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The Big Ticket

Gillian Welch
Appalachian songstress. Friday, Oct. 17, 8 p.m. Bijou Theatre. $20.

Carla Bozulich, Nels Cline (both former Geraldine Fibbers) and Scout Niblett.
A superb country-punk stylist, Bozulich performs from her new album, a complete cover of Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger. The arty, evocative Scout Niblett opens. Sunday, Oct. 19, 9 p.m. Pilot Light. $5.

Maroon 5 with Marc Broussard and Revelation Darling
Rockin' the airwaves with "Harder to Breathe." Tuesday, Oct. 21, 8 p.m. Blue Cats. $12 advance, $15 at door.

Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise
Gospel blues alternarock. Wednesday, Oct. 22, 9 p.m. Blue Cats. $8 advance, $10 door.

Heartsong Festival
Many bands, many venues, one good cause. Thursday, Oct. 23, 5-10pm. Old City Courtyard and other downtown venues. $5 wristband gets you in every club.

Face it. On certain Saturdays in the fall, there's just too damn much to do here. Take this weekend, for example: Knoxville might as well be New York or San Francisco. There's a festival here, another festival there, another festival over there. There are picnics and campouts and church retreats and bike rides and reunions and weddings and art openings and rock shows. They all sound like great fun, but not one of us will be able to go to them all; and we suspect that none of them will be as well-attended as they deserve to be.
Blame it on the Vols, or, at least, Volmania. With the weather perfect and the leaves turning, October may be East Tennessee's finest moment, but everybody who plans any sort of festival or other event in October tries to avoid competing with the boys in orange. The pick-an-off-day phenomenon stretches beyond the Knoxville metro area, to as much as 100 miles away. They worry about it as far away as Bristol.
Some other football-mad cities are somehow able to maintain a municipal life, but everybody knows the Vols enjoy a status in Knoxville unequaled by Yahweh Himself, and the city pays homage to their visitations by shutting down in submissive fealty. If you're among the minority of Knoxvillians who actually go to Vols games, you probably appreciate that fact. You can sit in your seat confident that you're not missing anything but the barking of lonesome dogs.
But if you're in the business of scheduling non-football fall events, you've got a big problem. All the events that schedule to avoid home games may, collectively across the region, constitute an even bigger hoo-hah than the Vols themselves. We suspect every one of these worthy events won't do as well as they would have if so many other things weren't happening that day. Some might even fare better going head-to-head with the Vols.
Sometimes competing with everything that dares not challenge the Vols is even more daunting than competing with the Vols. On the other hand, this is a great weekend to convince your skeptical cousin in Atlanta that there's a lot going on in Knoxville. We should have a name for it: the annual Non-Gameday Festival.
It's going to be one tough weekend for all of us, but here's our best guess at the events worth attending.

The Seventh Annual East Tennessee Brewers' Jam, one of the liveliest festivals of the year, makes its triumphant return to the new, improved, World's Fair Park, after a couple of years' diaspora in an Old City parking lot. There'll be over 100 different beers from 30 regional breweries in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and North Carolina, among them Knoxville's own Downtown Grill and Brewery. All can be sampled for the cover price of $25. Its return to the park prompted a retro theme, as three period bands—the Invaders, the Throwbacks, and Eastwind—will accompany the quaffing. A range of Knoxville's finest restaurants will cater the affair, expected to draw 2,000. At the World's Fair Park's north end, Saturday, Oct. 18, 3-9 p.m.

Third Annual Neighborhood Bike Ride. The city and various local bicycling enthusiasts are sponsoring another urban bike ride, partly to have fun, and partly to promote bicycling as transportation. Last year, their event drew 150 riders. This year, their leisurely expedition runs into deep East Knoxville. Beginning at the Civic Coliseum at 10 a.m., the basic ride, a 10-mile route, will take participants from downtown, through Morningside and Parkridge, to the historic Burlington community, near Chilhowee Park, with an optional lap of Speedway Circle, Knoxville's Victorian-era horse-racing track. There'll be a further option to follow the heartier bikers out to Forks of the River, a 17-mile circuit. With broad bike lanes and laid-back traffic patterns, East Knoxville may be the easiest part of town to ride a bike, and with so much interesting stuff to look at on the way, one of the most rewarding. All ages, shapes, and makes of bike welcome, but they do encourage you to bring a water bottle and a helmet. Breakfast (at 9 a.m., if you get there that early) and lunch are provided—unfortunately, perhaps, because they'll be wheeling past some great dining spots. (But if you ride up to the Pizza Palace Drive In, where will they hang your tray?) For more information, call 215-3815.

Greek Fest. The annual event hosted by St. George Orthodox Church on Kingston Pike is a celebration of Greek cuisine, music and dancing. Pile your plate high with roasted lamb, a gyro, Greek pizza, spanakopita, pastichio and sagnaki; be sure to save room for those tasty pastries and a cup of rich Greek coffee. Find a seat under a tent and savor the Mediterranean flavors while watching those tireless young dancers high-step and swirl around to traditional Greek music. When you're ready to walk around, take a turn around the shopping bazaar or tour the church's sanctuary (the ceiling mosaic will amaze you). Admission is $2.

Knoxville Opera's Turandot. Written when Puccini was at the height of his fame, Turandot is an opera of huge scale—both scenically and emotionally. It's a Chinese fable of the Ice Princess who slaughters her suitors when they can't answer her riddles. Soprano Lily Zhang performs the title role, with tenor Michael Hayes as the Unknown Tartar Prince. The show will be Friday, Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 19 at 2:30 p.m. Ticket prices range from $14-$70, available by calling 524-0795, ext. 2.

Foothills Fall Festival. Over in Maryville, the music gets cranked up on Oct. 17 at 3 p.m. with several regional acts performing at Theatre in the Park. The Marvellettes and KC & The Sunshine Band headline Friday's line-up, and Joe Nichols and the Charlie Daniels Band headline on Saturday. Tickets for both days of music are $45 at the gate. Now on their "American Farewell Tour," Alabama will play on Sunday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30. All weekend, downtown will be saturated with arts and crafts vendors, plus a special Adventure Land set up for children's entertainment. For more info, go to www.foothillsfallfestival.org.

Candoro Rocks! With a Tribute to Hank Williams. Since Knoxville is where Hank Williams Sr. drew his dying breath (and don't try to tell me otherwise), it's about time we hosted a festival to honor his legendary musical talent. The event will be held Oct. 18, 12-6 p.m. at the Candoro Marble Company Building in South Knoxville. Most of the day's performers will play pickin' and fiddle tunes from the Marble Company's hey-day circa 1952. Performers include Tommy Covington, Wade Hill, Sean and Steph McCollough, and upstart youngsters The Cuts, whose indie rock owes a surprising debt to ol' Hank's tight songwriting. The music lasts all day, plus there will be food and refreshments. Admission is a suggested $4 donation, but since all proceeds help preserve the Candoro building, go ahead and round up to $5.

Speaking of musical fundraising, two great causes that sound great together will make music at the Laurel Theater on Saturday, Oct. 18. WDVX and Jubilee Community Arts present The Dismembered Tennesseans, the Flat Creek Boys, R.B. Morris, and Leslie Woods. The show starts at 7 p.m., so you have time to catch a lot of the Hank Festival and still make it to the Fort in time to grab a seat. Tickets are $30 and benefit two of Knoxville's best non-profits dedicated to bringing music to East Tennessee.

(Jack Neely, Paige M. Travis)