Back to listings

The Big Ticket

North Mississippi All Stars w/ Burnside Exploration
Bluesy Southern rock. Thursday, March 18, 9 p.m. Blue Cats. $15.

Knoxville Kayaking Film Festival
Live vicariously. Thursday, March 18, 8 p.m. Barley’s. Free.

Eta Carina
Jazzy Brazilian soul. Friday, March 19, 5:30-8 p.m. Knoxville Museum of Art. $6 general, $3 members, students.

The Prisoner of Second Avenue
Neil Simon’s comedy. Starting March 19, continuing through April 17, Theatre Central, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday. $10 general, $5 students.

Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time
Energetic bluegrass with a love of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Saturday, March 20, 8 p.m. Palace Theatre. $10 adv., $12 door.

Nug Jug w/ Rob Russell & the Sore Losers
Imagine if Tom Petty were from East Tennessee. Saturday, March 20, 10 p.m. Patrick Sullivan’s. $5.

Modern Machines w/ How Things Work
Saving punk rock one song at a time. Saturday, March 20, 10 p.m. Pilot Light. $5.

Valorie Miller
Unique singer-songwriter from across the NC state line. Monday, March 22, 9:30 p.m. Barley’s. Free.

Ghostwriter w/ Dexter Romweber and Kamuy
Vitriolic folk songs and a loud, ex-member of the Flat Duo Jets. Wednesday, March 24, 10 p.m. Pilot Light. $5.

Jubilee Festival
Throughout the year, the Laurel Theater hosts some of the world’s best old-time, traditional and bluegrass musicians. But every March the Jubilee Festival brings together local and regional musicians who are world-class, even if their reach is just county-wide. This two-day stringfest is jam-packed with seasoned players like Roy Harper (pictured), who have inspired younger generations with their unique stylings and devotion to the melting pot of sounds based in Southern Appalachia. Friday’s line-up features the Epworth Old Harp Singers, Jim Turley, Don Cassell and Nancy Brennan Strange, Lantana Drifters and the New Lost Weasel Concern. Danny Gammon, Tom McCarroll and Tammie McCarroll-Burroughs, Earl T. Bridgeman, Roy Harper, Charlie Acuff, and the Mumbillies perform on Saturday. (Sunday’s festivities include another Epworth Old Harp Singing and a potluck dinner at 11 a.m.)
While the scheduled bands play on the stage upstairs, the basement hosts its own loose jam session of guitars, fiddles, mandolins, banjos and voices, creating a spirited din on two levels. This showcase of talent is a reunion of good friends eagerly anticipated by players and listeners alike. (Paige M. Travis)
Jubilee Festival • Friday, March 18 and Saturday, March 19, 6:30 p.m. • Laurel Theater • $8 JCA members, students & seniors, $9 general audience advance, $10 day of show, $5 children 6-12.

The Great American Meatout Festival
I’ve been a vegetarian for about 10 years now, but I’m not an anti-meat-eating zealot. I grew up on a heavy diet of meatloaf, porkchops and chicken. My family—including me—hunted, and frequently we’d feast on venison, squirrel, grouse, woodchuck and rabbit. I gave up meat as an experiment and because I became increasingly aware of the environmental damage and cruelty that factory farming generates. Deforestation, global warming, oil dependency, water and air pollution, and countless other problems are exacerbated by the agri-industry. Then there are the needlessly cruel and short lives that chickens, pigs and cattle endure for the sake of human gluttony. It’s one thing to shoot a wild deer to supplement your diet or eat animals reared on free-range farms in humane conditions; another thing to support the maddingly unsustainable and barbaric conditions that produce so much of our meat.
This is not to say that vegetarianism is itself the answer—the corporate method of producing soybeans, wheat, corn, rice, coffee, fruit, sugar, etc. all have their devastating consequences. Living guilt-free is pretty complicated and probably impossible. But the world at large would benefit if we all ate less meat, fewer processed foods, if we were more aware and concerned about how our food is produced, and we consumed accordingly. I’ll get off the soapbox here real quick. But consider the 20th annual Great American Meatout Festival—a day when people are asked to not eat meat—as an opportunity to take a step in this direction. Sponsored by the Vegetarian Society of East Tennessee, this festival will feature live music, crafts, cooking classes, affordable food, games and guest speakers. Vegetarian diets are surprisingly varied and interesting. It wasn’t until I gave up meat that I really learned to cook. (Joe Tarr)
The Great American Meatout Festival • Knoxville’s own celebration of this national day of awareness • Saturday, March 20, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. • Candora Marble Works Grounds, Maryville Pike and Candora Street • Free.

Chris Beard
As a second-generation blues guitarist, Chris Beard has music coursing through his veins. He began playing at age 5 and spent his childhood immersed in the blues. After high school, Beard paid his dues as a sideman in local bands—including his father’s—until forming his own funk-infused outfit. His horn-heavy, shake-your-tailfeather approach to the music of the Mississippi Delta fuses traditional blues with echoes of Motown.
Brackins Blues Club in Maryville, which will host Beard on March 23, has been tireless in its efforts to bring top-notch performers to the area; it’s a welcome complement to Fourth and Gill’s blues institution Sassy Ann’s. In addition to wrangling national artists, Brackins has been a super supporter of local performers R.B. Morris, Jeff Barbra and Sarah Pirkle, and Cheryl Renee. Take a little southbound trip to Brackins, grab a beer-soaked sausage, and settle in for an evening of peppy blues. (Clint Casey)
Chris Beard • Tuesday, March 23, 8 p.m. • Brackins • $5.