Knoxville Music Scene

Our Knoxville Music Scene just keeps on getting cooler and more diverse - from punk to bluegrass, jazz hipsters to Americana devotees - we can rock, swing, alt-country two-step and raise the roof with the best musical cities in the nation.

As a matter of fact, if you want to be able to both eat and play music for a living, your chances are much better in Knoxville than in Nashville, New York City, Atlanta, or any of the other mega-cities where would-be stars flock to gain industry attention.

It's our hope that you enjoy these Knoxville Music Scene pages as much as we enjoy creating them!

Knoxville Music Scene Heads-up Your Favorite Knoxville Bands The Best Knoxville Music Venues Knox Night Club Wiki Free Music in Knoxville Check out the Knoxville Music Search Engine Looking for gigs? Check these Knox venues. Knoxville's best open mic venues Hard Knox Blues Bash A CD release review of Knoxville's Southern punk kings, The High Score Going Solo: Scott McMahan plays a broken heart Plan A's 2nd CD release Cumberland Avenue Revisited Sites Related to the Knoxville Scene Find out Who's playing the Knoxville Scene at KnoxGigs Shout Out to the Knoxville Music Scene Do you have a favorite band or venue? Contact us to submit an article about it. Not Coming Soon to the Knoxville Music Scene Ryan Adams tearfully apologizes for spouting off about how much he hates the Knoxville music scene, "I love Tennessee music!" and plays a free show for his fans on Market Square.

Bonnaroo 2007 - The Biggest Music Festival in the World - in Review for the Knoxville Music Scene

Knoxville scenester and drummer extraordinaire, Nate Barrett, performed at Bonnaroo 2007 for the second year in a row.

In addition to playing on the Solar Stage with the "Mini Band of Humans", he also joined the Bonnaroompah band, which played twice daily in the Bonnaroo Beer Garden. I'm sorry for anyone who missed that one!

Nate has graciously agreed to share some of his stories of Bonnaroo 2007 with the Knoxville Music Scene.

Here are the Bonnaroompah Tales

We hope you enjoyed Nate's Bonnaroompah tales about being a musician playing at Bonnaroo 2007.

If you have stories about Bonnaroo or a Knoxville music scene event, please Let us know!

Knoxville Music Scene Album Release: Reagan Boggs

Reagan Boggs, a critically-acclaimed East Tennessee singer songwriter, will celebrate the release of her new album, "Right Now" in the Great Room of Knoxville Old City's Patrick Sullivan's on August the 11th.

Reagan shared some of the story of her album with us, and she's offering a great promotion to people who come to the show.

Read more about Reagan's album release show here.

Knoxville Music Scene Update: Jodie Manross in New York City

I had a chance to catch up with her recently, and got the low-down on why she decided to move, how the move went, what's been going on with her professionally...

...and I even got a few tips from her for anyone who wants to make their own big move to the Big Apple!

Read the full interview with Jodie Manross here.

Tony Lawson and Friends are Working to Put Knoxville Music Scene on the Map

Bonnaroo 2007 Here We Come!

When I first heard "the Police will be at Bonnaroo this year," I thought my friend was becoming a master of stating the obvious!

I may be showing my age here, but I was stoked when I figured out what she meant. Hope to see you Knoxville music scene-heads there!

Write With a Songwriting Star!

Yours truly will be entering this one, and I encourage all you other Knoxville, Tennessee songwriters to do the same...

Just don't send your best song, OK? I wanna win!

Knoxville Music Scene Stars:
Scott McMahan Keeps On Keepin' On

If you haven't had a chance to check out his soulful delivery, love of performing and inspired song craft, you should definitely take the chance to see him some time soon.

Scott's gig schedule and some of his recordings can be found at MySpace.com/ScottMcMahan.

Knoxville Music Scene News

A truly hip Knoxville Music Scene venue, Sassy Ann's, could really use your patronage right now. They're being adversely affected by all the construction on the interstate.

So please go support one of the best blues houses in the South! Here's Sassy Ann's website. 820 N. Fourth Ave., Knoxville, TN 37917, (865) 525-5839. Check 'em out!

Another great "old" Knoxville music scene standard you should check out... is Robinella at Barley's on Sunday nights. My wife and I met some friends there tonight, and I'd forgotten how pleasing and fun a Robinella show can be.

Robin is, well, just Robin. Amazing voice, beautiful melodies, and always a smile and a joke for her audience. Cruz is just a flat out bad ass musician. I'd not seen him play so much keys before, but he was absolutely smoking on them tonight, and of course, he played some great mandolin leads, too. And the rhythm section is just tight.

Check them out. If you love Tennessee music and Americana, you won't be disappointed!

Knoxville Music Scene in Theatre:
Hedwig Rocks!

If you haven't already gone, do yourself a favor and ask some friends to join you at the Black Box for their production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. I give it an enthusiastic "best show in town."

For links to tickets and other info, read my full review of Hedwig here.

Knoxville Music Scene & Knoxville Business:
an Explanation

Why does KnoxvilleBusiness focus on the Knoxville Music Scene?

First, because I'm a small part of it, and because the Knoxville Music Scene is a part of the overall arts and culture scenes of Knoxville, which are on the brink of national distinction and prominence.

Also: businesses relocate to places where their employees can be entertained and have fun. So it's actually pretty darn important that our Knoxville, Tennessee music scene continue to flourish.

There's so much going on in the Knoxville Scene that it's impossible for one person to keep up with it all. So here's a question for you:

What do you think is the coolest, hippest, every-one-should-know-thing going on today in the Knoxville Music Scene?

Create a page that promotes your favorite band here, the club you rock the most here, or sound off with your Knoxville music news, reviews or events using the form below.

Your page will be listed below the form you use.

Whether you're promoting yourself or a friend, tell your buds to come rate your page and make comments - it's a great way to attract other Knoxville Scenesters to you and what you're digging the most.

After you have your say, or if you just want to be in the know, don't forget to check below the form for what other K-Music peeps are going on about.

Have fun - we can't wait to see what's going on in your corner of the Knoxville Music Scene!

Ready to share your review with the scene? Here's the form to do it!

Click below to see contributions from other Knoxville Music Scene fans to this page...

Knoxville Brewer's Jam Video 
Dave Nichols from fiveman.com took a long walk around Knoxville's "biggest hangover of the year", Brewer's Jam, with several glasses of beer, many a friend,...

The Coolest Thing in Knoxville Music?  
Asking for the coolest thing in Knoxville music is like asking for the best painting by a master.

They're all good - even the ones that aren't great ...

A drummer needed  Not rated yet
Hello,

I am in need desperate, desperate need for some help. Music is my life and my world and I do not know what I will do if things do not go as I ...

Dayton Ohio Band Looking To Book Knoxville Show in Aug  Not rated yet
My name is Tony Herdman. I play in a band called In Ten Cities up here in Dayton Ohio. Going to be coming Knoxville way Aug 14th or 15th and looking for ...

Cory Branan @ World Grotto, Wed. 4/23  Not rated yet
March 20, 2008 –Acclaimed Memphis indie troubadour Cory Branan to play select April shows in the Southeast. While Branan garnered heavy praise for his ...

Knoxville Hi Fi In studio EP avalible on itunes  Not rated yet




The Knoxviile Hi Fi has released a live in studio takes of some of their songs. The songs are "I Hope" and "Take Me Home". They are worlds different ...

Amy England - Nantucket to Knoxville  Not rated yet
Singer-songwriter Amy England just released her newest cd entitled "Nantucket to Nashville” .

The Nantucket musician will be performing for WDVX on ...

A Holiday Message to Knoxville from Jodie Manross  Not rated yet
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I had a fun Halloween (baked pumpkin pie, watched the Charlie Brown special, had my annual Halloween party) and am enjoying ...

Ashley Capps and his Knoxville Music Scene powerhouse AC Entertainment are no small part of the growing entertainment industry in Knoxville, Tennessee. They book for venues all over the South, and are responsible for the incredible music phenomenon that we call Bonnaroo.

Bethany Tomkins was fortunate enough to win a ticket to go see Bonnaroo, and kindly has shared the following report from the field...cow fields, that is...

What a weekend!

It's a shame my companion and I didn't make it for all 4 days of the Bonnaroo festival, but 2 out of 4 ain't bad. From the massive sea of fans for Saturday night's Radiohead set, to the cozy setting of a few hundred folks for Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, this past weekend was basically everyone's chance to listen to their favorite music loud and live along with thousands of people in the same frame of mind. The weather held up beautifully, the facilities were kept amazingly tidy by the Clean Vibes cleaning crew (BIG shout-out to them, because that can't be an easy job at ALL), and every artist that we managed to see was in both top form and good spirits.

After arriving Friday around midnight (going into Saturday), we pitched our tent in a grassy field. We lucked out in getting good neighbors, since "next door" were none other than Knoxville Music Scene guitar impresario Greg Horne, and local wordmistress Paige Travis! It was obvious this was going to be a great year at Bonnaroo after both of them told Knox Gigs that they'd run into at least 20 people from here in town that they knew... and this was just since Friday! It's always comforting to run into folks you know from the Knoxville music scene...like having a little home-away-from-home...like finding perfectly-brewed & sweetened iced tea outside of East Tennessee, even.

Lunchtime Saturday, the first performance we saw was Grace Potter & The Nocturnals. The Vermont-based band who bills themselves as "original roots, blues and rock" are telling the truth: they've got a sound and style all their own. She's only in her mid-20's, but Grace can belt out the blues like a 1930's chanteuse in the Mississippi delta might have done, back in the day. Her band, The Nocturnals, don't mess around when it's time to get down. Imagine standing in a wide open field with a wooden barn-like structure in front of you. Now imagine a stage inside it, and standing on that stage is a band of musicians that in a matter of minutes, have every single person to your right and left, in front of and behind you, tapping at least one foot and clapping both hands to the rhythm of their song. With this being our first taste of live music at Bonnaroo, we were definitely satisfied.

After that, we decided to break up some post-travel/post-sleeping-in-a-tent stress by having a laugh, so we caught Lewis Black's stand-up act. If you haven't heard of Lewis Black, you don't know what you're missing; the guy is a riot, and he generally cracks up an audience by pointing out the little truths that are so easy for us to look over. The tent that served as the venue for the comedians was packed for the show we saw, and understandably: along with a few thousand other people, we got in line around 1pm to see the 1:45 show and didn't make it into that one, so we waited another HOUR to catch the second show. It was well worth the wait, definitely.

When the show was over, we grabbed some lunch and headed over to catch the last few songs of Beck's set. Throughout the show, we were told, he'd been using string-puppets as part of the entertainment -- the puppets were made up to look like members of his band, and were a lot of fun to see even at the end of the show. After the music stopped, there was a short rough-cut film of the puppets wandering around the festival site. With some obviously off-the-cuff narration, the sea of people present were giggling and chuckling at the jokes and puns about hippies and illicit drug use and partial nudity. Funny, eh? Ah, well.. maybe you had to be there. At any rate, it was certainly what we'd say should be expected from Beck.

Since we'd lucked out with Guest Passes, we got to see Beck as well as the following act on the main stage from the Guest Bleachers. Even though it wasn't the "very best of the best" seating, there were several folks with those highly-envied red glitter wristbands labeled VIP who were in the bleachers with us, so it was obviously a damned good place to sit. We stayed in our same spots after Beck, because no way were we going to miss out on seeing who was up next from a lesser viewpoint: Radiohead. Yes, they were one of the headliners (along with Tom Petty, who performed Friday night before we got to Manchester, natch). Yes, their performance drew the largest crowd of any act this year. And yes - hell yes - they rocked our socks off. The crowd was immense - IMMENSE. It was like the entire population of Farragut... heck, Farragut and Bearden put together, maybe even with all of Vestal thrown in.. they all came out to see the five lively lads from Oxford, England.

Once Radiohead had left the stage, we went off in search of supper (which doesn't work really well at festivals when it's about 11:30pm and most of the food vendors are closed, so you end up with a cold gyro sandwich and some very suspect chicken-on-a-stick), and then headed over to see our hometown beauties, the Gypsy Hands Bellydancing Troupe. The night's theme was fire - they danced to the sound of live drumbeats and slinky electric guitar. They danced with fire in all shapes and forms - flaming balls on long chains being swung around, flaming skewers attached to huge wings, and even a little fire swallowing. We've seen these gals over the past few years at different festivals and venues, and they always have something new and cool to show us. Once the flames died down, we limped back to the campsite to rest up for Sunday.

The next morning, there was a slight drizzle that had us worried, but it subsided and the skies stayed clear for the rest of the day. Sunday was our day for local music appreciation in the Bonnaroo setting - we wanted some fresh new sounds, and saw what one of our party described as "the coolest band I've never heard of": The Codetalkers, featuring Colonel Bruce Hampton. If you listen to WUTK much, you'll have heard at least one of their songs, "Body in the Lake." However, one of the songs they performed live that will undoubtedly be the next in rotation is "Mis Hawaii." It has a swinging melody and catchy lyrics, and gets caught in your ear before you know it. Colonel Bruce, a founder of underground 20th century American roots music, now has the swamp-blues singing style down pat, which complements The Codetalkers in a most excellent way.

When that show ended, we enjoyed the sounds of Brothers Past floating over the trees to us while we lay in the sun for a bit. Shortly after that we wandered over to another stage to see Soulive, an organ trio from New York state who brought a jazz-funk vibe to the final day of Bonnaroo that was a real crowd-pleaser. Following their set, we found out UK showmen The Streets would be performing on that same stage afterward, so we waited for that. They were excellent, and brought so much energy to the worn-out, smoked-out, dirty and dusty crowd that you'd think it was what Thursday afternoon must have been like, all over again. They teased us all, because when you first hear of The Streets, you hear their first single "Fit But You Know It." They waited until the last - the very last! - to play that one out, interspersing the actual lyrics with a little Joan Jett, just to let us know that they love rock 'n roll, too.

We sought the shade of a tree after that, to rest and relax a little before winding down the day. The mellow reggae sounds of Matisyahu wafted on the wind, literally, since we must have been a quarter of a mile or so from the stage he performed at and yet we could hear him as clear as a bell. After our short respite, we headed over to where Steve Earle was performing. As well as letting us know that his dad was present (which must have been a very special Father's Day treat for him!), Steve told us the backstory to a few songs he was playing, how he'd written this song for that son, and so on. That really contributed to the feeling you get at Bonnaroo, as I mentioned at the beginning of this article: you're with thousands of other people who have some of the same feelings, the same sentiments, the same emotions that you do, and it makes you feel secure. Steve reminded us all how important art is, and let us know that he is an avid supporter of arts in education. Rock on, Steve!

As the afternoon was fading into evening, Knox Gigs had to leave our old pal Bonnaroo in order to get home and rest-up for an early start back at the dayjob on Monday. But not all Knoxville music scene fans had to suffer the same fate - we've been told by some readers who are fellow citizens that the Tim Lee Band "totally rocked" and "represented" Knoxville fabulously. It's a downright shame we missed it, but Tim and his band of ruffians are easy to catch around town as well as parts of the South nearby. They are sincerely one of the best bands the Knoxville music scene has to offer, and we're glad to hear that they made all of us folks back at home proud once again.

So that's it for Bonnaroo... this may be one of the most disjointed, discombobulated articles yet on this site, but hey... for a 25-cent word like "discombobulated," we ain't doin' too shabby.

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