Big Ears: Conversations About Music
Big Ears: Conversations About Music is a podcast that brings together cutting-edge musicians, journalists, and community leaders in discussions about the creative process, collaboration, and the transformative power of music.
Big Ears: Conversations About Music will offer one-on-one talks between artists, roundtables and interactions with fans offering a behind-the-scenes look at the stories and connections that make Big Ears one of the world’s most unique festival experiences.
- Update frequency
- every 10 days
- Average duration
- 42 minutes
- Episodes
- 13
- Years Active
- 2025
Big Ears 2026 Lineup Reveal
Big Ears Festival founder Ashley Capps joins NPR Music critic Ann Powers (a longtime friend of the festival and fellow Tennessee resident) to discuss the recent unveiling of the 2026 festival lineup.…
1965: Sound, Fire & Revolution (Nels Cline, Melvin Gibbs, Chad Taylor) Live at Big Ears 2025
Hear a panel discussion from Big Ears 2025 titled 1965: Sound, Fire & Revolution, where guitarist Nels Cline, bassist Melvin Gibbs, and drummer Chad Taylor, join critic and author Nate Chinen to refl…
ganavya, Carlos Niño, Alabaster DePlume with Ann Powers: Live at Big Ears 2025
Hear a deep and searching live conversation from Big Ears 2025 between NPR Music critic and author Ann Powers and three remarkable artists whose practices reach far beyond the boundaries of genre — v…
Joe Boyd with Ann Powers: Live at Big Ears 2025
At our 2025 festival, NPR critic and author Ann Powers sat down with legendary producer and music historian Joe Boyd for a wide-ranging conversation about his life in music. Boyd reflects on his rece…
Charles Lloyd with Don Was: Live at Big Ears 2025
On this episode, we listen in on a rare exchange between Charles Lloyd — the legendary saxophonist, bandleader, composer, and NEA Jazz Master — and Don Was — President of Blue Note Records — recorded…
Critics Reflection on Big Ears 2025
Three sharp-eared critics who attended Big Ears 2025—Bill Pearis (BrooklynVegan), Jennie Punter (Musicworks Magazine), and Natalie Weiner (Don't Rock the Inbox)—gather to reflect on the vast sonic an…
Decisions, Decisions! A Critical Guide to Big Ears 2025
Get ready for Big Ears 2025 with this special roundtable featuring Nate Chinen, Ann Powers, Marcus J. Moore, and Ashley Kahn. Our panel of top critics shares favorite moments, past surprises, must-se…
Béla Fleck
Critic and author Nate Chinen speaks with banjo trailblazer Béla Fleck about Big Ears' place in the music scene, his early days in New Grass Revival, taking the leap into new projects, the "ancient t…
Wadada Leo Smith & Tyshawn Sorey
Journalist and music critic Larry Blumenfeld (Wall Street Journal, Chamber Music Magazine) sits down with legendary trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith and genre-defying composer Tyshawn Sorey. T…
Cassandra Jenkins
Music critic and author Ann Powers (NPR Music) sits down with singer-songwriter Cassandra Jenkins, who appears at Big Ears 2025, for an intimate conversation on storytelling through sound, the interp…
2024 Critics Roundtable
For the second episode of Big Ears: Conversations About Music, we convened a group of three writers (Vanessa Ague, Grayson Currin, Peter Margasak) and one broadcaster (J. Greg Bryant) to discuss some…
Ashley Capps
For the first episode of Big Ears: Conversations About Music, critic Nate Chinen speaks with Big Ears co-founder Ashley Capps to talk about the history of the festival and Ashley's own history as a l…
Coming Soon: Big Ears: Conversations About Music
Big Ears: Conversations About Music is a podcast that brings together cutting-edge musicians, journalists, and community leaders in discussions about the creative process, collaboration, and the tran…