn’t want to do it.

“I told her, ‘I’m not going because nobody else wanted to do it,’ and she said, ‘Yes you are!’ It was like I was 12 years old again.”

Hesitant at first, the casting director for CMT encouraged her to sign up and give it a try. She did, she had fun and two days later, she got the call. The network flew her to Los Angeles, where “The Singing Bee” is taped; she recorded her segment the next day and flew out the day after that.

“It was really a surprise, because I didn’t think I would be picked,” said Marsh, who’s prohibited from revealing how far she made it or whether she won the $10,000 prize.

Back home, in addition to her radio duties, she’s the owner/director of Ashley’s Dance Academy in Seymour. She and her husband, Micah (who coaches basketball at Alcoa High School), have three daughters.

Marsh’s “Singing Bee” segment airs at 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12.

Ashley King Marsh

In case you missed it, we’re breaking down the conversations we had in last Friday’s edition of Weekend with various movers and shakers in the local entertainment scene to give you an idea of how entertainment in 2010 is shaping up. Today: The Foothills Fall Festival, held every October in downtown Maryville; “The Shed” at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson in Maryville; and the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center in Townsend.

In case you missed it, we’re breaking down the conversations we had in last Friday’s edition of Weekend with various movers and shakers in the local entertainment scene to give you an idea of how entertainment in 2010 is shaping up. Today: The Clayton Center for the Arts, the brand new building on the Maryville College campus, and an interview with Marketing Director John Cherry.

Perhaps no other venue, organization or entertainment possibility holds more promise for Blount County in the new year than the Clayton Center for the Arts, set to open its doors this month after a long period of construction.

According to Marketing Director John Cherry, organizers and Maryville College officials plan to use the first few months of 2010 to showcase the facility’s grandeur, elegance and possibilities.

“I think in our first three or four months, the people of East Tennessee will see a very good sample of what they can expect in a full year season,” Cherry said. “We knew early on that the Clayton Center would not be able to be the single venue for a specific art form. There’s the Ryman (Auditorium, in Nashville) for country music and obviously famous museums for art. What we were looking to be was a place where no matter what your favorite art genre is, you can find a sample of it over the course of a season at the Arts Center.

“That’s why we have a children’s production and a high school orchestra production scheduled for February, and for our grand opening a choir performance, a big name in country music and the big gala with dance, music and theater. That’s why we have a piano concert scheduled for a Sunday and a film festival on a Monday. When you add all three art galleries that will have works on display when they open in late February or March, we hope to be a little bit to everyone, no matter what your favorite art form is.”

In planning one of the venue’s first public debuts, Cherry said, planners sought to book a name would resonate with local residents — and pay tribute to the region’s Appalachian legacy. Securing bluegrass legend Dr. Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys for an April perfformance is a point of pride, he added.

“One of the first things we knew we had to get in the first couple of months was a bluegrass show,” Cherry said. “Appalachian music is unique to our area, and we have a tremendous number of bluegrass performers in Blount County and Tennessee. To get a good bluegrass show in the early months was one of our priorities.

“We also want to scratch the itch of all the art forms that we possibly can. That’s why we’re bringing in a puppet theater in May, an a cappella pop group after Ralph Stanley and a big name like (country star) Jo Dee Messina (performing March 26). But when I came on board in October, our executive director (Robert Hutchens) told us that we had to get something bluegrass.”

The $47.3 million fine arts complex consits of two separate buildings connected by an outdoor plaza. The main facility boasts a grand foyer with 40-foot ceilings, the 1,200-seat performance hall, a smaller theater for in-the-round shows and rehearsal and practice rooms. The secondary building holds community and student art galleries, classrooms and administrative offices. It will, Cherry said, be the centerpiece of the campus.

“We’re hoping, obviously, that the opening of this center will help Maryville College,” he said. “The Fine Arts Department — this is their home. They lost two buildings when construction began, the Fine Arts Building and Wilson Chapel, and now that they’re moving in, they all will be represented in this building on a daily basis. For perspective students to have these performance spaces belong to their curriculum is just phenomenal.

“There are very few colleges the size of Maryville College with 1,100 students that have this kind of facility for their arts departments. Sharing it with Jo Dee Messina, (vocal-pop group) Ball in the House and (the children’s musical) ‘Chasing George Washington’ is going to be a great opportunity for Maryville College arts students.”

Ticket prices for the new facility’s upcoming concerts have not been set, but organizers hope to keep many of them — especially for the Ralph Stanley performance — affordable to families on a modest budget. The center’s new website will go online Jan. 15, Cherry said, and individual ticket prices will be announced then.

“For concerts like Dr. Stanley and Jo Dee Messina, we’ll typically have three prices — seating in the orchestra pit, which can be raised, will be one price; the main part of the house will be another price; and then the corners of the house will be a third price,” Cherry said. “Much of it will depend on what it takes to bring the show to the stage, and of course the desires of the artists that some tickets be priced at a certain level. But we want people to see these performances without breaking their budgets.”

As for the rest of 2010, Cherry added, center organizers await plans for the 2010-11 academic year, which runs from September to May, before finalizing additional performance dates.

“The college organizations and departments will establish their performance dates during the month of January, so on Feb. 1, we’ll start to work in earnest on filling the rest of the performance calendar,” he said. “We have several genres we want to get in there, and we’ve identified a short list of what we’d like to go after — things like another bluegrass show or a Broadway style of performance. We’re hoping to announce the major elements of the 2010-11 season during the grand opening weekend.”

LOCAL
Southbound (cover story)
The Drunk Uncles: (cover story)
Jonathan Sexton and The Big Love Choir (cover story)
Whitechapel (front page story)
Dirty Guv’nahs 1 (cover story)
Royal Bangs (cover story)
R.B. Morris (cover story)
Maryville Metal Fest (cover story)
Brandy Robinson (cover story)
Scott Miller (cover story)
The Black Lillies (cover story)
Teenage Love13 (cover story)
Jill Andrews
Drunk Uncles 1
Whitechapel
The Dirty Guv’nahs
Skyfall
Mic Harrison and The High Score
Homer Hart
“Sneaky” Pete Rizzo
Color of Fate
Bellfield
Senryu
Ian Thomas
Soundtrack Black
Robinella: Final Barley’s gig
Mountain Folk Reunion
Cain and Annabelle
Diacon-Panthers
The Dirty Works
Seeing Skies
Kings County Gumbo
John Myers
The Dirty Gunnz
Christopher Scum
Bright Shining Lie
J.C. and The Dirty Smokers
Sisters of the Silver Sage
Kevin Abernathy Band
Scott McMahan
Facelock
Awake the Suffering
Madeline Ava
The Retroholics
The LoneTones
1220
Dishwater Blonde
The American Plague
Mr. Kobayashi
Roscoe Morgan
Johnson Swingtet
Cutthroat Shamrock
Van Eaton
Steve Kaufman
Taylor Brown
Mumbillies
Panorama
Allen Swank
Flashback
Angel Zuniga Martinez
The Akashic Mysteries
Jamie Cook
Dig 6 Down
Avenue C Band
Brad Walker Orchestra

COUNTRY
Mark Stuart and the Bastard Sons
Darius Rucker
Eric Church
Jamey Johnson
Chris Knight
Mindy Smith
Patty Loveless
Chris Young
Sawyer Brown
Rodney Atkins
Justin Moore
Trailer Choir
April Taylor
Little Big Town
Mickey Raphael (Willie Nelson’s harmonica player)

COMEDY
Bill Cosby
Margaret Cho
Bean and Bailey
Ralphie May
Lewis Black

BLUES/BLUES-ROCK
John D’Amato
Webb Wilder: January feature
Webb Wilder
Bill Sheffield
Deb Callahan
Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials
Devon Allman’s Honeytribe
Steepwater Band
J.J. Grey and Mofro
Charlie Morris Band
Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby
T-Model Ford
Geoff Achison
Scissormen
Zac Harmon
Shawn Kellerman
Bex Marshall
Damon Fowler
Harmonica Red
The Breeze Kings
Biscuit Miller and the Mix
Willie “Big Eyes” Smith

SINGER-SONGWRITER
Toby Lightman
Louise Mosrie
Hamell on Trial
Brett Dennen
A.A. Bondy: “Those American Hearts”
A.A. Bondy
Ari Hest
George McConnell
William Fitzsimmons
Vienna Teng
Paul Thorn
Denitia Odigie
Leon Redbone
Matt Urmy
Joan Baez
Dar Williams
Chris Trapper
James McMurtry
Colin Hay
Mark Wagner
Andrew Bird
Richard Lloyd
Eugene Chadbourne
Malcolm Holcombe
Jennie DeVoe
Matt Butcher
Eleni Mandell
Matthew Perryman Jones
ELECTRONIC
Imogen Heap
Ana Sia
Health
Dan Deacon
Peaches
Gil Mantera’s Party Dream

CHRISTIAN
MercyMe
Disciple
NewSong
Chris Tomlin
NeedToBreathe
Third Day
Stryper
Fireflight
Skillet

FINE ARTS, CULTURE, EVENTS, VENUES
Hard Knox Roller Girls
Broadway at the Tennessee: “Hairspray”
Broadway at the Tennessee: “Sweeney Todd”
Broadway at the Tennessee: “Stomp”
Broadway at the Tennessee: “The Wizard of Oz”
Appalachian Ballet Company: “Nutcracker”
Appalachian Ballet Company: spring production
Appalachian Ballet Company: “Blue Jeans and Ballet”
The Rockettes
Vice City
Maryville College: Fine Arts Showcase
Maryville College: Fine Arts preview
Activism on the Maryville College campus
Maryville College Theatre Department: “The Things They Carried”
Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Concert Series
Stonewall Gardens
Boomsday
Knoxville Symphony Orchestra: season preview
Maryville High School Drama: “Wizard of Oz”
Spring and summer festival season
Knoxville Opera: “Rigoletto”
Big Ears Festival
Kodo

BLUEGRASS/AMERICANA
North Mississippi Allstars
Indigo Girls
Hill Country Revue: Cody Dickinison reflects on his father’s death
Stacie Collins
Donna Hughes
Slobberbone
Kindling Stone
Dave Rawlings Machine
Joe Buck Yourself
Just Us Bluegrass Band
Two Man Gentlemen Band
Tennessee Hollow
Alejandro Escovedo
Bloodkin
Drive-By Truckers
Lambchop
Larry Cordle and Lonesome Standard Time
The Corduroy Road
Andy Friedman and the Other Failures
Reckless Kelly
Lucero: February cover story
Lucero
Carrie Rodriguez
Wayne “The Train” Hancock
Justin Townes Earle
Kathleen Edwards
Steve Smith
Jason Isbell
BeauSoleil
Felice Brothers
The Baker Family
Blue Mother Tupelo
Todd Snider
Those Darlins
Hokum’s Heroes
The Duhks
Caddle
Deadstring Brothers
The Defibulators
Ray Wylie Hubbard
Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers
Rose’s Pawn Shop
Alecia Nugent
The Moaners
John Cowan
The New Familiars
Larry Keel
Blair Crimmins and The Hookers
Old Crow Medicine Show
Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson
Connor Christian and Southern Gothic
Star and Micey
Brand New Strings
Carbon Leaf
John Reischman and The Jaybirds
The Gourds
King Wilkie
Band of Heathens
Hank III
Chris Berardo and The Desberardos
Dave Alvin
Michael Ford Jr. and The Apache Relay

METAL
Mudvayne
LA Guns
Drowning Pool
Hatebreed
Pelican
Lacuna Coil
Lamb of God
Chimaira
Gojira
Mobile Deathcamp
Megadeth

ROCK/POP/PUNK
Tommy Tutone
Bad Boy Troy
Meat Puppets
Rusted Root
Terry Young: “A Tribute to Elvis”
Tesla
Superdrag
Steven Adler
Bret Michaels
The Academy Is …
311
Hoobastank
Gym Class Heroes
Peter Cetera
X
Fiction Family
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Red Collar
The Last Straw
Blackberry Smoke
Bueller
Agent Orange
David Cook
Psychostick
Collective Soul
Cracker
Adrian Belew Power Trio
Chevelle
The Machine: A Tribute to Pink Floyd
Molly Hatchet
Melvins
Little River Band
Kansas
The Black Crowes
Sonic Youth
Les Claypool

INDIE
Amanda Palmer
Lights
The Fall of Troy
Port O’Brien
The Boxer Rebellion
Great Lake Swimmers
Silversun Pickups
Yo La Tengo
Fruit Bats
DD/MM/YYYY
Matt and Kim
Frances
Vetiver
The Rosebuds
Darsombra
Peelander-Z
Against Me!
John Paul Keith and the 145s
A Hawk and a Hacksaw
Elvis Perkins in Dearland
Black Moth Super Rainbow
Barcelona
Wand
Jay Reatard

R&B/SOUL/HIP-HOP/REGGAE/DANCE
The Dynamites feat. Charles Walker
Gorilla Zoe
De La Soul
The Afromotive
Future
The Wailers
Space Capone
New Edition
Arrested Development
Disco Biscuits
Lotus

JAZZ/WORLD MUSIC/AVANT GARDE
Don Byron
Jon Hassell
Wendy Sutter
Grupo Fantasma
Celtic Woman
James Blackshaw
Pink Martini

In case you missed it, we’re breaking down the conversations we had in last Friday’s edition of Weekend with various movers and shakers in the local entertainment scene to give you an idea of how entertainment in 2010 is shaping up. Today: Big Ears Festival 2010, a conversation with AC Entertainment founder/CEO Ashley Capps.

Despite his profile as one of the brainchilds behind Bonnaroo and the guy who gave his initials to East Tennessee entertainment corporation AC Entertainment, it’s doubtful even Ashley Capps could have convinced music writers at publications like The New York Times or Pitchfork that an avant garde music festival held in his hometown would be a massive success.

So he didn’t set out to do so. He just planned his first Big Ears Festival, held last February, and let fate take care of the rest.

As it turns out, the event was more successful than even Capps could have hoped — and if you look at his track record, the guy has an uncanny knack for calling these things. Simply pulling it off was a coup; having it so well-received by fans, artists and the media has made anticipation and buzz for Big Ears 2010 even bigger.

“The first Big Ears was really an idea I had been thinking about and contemplating for several years,” Capps told The Daily Times during a recent interview. “The big excitement was finally launching it in the first place after having thought about it and talked about it for such a long time. And from the artists and the audiences that attend, it was very affirming and gave us a lot of fuel for continuing to develop the concept and bring it up to another level for 2010.”

Already, the initial lineup has been announced — legendary Minimalist composer Terry Riley was introduced as the artist-in-residence for this years festival (scheduled for March 26-28 at various venues in downtown Knoxville), and earlier this month, the big names were rolled out: Vampire Weekend, Joanna Newsom, St. Vincent, Andrew W.K., The Ex, Gang Gang Dance, Clogs, 802 Tour (Nico Muhly/Doveman/Sam Amidon with Nadia Sirota), The xx, Javelin, DJ/Rupture (solo), DJ/Rupture and Andy Moor, My Brightest Diamond, the Calder Quartet, Gyan Riley and jj.

For some, it was a surprise; last year’s focus on avant garde music was groundbreaking, but this year’s talent seems to have more of a pop element. Given that it’s likely Big Ears will be a part of the East Tennessee entertainment scene for years to come, get used to such changes, Capps said.

“It was never the intention of Big Ears to create a strictly avant garde music festival,” he said. “That doesn’t interest me that much. I love avant garde music, but the principle was to bring that world together with other musical worlds. From the beginning, the limitless ideas has been a beautifl thing to me, and I think that’s been part of the success. Who knows? It may not always be an annual event; I can imagine it happening several weekends a year, each having a different character and focus to it.

“(In 2009), we had too many options. We had a wealth of possibilities, and ultimately you have to make decisions about what you feel works and what you feel might work better … in a slightly different context, and so forth and so on. I like improvisation, but you always start with a basic theme. This year, we have two — Terry Riley, and the secondary theme is taking some of that influence he’s had in the world of pop music and exploring some of those connections, many of which may not be obvious to anyone except me.”

Making those sorts of connections — whether they’re music or business-related — has made Capps the success that he is. Not only does his company book and manage both The Tennessee Theatre and The Bijou Theatre in downtown Knoxville, it contributes booking to other venues (such as The Valarium), organizes such events as Bonnaroo and Sundown in the City and has now moved into the realm of artist management, taking on two particularly talented clients — ukulele phenom Julia Nunes, and banjo goddess Abigail Washburn.

His radar for both the not-so-obvious is what makes Big Ears 2010 so appealing — wondering how it will work within the confines of the Big Ears concept is intriguing. Add to that the addition of a musician like Andrew W.K. — known by casual fans for such hits as “Party Hard” — and it gets even more interesting. Capps, however, sees it as a gleeful sort of opportunity to throw the Big Ears hipsters who fawned over a group like Antony and the Johnsons at last year’s festival a curveball … to in fact force them outside of their comfort zone, should they choose to participate again this year.

“To what extent I was aware of him, I put him in the box of being a guy who does party music,” Capps said. “But when I started talking to a string quartet about coming to perform Terry Riley’s music, which they’ve been doing for years, they started talking about all of these projects they were doing, and one was with Andrew W.K. I had heard about the tour they did together, and I started checking out the YouTube video and talking to Andrew’s manager, and I myself became aware that this is an amazing artist who’s pushing himself on a number of different fronts.

“To me, it’s completely consistent in keeping with what the Big Ears vision is. The last thing in the world I want is for Big Ears to become a predictable thing. It’s extremely important for me that it’s full of surprises.”

And if it gives Knoxville a little share of the limelight, showcasing East Tennessee as a place where the unusual and the magical can happen alongside the traditional, then all the better. Obviously, Capps and his crew don’t have to put on Big Ears in East Tennessee — if they can take several hundred acres of Middle Tennessee farmland and turn it into Bonnaroo, they could probably put on Big Ears in just about any city. But it works, and Capps is glad of that.

“There’s a certain assumption by some people that it’s our homebase and where we are, and there might be a little bit of truth to that, but I really believe that Knoxville is a fabulous place to do it,” he said. “Part of that has to do with the way Knoxville’s downtown has rebounded and become an exciting place to be. There’s a tremendous amount of character to it — so many historic buildings and downtown businesses that are unique, and if you add that to the fact that we have these fantastic venues all within walking distance of one another, it’s really easy to figure out. We chose Knoxville because of that infrastructure.

“I was pleasantly surprised by how much the press and so many of the artists and fans have embraced Knoxville. One of the artists from last year’s festival is planning to move here because he really enjoyed the experience so much.”

Patrick Sullivan’s Saloon, 100 N. Central St. in Knoxville’s Old City, is already home to the incredibly gifted improv comedy group Einstein Simplified, which performs there every Tuesday evening. Now, it seems, the venue will hold another night of comedy, this time on Thursdays.

Starting Feb. 4, “Old City Comedy” will take place upstairs at Patrick Sullivan’s at 9 p.m. According to the info on Brown Paper Tickets:

This is the first Old City Comedy event at Patrick Sullivan’s! Please join Old City Comedy in welcoming comedian Mello Mike! Mello Mike has been a finalist in comedy contests all over the Southeastern United States. He has performed across the country and will be headlining the comedy cancer benefit Laughing for Life two nights later in Wilmington, North Carolina. Don’t miss your chance to see Mello live for the first time in Knoxville!

Don’t miss this great first show at Patrick Sullivan’s!”

Admission is $7. Click on the above link to order your tickets online, or call Patrick Sullivan’s at 637-4255. You can also check out the venue online.