Scott Miller and the Commonwealth to take stage pre-festival

He may have been born and bred in Virginia, but he earns much of his bread and butter—and many of his fans—in Tennessee.

Americana musician Scott Miller and his band, the Commonwealth, will perform in their adopted hometown of Knoxville on Thursday, September 27, to kick off the annual Hot Air Balloon Festival September 28-29.

The concert is set for 8 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center on the Pellissippi Campus.

Tickets, priced at $20 for reserved seats only, are available through the Pellissippi State Foundation office in 255 Goins or by calling 694-6528. Tickets will also be available at the door.

According to Pat Myers, director of alumni relations and Foundation events, Miller and crew’s performance is the first pre-festival show since the popular balloon rally was launched in 2003.

“Each year we continue to expand and upgrade the festival,” she said. “We started four years ago with a handful of balloon pilots who volunteered their time and talent to help raise scholarship funds for Pellissippi State.

“Last year, our event was included in the Top 20 list by the Southeast Tourism Society. We have a beautiful campus, and we welcome the community to join us for the festival again this year.”

Miller, an area favorite with a growing national following, released his fifth album, “Reconstruction,” in April.

Wrote Washington Post music critic Mike Joyce in a June 8 review of the album, “Miller has two things going for him in addition to his considerable talents as a tunesmith: a voice gruff enough to suit the kind of music he loves and a personality lighthearted enough to keep the Commonwealth’s performances from dragging. If you’re looking to understand the band’s fundamental power and appeal, ‘Reconstruction’ holds the answer.”

The album was recorded live in December 2006 in Johnson City.

Miller came to Knoxville in 1990 to launch his career as a songwriter and music performer after earning a B.A. degree in history from The College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Writing here from a rented room in Fort Sanders, Miller played many local clubs, eventually becoming front man for the Knoxville-based V-Roys, a country/alternative band that performed its last show on New Year’s Eve in 1999. The following year, Miller recorded his first album.

“We’ve been a hard-touring band with a show worth the hard-earned money of our fans, and [the new album] was a way of documenting that,” he said recently.

"Inside Pellissippi" is a bi-monthly electronic publication produced by the Marketing and Communications Office for the faculty and staff of Pellissippi State Technical Community College, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, P.O. Box 22990, Knoxville, Tennessee 37933-0990. All suggestions and comments should be sent to Julia Wood (jwood@pstcc.edu).

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