Wilco’s Nels Cline shows Knoxville love at 2026 Big Ears Music Festival
Wilco guitarist and Big Ears fan favorite Nels Cline sat down with us in the future home of the Tennessee Theatre’s recording studio at 612 S. Gay St.
- Nels Cline, lead guitarist for Wilco, appreciates Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival for its artistic variety.
- Cline has performed in a wide range of Knoxville venues, from the intimate Pilot Light to the historic Tennessee Theatre.
- The Big Ears Festival and the city of Knoxville have a symbiotic relationship, boosting both culture and the local economy.
- After a previous cancellation, Cline is scheduled to perform his album “Lovers” at the 2026 festival.
Musically speaking, Nels Cline wears a lot of hats. It’s in Knoxville where the 21st century’s “Guitar God” gets to try them all on.
Cline is the lead guitarist for Wilco and known for his own compositions and participation in a multitude of other projects, with work spanning genres from jazz to rock to experimental. The ability to have the kind of artistic breadth Cline is known for is the thing the 70-year-old, LA-born musician loves about his work.
“It is the blessing of my life to be able to participate in all kinds of music making, and meet all kinds of people and go to all kinds of places,” he told Knox News during Big Ears Festival 2026. “I think it’s not just personal sensibility. It’s something to do with the instrument in a way. It’s a very malleable instrument, the electric guitar particularly.”
It’s because of the festival, first held in 2009, that Cline has been able to live out a condensed form of that variety year after year in Knoxville.
No matter the music, Knoxville has a place
Cline has played local venues from downtown churches to the Bijou Theatre. His first Knoxville performance was at the Pilot Light − which Cline recalls as “great,” if “kind of dark.” The small, cash-only spot with a capacity of less than 100 is a place where many artists find their footing locally, and its intimacy makes it a favorite for artists and attendees.
Cline went on to experience the opposite end of the spectrum at the grand Tennessee Theatre, with a capacity of more than 1,600. Cline remains enamored by the historic venue, which is approaching the completion of a $24.6 million, 24,000-square foot expansion that includes a top‑floor recording studio where Executive Director Becky Hancock met with Knox News after hours for a conversation with Cline about place.
“It’s one of the most beautiful theaters,” Cline said. “And we played a fair amount of these absolutely beautiful, restored, iconic theaters. And the Tennessee Theatre is way up there in sort of a breathtaking, lush kind of beauty.”
Through Big Ears Festival, Cline has only expanded his familiarity with Knoxville’s unique spaces. Just last year, he twice presented two unique projects at The Point and appeared in performances by the Nels Cline singers, Jenny Scheinman’s All Species Parade and 101 Audio Odyssey.
“I’ve never done so many different things in one town in three days,” said Cline, recognized by Rolling Stone as one of the “New Guitar Gods” in 2007.
“It’s pretty crazy,” Cline added. “But I live for that.”
One project Cline has never presented at Big Ears is “Lovers.” He was scheduled to bring the masterful album to the festival in 2018, but a snowstorm prevented him from reaching Knoxville in time.
It’s finally happening in 2026 − with Cline crediting festival founder Ashley Capps’ determination − and it’s scheduled for 6 p.m. Sunday at the one and only Tennessee Theatre. The silver lining is that now, the performance’s Big Ears debut aligns with the 10th anniversary of the album Cline told NPR he worked on over the span of 25 years.
Playing with Cline on the fourth and final day of Big Ears will be his twin, Alex Cline, along with Chris Lightcap, Gregg Belisle-Chi and members of the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra.
Symbiotic relationship boosts Big Ears Festival and the city
Before “Lovers” and before Big Ears − at one of those early Knoxville shows − Cline met Ashley Capps for the first time over some post-performance sushi.
“He’s such an intense music person and knew all about our various endeavors,” Cline said about Capps, a local promoter at the time. “And so kind and generous.”
It was during that dinner, Capps shared his vision for an experimental festival based in downtown Knoxville. Not long after, Big Ears was born.
The festival is a huge reason why Cline has spent so much time in Knoxville. He finds parallels between the artistic explosion that happens in the Scruffy City each spring and Wilco’s biannual Solid Sound Festival in North Adams, Massachusetts.
“It’s changed that town. And brought a lot of revenue to the town,” he said. “But I think also crucially, it’s this story that I see … of somebody having a vision and then bringing culture into the town on multiple levels, and seeing how prosperity can trickle down from that, along with awareness and, dare I say, inspiration in the populace.”
The result in both cases is a symbiotic relationship, where the festivals and the cities both benefit. On the music side, artistry and creativity flourish, while Knoxville gets a boost from all it has to offer in return.
One can’t help but notice the compliments given to the city by the thousands from across the globe who speak in line about the vast number of downtown venues, the walkability of the urban core, the quirkiness of local shops and the quality of local food (Cline’s favorites include Chivo Taqueria and Kaizen).
“Every place doesn’t have to be Nashville, just like every place doesn’t have to be New York,” Cline said. “And so I think what Ashley’s done here has turned a lot of heads and turned a lot of people on to great music − which is kind of important to me.”
Big Ears is ‘many things,’ including community
Between performances and rehearsals, Cline has little free time at Big Ears. That’s the downside of the festival. When Cline’s not playing with his “musical heroes,” they’re performing their own unique acts.
He held off looking at the schedule until the first day of the festival and “almost fainted.”
“I just thought, ‘Oh, man,'” Cline said. “But, quality problem, as we say.”
Even for attendees who aren’t performing left and right, the stacked lineup can force difficult choices. Cline appreciates that. At a festival that’s not one thing but “many, many things,” Cline said, the people who come are open-minded and prepared to experience it all.
The most important thing Big Ears does is bring them together. During this “very fraught period” in the United States, Cline finds that communities are “more important than ever.” And this festival creates one year after year.
“You need people face to face,” he said, whether that’s meeting someone at the grocery store, talking to your neighbor, or connecting with a fellow concertgoer at the show of a lifetime.
Community is alive and humming in Knoxville on any weekend, on any day, at any time. But with more people, more creativity and more collaboration, Big Ears turns up the volume.
Hayden Dunbar is the storyteller reporter. Email: [email protected]. Instagram: @knoxstoryteller.
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