What to expect from this year’s stacked lineup
By Luke Brogden, with contributions by members of the Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett EXCEL STEM Academy Journalism I class
We’re taking it to the next level this year.
Second Bell Music Festival returns for 2022 with its biggest headliners ever, its strongest undercard yet and the most robust comedy lineup around in its fifth annual installment this Friday and Saturday at Suttree Landing Park across the Tennessee River from downtown Knoxville.
Tickets are going fast for the festival, which has grown with each new iteration. From BLANKFest on Market Square in years past to the Monster Mash drive-in show on Halloween 2020 to working with Tyler Larrabee on NewGround Fest and Born & Raised Productions on Sunset on Central, BLANK publisher and Second Bell impresario Rusty Odom has emerged as a stalwart member of the vanguard for locally produced festivals around the area, doing everything from press to booking to logistics.
Second Bell has been the labor of love for much of the BLANK family, including editor Matt Rankin and contributors Jennifer Duncan-Rankin, Bill Foster and Wayne Bledsoe; longtime friends of the paper and production aces Jess Hale and Daniel Fluitt; Steven and Rebecca Swain Hines; Scott Noethen; Liz Lyons; Landon Linton; Pat Joyce; and many more. If you see any of these friendly (though likely exhausted) faces this weekend, give them a high five and a thank you for making the fun possible.
The following is our rundown of this year’s acts. With the festival pushed from its traditional weekend in late August to a little more than a month later on the calendar, we should experience a little autumnal feel that should make for an extremely pleasant two days by the river, so we surely hope that you will join us for a beautiful, locally produced festival by the river to kick off your fall.
Oh, and did we mention proceeds go to our beloved local college radio station 90.3 WUTK The Rock? See you out there!
Second Bell 2022 artists to watch
Big Boi of Outkast is the top-billed headliner this year, and he is the biggest star with whom Second Bell has had the pleasure of working to date. Antwan “Big Boi” Patton earlier this year was presented a key to the city of Savannah, where he was born and raised before moving to Atlanta, where he struck it big with partner Andre 3000 in the legendary hip-hop group that put the Dirty South on the map and established Atlanta as its mecca.
Responsible for a string of incredible albums in the mid-to-late ‘90s and massive hits in the early aughts like “Ms. Jackson” and “The Way You Move,” Outkast was a power player across major hit albums like “Stankonia” and the double-feature “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,” which cleverly cleft the duo’s personalities into what really constituted two solo albums banded together under the Outkast name. Big Boi released his first true debut album, “Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty,” in 2010 to critical acclaim and strong sales, and he returned two years later with the excellent “Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors” and again in 2017 with “Boomiverse,” another well-received effort that featured various collaborations with top industry heavyweights.
Patton has been on fire in the worlds of entertainment and business in recent years, recording a single for an official “Game of Thrones” mixtape in 2014, making an appearance during the Super Bowl halftime show in 2019, running businesses in multiple industries, acting in several films and TV shows and even lending his voice to a couple of video games. Most recently, the artist announced that he was sitting on a potential mega-hit recorded with his longtime icon Kate Bush, recently catapulted back to the top of the fame heap provided by the “Stranger Things” signal boost of her ‘80s classic “Running Up That Hill.”
The biggest draw of the weekend for locals, though, just may be the reunion gig by fabled Knoxville power-pop act Superdrag, perhaps best known for the hit 1996 single “Sucked Out” but responsible for several beloved albums released both before and after the turn of the millenium. Two offshoot bands, The Lees of Memory and The Rectangle Shades, have pumped out lots of cool, psychedelic, indie power-pop over the past decade, but this will mark the first show in 12 years for the band, which will feature its original lineup of Don Coffey Jr., Brandon Fisher, Tom Pappas and John Davis.
In a surprising and wonderful turn, sister ‘90s Knox band 30 Amp Fuse, also featuring Coffey Jr., is also set to play this year’s fest. Expect killer shredding, lots of attitude and a fair amount of youth being recaptured during both sets and on a night of the festival that will be celebrating local talent exclusively.
Palm Palm is the high-energy and highly danceable new project from indie/Americana/jam icon J. Roddy Walston. Odom maintains that he has never booked a repeat performer in consecutive years but that he made an exception just this once to accommodate this electrifying outfit. The general consensus last year from attendees we spoke to that was that they had the best time of the weekend during this group’s set, so it was hard to imagine why we wouldn’t invite them back in 2022. Listen to “Automatic Attraction” or “Cut the White” to get a sense of the infectious ear candy they’ll bring to Knoxville this weekend.
Connor Kelly & The Time Warp is an alternative band that consists of Connor Kelly, Benjamin Kelly and Aiden Lamb. Their music is available on multiple platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, etc. But they aren’t just some random band, OK? They’re popular for a reason: Their fans love their recent albums – two songs in particular, “Hawaii Mustang” and “Love Capacity,” have an average of 56,000 listeners per month, which we can only assume will continue to rise. This band is swindling listening time from fans left and right, but they sure seem to be enjoying it! – D-B EXCEL Journalism I student Levi Pridemore
(Editor’s note: These youngsters turned a lot of heads with their towering psych compositions a couple of weeks ago at NewGround, so be sure to arrive early on Friday for a taste of the future of Knoxville music.)
Ancient Cities is a supergroup of Charlotte musicians from popular indie-roots circuit bands like The New Familiars. Producing funky, spacey indie rock with psych leanings and a warm retro tone, this is not a band to sleep on, but they may very well be the band you rock out the hardest to this year. Originally formed in 2013 by multi-instrumentalist Stephen Warwick, Ancient Cities meld well-crafted lyrics, great songs and really good pop sensibility – and they have solid merchandise, as well as a strong presence on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. We hope to see new people around for the festival to check out their new favorite indie bands like Ancient Cities! – D-B EXCEL Journalism I student Morgan Lane
Pitch Meeting is reminiscent of The Swampers from the famed ‘70s Muscle Shoals Sound Studio: This Nashville-based collective of ace studio musicians acts as the backing band for popular local “songwriter pitch nights” and helps others record their albums in their Pitch Studios. Odom raved about the multiple sets he and Foster caught the group perform at Bonnaroo this year and was thrilled to book them for Second Bell. Watch out for their recently announced Pitchfest concept, date to be determined.
Nick Lutsko & The $100K Band promise to surprise, confuse, scare, thrill and rock out during their Saturday set. Lutsko is a Chattanooga-based singer-songwriter who has reached massive popularity on online platform Super Deluxe with his popular parody videos and with his band The Gimmix, but he tours with The $100K Band to bring his baroque pop masterpieces to the masses. This is one of the most unique bookings we’ve been able to snag, a mashup artist that combines a love of experimental music with a rich sense of humor. Lutsko’s style for sure is indebted to a band like Sparks, but his songcraft is excellent, and his tunes stand up on their own. Don’t miss it!
Benji. first wowed Knoxville audiences in 2019 during multiple sets at Rhythm N’ Blooms. He made such a strong impression then on our in-house seer, in fact, that she demanded Odom book his talents later that year for Second Bell. Now a local favorite, the Pittsburgh rapper is again returns to Knoxville – this time with a much higher profile thanks to his experience touring with EarthGang and working with Spillage Village – to share his eclectic, dynamic mix of jazzy, jammy, full-band hip-hop.
Temp Job bring fiery, funky hip-hop and ska-inflected punk rock to the table. Borne of the talent-rich Pilot Light scene, the collective has been tearing it up and making a name for itself regionally through consistent touring and festival appearances. Their stage presence is dynamic, each of the group’s several member contributing to the spectacle as a whole, but the fierce duo swapping lead vocals is a whirlwind of energetic movement and emotional release.
We could wax poetic about every single artist on this year’s stacked bill, but we have room for just a few more quick hits. Guy Marshall are longtime local indie-country favorites, firing on all cylinders with the recent addition of roots legend Sam Quinn (the everybodyfields, The Black Lillies). Free Women’s Waltzing Club is a supergroup of local female musicians and songwriters including Kelsi Walker, Evie Andrus, Lauryl Brisson, Haley Labelle and more; trust us that their performance is not to be missed. And The Burnin’ Hermans are locally based purveyors of fiery, fun Southern-inflected jam rock.
And although we included it last, do yourself a favor and check out the incredible lineup Zac Fallon has assembled at the comedy stage this year. Knoxville is well-represented by hilarious locals like Jeff Blank, Rowan Young and Brandi Augustus, and even marginal fans of comedy will recognize the names of such heavy hitters as Matt Donnelly, Drew Morgan and Corey Ryan Forrester. The tent offers a nice change of pace from a normal festival weekend, and what you’ll witness is guaranteed to be first class.
