Copious Notes

Dallas star Josh Henderson will be one of the new faces at the Barnstable Brown Gala. (c) AP photo by Jordan Strauss.

Louisville’s Barnstable Brown Gala will celebrate its 25th edition with plenty of old friends and some new faces Derby Eve.

Among the familiar faces at the home of The ‘Ville’s hostess with the mostess, Patricia Barnstable Brown, will be reigning country superstar Miranda Lambert, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, pop chart-topper Kid Rock, former ‘N Sync member and TV star Joey Fatone, and UK coach John Calipari, according to Louisville’s Courier-Journal.

Coco Rocha will continue the Barnstable Brown Party’s tradition of hosting some of the hottest names in modeling. (c) AP photo by Evan Agostini.

New stars coming out this year include Josh Henderson, who plays J.R. Ewing’s son on TNT’s Dallas, Krysten Ritter, who plays the title role in ABC’s Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23, Stephen Amell of the CW’s Arrow, model Coco Rocha, twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss of The Social Network fame, Peyton Siva of the national champion University of Louisville men’s basketball team, and UK’s Nerlens Noel.

According to the C-J, Larry Birkhead, whose famously met the late Anna Nicole Smith at the 2004 Barnstable party and had a daughter with her, will arrive with a camera crew in tow documenting his Derby experience.

The Barnstable party always boasts the longest celebrity guest list of the Derby parties, and this year is no different. The celebs can generally be broken down into several categories.

Country music will be well represented by Clay Walker; Kix Brooks, formerly of Brooks & Dunn; Travis Tritt; Lee Ann Womack; and Eddie Montgomery, of Kentucky’s Montgomery Gentry.

R&B and hip hop will be represented by Freddie Jackson, Smokey Robinson, Morris Day of Morris Day and the Time fame, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels of Run-DMC, Taylor Dayne, and Johnny Gill of New Edition. The presence of Tony Award winner Jennifer Holliday means both actresses who won awards for playing Effie in Dreamgirls will be at Derby this year. Jennifer Hudson, who won her Oscar for playing the role in the film is appearing at the revived Grand Gala, Friday night. And Southern rock will be represented by Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Mark “Sparky” Matejka.

The acting attendees include David Denman of The Office and Drop Dead Diva, Terry O’Quinn of Lost, Mercedes Masohn of Chuck, Breakfast Club star Emilio Estevez, and American Pie star Jason Biggs.

And there are always plenty of human athletes in Louisville to watch the horses race: the NBA’s Anthony Davis and Darius Miller of UK’s 2012 national champion men’s basketball team, former UK and current Green Bay Packers star Randall Cobb, his Green Bay teammate linebacker Clay Matthews III, Minnesota Vikings Quarterback Matt Cassel, Denver Broncos wide receiver Wes Welker, New England Patriots defensive lineman Vince Wilfork, Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, and Olympian Bode Miller.

Watch LexGo.com tonight and through Saturday for Derby coverage.

The first Super Bowl I watched on TV? That’s easy: the 1980 matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Rams were my first favorite football team, thanks in large part to it being Warren Beatty’s team in the 1978 comedy Heaven Can Wait. (The fact I was ­picking football teams based on ­movies was a strong indication where my life was going.) ­Unfortunately, quarterback Vince Ferragamo and the real-life Rams didn’t fare as well as Beatty’s Joe Pendleton and Co., losing to Pittsburgh, 31-19.

That, I remember.

The halftime show? Not a thing.

It was not the Bee Gees, Donna Summer or some other chart-topper from those days, as we have now. It was two groups that seem unlikely in today’s era of blockbuster, big-name Super Bowl shows: Up With People and the Grambling State University Marching Band.

Both were ­Super Bowls ­mainstays ­during that time. Up With People, the Denver-based ­educational ­organization with a ­performing arm, was the ­halftime act at five Super Bowls during the 1970s and ’80s.

Yes, there was a time when the Super Bowl was about the football game, and the halftime show was an afterthought, or so it seemed. Today, anticipation for the things surrounding the game — Super Bowl ads, Beyoncé’s halftime show this year — rivals anticipation of the game itself and makes the Super Bowl a certifiable pop culture phenomenon.

A few years back, when the Super Bowl was getting slagged by many for booking Jurassic rockers including the Rolling Stones and The Who for the halftime shows, it could have been worse.

If you doubt that, ­YouTube is here to testify.

Among of the New Mouseketeers featured in the Disney-themed halftime show in 1977 was Lisa Whelchel. She later played Blair on The Facts of Life and last year was runner-up on Survivor: Philippines. Photos from YouTube.

Take, for instance, the 1977 halftime show, when the game was played in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. The competitors were the ­Minnesota Vikings and ­Oakland Raiders. The show was produced by the Walt Disney Co. and featured a marching band, cheesy singers in Mickey Mouse sweaters and “the new Mouseketeers!” including a sprite named “Lisa!” whom we would later come to know as Lisa Whelchel — Blair on the long-running sitcom The Facts of Life and runner-up on the recent Survivor: ­Philippines. The show also was supposed to include a crowd-participation card trick, though here in the Herald-Leader’s features department, we can’t figure out what that was supposed to be.

Probably the most unwatchable clip we could find on YouTube was a two-minute snippet of Up With People playing Super Bowl V in 1971. As an NBC ­sportscaster announces “Up With the People,” the bright red- and yellow-clad group plays, dances and clearly lip-syncs to Someone Smiled.

(Beyoncé, if you lip-sync on Sunday, there is a ­precedent.)

Up With People has the distinction of appearing in the most Super Bowl shows. The first of five was in 1971.

It’s not that the Super Bowl halftime shows were devoid of stars.

In 1973, the ­University of Michigan Marching Band performed with guest Andy Williams warbling a ­version of Barbra Streisand’s People. Two years later, the ­Grambling State ­Marching Band played a tribute to Duke Ellington; his son Mercer Ellington and the Duke Ellington Band rolled into New Orleans’ Tulane Stadium on an A-Train float.

Singer Andy Williams was the marquee star of the 1973 halftime show.

Ella Fitzgerald even made a Super Bowl ­halftime ­appearance in 1972 with ­Carol Channing and ­trumpeter Al Hirt. We could not find video of that, which might be just as well for the artists’ reputations. ­Channing also appeared at Super Bowl IV in 1970, and Hirt was on hand for the first Super Bowl, in 1967, along with the Grambling State and ­University of Arizona ­marching bands and the Anaheim High School drill team.

No matter how much announcers told us these were “marvelous” and ­“spectacular,” when you look at ­videos of some of these shows, it’s hard to imagine many of them kept people from heading to the refrigerator or bathroom or concession stand.

I distinctly remember watching the Cincinnati Bengals’ first Super Bowl against the San Francisco 49ers in 1982. But if I have a memory of the Up With People halftime show, hosted by Kentucky’s then-first lady and CBS sportscaster Phyllis George (above), I have mercifully repressed it.

For better and worse, Super Bowl halftime shows started to become ­memorable and engage contemporary star power in the 1990s. They were still trying to fit the ­performers in higher-concept ideas of halftime entertainment — see the Disney-esque appearance by New Kids on the Block in 1991 (which was actually not shown during the Super Bowl broadcast due to coverage of the Gulf War, which was just starting) and a mismatch of Olympic figure skaters and Gloria Estefan to celebrate winter in 1992 — Miami Sound Machine’s Gloria Estefan? Winter?

The first time I can recall hanging in to watch a Super Bowl halftime show was 1993 (above), also the first time the performance doubled as a rock concert, this time ­starring Michael Jackson in all his self-aggrandizing glory. He was still ­charting hits, things had not ­gotten too weird, and when he moonwalked across the stage, it was 1983 again.

Jackson’s stand was the performance that changed the Super Bowl halftime show forever, setting the template for what happens annually now: a performance by one of the biggest names in pop. There were missteps along the way. The next year, 1994 in Atlanta, was the first of several in which the stage was so overloaded with stars (I can only find an ad for that one) — including Kentuckians Naomi and Wynonna Judd — that it turned the event into a mishmash. That most notably happened in 2004, when Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake created the infamous wardrobe ­malfunction that briefly exposed Jackson’s breast to the world.

In the 21st century, the shows have been at their best when left to one ­brilliant ­artist: Prince’s showcase of his greatness in 2007 and U2’s moving post-9/11 appearance in 2002 (above). It doesn’t always work, but that it frequently does is one of the biggest reasons we keep tuning in to this game every year, even if our team is not playing.

There is a game, isn’t there?

Most baseball legends end up in the same place: Cooperstown, N.Y. That is now the destination of Legendary: When Baseball Came to the Bluegrass, a film about the history of the Lexington Legends.

The documentary by director Michael Crisp and producer Scott Hall has been selected for the Baseball Film Festival, which is Sept. 28 to 30 at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. The film documents the unlikely emergence of the Legends and the team’s rise to become one of the most successful sports franchises in the country. Among the legendary moments in the teams’ history are winning the South Atlantic League Championship in its first season and the 2006 appearance by legendary pitcher Roger Clemens, who was coming out of retirement. According to the Hall of Fame website, any film made within the last five years that has baseball as a central theme is eligible for inclusion in the festival.

Filmmakers Scott Hall and Michael Crisp have teamed up to make the documentary “Legendary: When Baseball Came to the Bluegrass,” which is an official selection of the 2012 Baseball Film Festival at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. © 2011 Herald-Leader staff photo by Rich Copley.

“We’re thrilled for Michael and Scott and all the folks at Remix Films,” Legends General Manager Seth Poteat said in press release. “This is quite an honor and we’re excited for the story behind the Legends to reach an even broader audience.”

Legends President and COO Andy Shea said,  “The film does a great job telling the story of the Legends, and to be recognized in Cooperstown is a great honor for anyone associated with baseball. Congratulations to everyone at Remix Films.”

Crisp and his Remix Films company also made the documentary The Very Worst Thing, about the 1958 Floyd County bus crash which stands as the worst school bus accident in United States history, and When Happy Met Froggy, a look back at Happy’s Hour, a children’s show on WTVQ in the 1970s. Hall also produced the Froggy film.

The Who guitarist Pete Townshend, left, and singer Roger Daltrey performed during the Closing Ceremony at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The band’s performance was not shown until after midnight Sunday by NBC, which interrupted closing ceremonies coverage to to preview a new comedy series. © AP Photo by Matt Slocum.

As Brazil’s presentation rolled out during Sunday’s night’s broadcast of the Olympics’ closing ceremonies, commentators Bob Costas and Al Michaels noted that Rio de Janeiro is just one hour ahead of the United States’ East Coast time zone, which will solve some of NBC’s timing problems during the London games.

Indeed, Winter Olympics aside, NBC has eight years to figure out how to deal with time zone differences in a world where global communication is now much more free than it was eight years ago. And who knows what communication will be like eight years from now when the games take place in either Tokyo, Istanbul or Madrid — the actual decision comes next year.

But this year, NBC was in a mighty struggle between an old television format in which the network structured the dissemination of events to suit its business model and a world where it is no longer the gate keeper of that information, and people get ticked off when it tries to act like one. As #nbcfail became a huge topic on Twitter, in large part because the network was waiting until prime time to show marquee events that were taking place in the middle of the American work day, experts rightly noted that the network has paid millions of dollars for rights to the games, millions more to execute the broadcasts and needed to maximize its revenue potential by showing them during prime time, when the advertising rates are highest. And the games did get great ratings.

But that argument is wearing thin with viewers and won’t hold up as technology continues to evolve, particularly as computers and TVs become more integrated. NBC has already sunk $4 billion into the next four Olympic contests — 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia; Rio in 2016, the 2018 winter games in Pyeongchang, South Korea and 2020 summer games — and if they don’t want a repeat of the public relations disaster 2012 has been, The Peacock needs to be exploring now how to build a new model that will satisfy its bottom line and a wired nation.

Of course, that’s not the only way NBC spiked blood pressures across the country the past two weeks. There was the edited opening ceremonies broadcast that dumped a tribute to the victims of the 2007 London terror attack. Then, Sunday night, NBC decided to hold off on showing The Who and other marquee acts in the closing ceremonies until after midnight, and after making viewers sit through the network’s new animal hospital show that I think was supposed to be a comedy.

The move put an exclamation point on how frustrating NBC’s overall coverage was.

Broadcasting a new show networks want to get in front of viewers after a major sporting event has become routine since NBC successfully aired the pilot of The A-Team after the 1983 Super Bowl. But I cannot remember someone interrupting the actual event to show the new show — No, “and we’ll bring you the fourth quarter right after our new reality show.” Yes, NBC has been pumping its very bland-looking fall lineup the past two weeks, but this was over the top.

NBC also still struggles with the balance between sports and features. Several Olympics ago, it was getting slagged for its addiction to weepy profiles of athletes. For the most part, this year, the athlete profiles were much more concise and constrained and did help spike my interest in some contests. But this was the Olympics of out of control extraneous features such as Mary Carillo’s diversions with James Bond and Stonehenge and Saturday night’s hour-long Tom Brokaw piece about England during World War II. I love history, James Bond, and Stonehenge has always been weirdly fascinating. But come on. It’s a sports event. We have travel, history and entertainment channels.

For years, NBC and other Olympic broadcasters have been able to coast along to an extent because when it came to the Olympics in the United States, they were the only game in town. Not anymore, and if the network ignores criticism of the 2012 effort, it will find diminishing returns on its investment.

Coach Jenny Zhang consoles U.S. gymnast Jordyn Wieber as she cries after failing to qualify for the women’s all-around finals during the Artistic Gymnastics women’s qualification at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 29, 2012, in London. © AP Photo by Gregory Bull.

Sunday night, I was about to turn in around 11 p.m. when I decided to stay up a few more minutes to see what Gabby Douglas was all about. She was on the cover of Time magazine and had been one of the main names that bubbled up in chatter about the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

So, I watched her performance which was good, but included a noteworthy stumble. But soon, I was immersed in the drama of Jordyn Wieber and Alexandra Raisman, U.S. teammates and friends locked in a competition for the final U.S. spot in Tuesday night’s all around finals with Douglas. Wieber, a reigning world champion, also had a noteworthy stumble in her floor routine and Raisman was fairly flawless in her performance, which propelled her into the final.

Raisman giving her victory interview to NBC while Wieber stood behind her, inconsolable, was one of the more excruciating images I have seen on TV recently, and it also exemplified why the Olympics draw us in and interest us in sports we normally do not collectively pay attention to. It is the work of a lifetime coming down to a few seconds or steps.  Even if we don’t understand the intricacies of gymnastic competition or other sports highlighted in the Olympics, we get that concept of a life’s work coming down to make-or-break moments. And for many of these athletes, this is it. Except for, say, a few sports like tennis and basketball, they don’t have the outlet of a professional championship to affirm their work. This will be the answer to “was it all worth it?”

Then there is the fascination of seeing some events we normally don’t catch in our steady sports diet of football, baseball, basketball and NASCAR.

Sunday afternoon, I found myself involved in the water polo match between the USA and Montenegro. The hour or so I devoted to watching that match was more than I ever paid attention to water polo in my life, save for times we attempted to play it in high school and college — games which usually were more about not drowning than scoring points, making it all the more fascinating to see people who could play water polo competently.

The Olympics get us and a lot of people to do things they would not normally do. Do you think Queen Elizabeth II would have appeared in a James Bond short that had her supposedly diving out of a helicopter if it wasn’t for the Olympics?

Even away from the games there is the whole #NBCfail drama boiling over on Twitter and other forums about NBCs coverage of the games. Once again, the Peacock is being plucked for showing events on tape-delay, an argument now amplified by the relative ease of getting results and even live video on the Internet, and some notable gaffes like omitting the tribute to victims of London’s 7/7 terror attack in its broadcast of the opening ceremonies.

True, NBC might need to think about how to handle these gaping time differences before the 2014 winter games in Russia (Rio 2016, fortunately, is only an  hour ahead of Eastern time), though I also have to wonder who all these people are that would be available to watch major events midday, when most of us are working.

The Olympics sort of exist as an anomaly in this world that seems to collectively favor the familiar. But they succeed because even more than that, we love drama.

The University of Kentucky Wildcats spotted one of their Big Blue bretheren on the red carpet and tried to wave him into the picture with them.

But the ol’ pro waved them on.

Patterson, who now plays for the Houston Rockets, said he wanted to, “Make them have their moment. People say, ‘Yo, go on down there with them.’ I said, no, that’s the championship team. Let them have their moment. Let them enjoy this as a unit. Let them enjoy this as a team, because they’ve been together. I stay back and do my own thing.”

Patterson is a Derby veteran, and he said he told the team, “Be ready to take thousands of pictures — sign autographs, kiss babies, mingle with the fans. Hopefully you’re wise, you make some good bets, and you’re going to have a lot of fun. You’ll see a lot of interesting people, a lot of celebrities. Pretty much just soak it all in, because this only happens a few times in your life.”

As for the team’s prospects in the upcoming NBA draft, Patterson said, “I’m going to step out on a limb. For the first time in history, all six people from Kentucky get drafted in a row … Watch, it’s going to happen. We’re going to make history.”

Alabama fans leave the Louisiana Superdome after picking up tickets to the BCS Championship game Monday night between Alabama and Louisiana State University. As long as fans continue to tune in and go to the games, the reviled BCS is likely to continue. © AP photo by Janet McConnaughey.

In today’s  inaugural broadcast of CBS This Morning, host Charlie Rose signed out of a segment about how pretty much everyone hates the Bowl Championship Series saying, “I still look forward to LSU and Alabama.”

And you would pretty much expect Rose, a Southerner and enthusiastic sports fan, to be up for tonight’s game between Louisiana State University and the University of Alabama billed as the national championship game in college football. But the comment also illustrated what perpetuates the joke that is a the BCS, a series of post-season college football exhibition games including one a computer and a bunch of people say is a championship game: People do watch.

As the CBS story and many other accounts illustrated, though the concept of the Bowl Champion Series is generally unpopular with fans who for the most part want a legitimate playoff system, the BCS continues because it is lucrative to the bowls and other interested parties. And since people still attend the games and watch on TV, there is no compelling reason to change.

But what if people stopped watching? What if they stopped going to the games?

We see it in TV series all the time: The quality slips, it becomes less interesting, and it’s gone, or producers do something else. CBS This Morning is actually an example, having been created to replace the network’s previous ratings-starved morning show.

If TV ratings and revenue started to slip, ESPN, which shows the Bowl Championship Series, would definitely start to lean on college football for something new.

And here’s some news: the ratings are slipping. According to a column today by Associated Press sports columnist Tim Dahlberg, all four bowl games leading up to tonight’s supposed national championship game had significant or even historic slides in viewership this year. And last year’s national championship between Auburn and Oregon also saw a ratings slide from the previous year, though as the first championship game carried exclusively on cable, it also became the highest-rated cable television program in history. So even if there’s a little ratings attrition over time, it will probably take a lot to make ESPN complain.

But fans and many observers are complaining, and the most effective way to do that is turn the game off or don’t go. Yes, for a college football fan a matchup between traditional powerhouses ‘Bama and LSU may be hard to resist (even if it’s a rerun). But if you are one of those who wants to see things change, try to tune it out.

Fiddler Elliot Lane and University of Kentucky choirs director Jefferson Johnson performed "Rocky Top (Santy Claus)" at "Collage: A Holiday Spectacular" on Saturday night. The song was a rewrite of the Tennessee fight song after UK beat Tennessee in football for the first time in 26 years. © Herald-Leader photos by Rich Copley.

Photo Gallery: Collage: A Holiday Spectacular

Before Thanksgiving break, University of Kentucky choirs director Jefferson Johnson told his fellow musicians in the GrassKats, “If UK beats Tennessee, I’m going to rewrite Rocky Top.” 

The GrassKats are a Bluegrass ensemble featuring Johnson on fiddle and vocals that plays at the UK choirs annual Collage: A Holiday Spectacular. Sure enough, the Cats did beat the Volunteers for the first time in 26 years, and the audience at the Collage concerts Saturday and Sunday got to hear Johnson make good on his promise to mess with the Tennessee song.

The GrassKats include guitarist Taylor Cox, banjo player Tanner Jones, and bass player Andrew Miller.

“I know when we started playing it there were people wondering, ‘What are they doing? You don’t play Rocky Top in Kentucky,’” Johnson said Monday.

It soon became clear that this version, Santy Claus, was going in a different direction.

The choice lyric, “Now I’ve got my gift from Santy Claus, it’s been 26 years!” brought a big cheer from the near-sold out crowd in the Singletary Center for the Arts Concert Hall.

Here are the complete lyrics from the song, sung of course to the tune of Rocky Top – surely you’ve heard it.

Rocky Top (Santy Claus)

 New words by Jefferson Johnson

 Vs. 1: Wish that I was with Ol Santy Claus, High in the North Pole hills.

 Most folks never seen Ol Santy Claus, Reckon they never will.

 Vs. 2: Once I wrote a letter to Santy Claus, Askin for a special thang.

 Wrote me back and said “Son you’re crazy cause, That’ll take YEARS to brang.

 Chorus:

Santy Claus, you’ll always be, a special friend to me.

 Good Ol’ Santy Claus.

 Santy Claus don’t forget me, Santy Claus don’t forget me.

 Break: (verse and chorus) banjo, guitar, fiddle

 Vs. 3: Its been years since I wrote Santy Claus, I’ve been cryin real tears.

 Now I’ve got my gift from Santy Claus, ITS BEEN 26 YEARS!.

 Chorus:

Santy Claus, you’ll always be, A special friend to me

 THANK YOU Santy Claus.

 For bringin my gift to me, Santy Claus remembered me.

 TAG: WE BEAT TENNESSEE

Hank Williams Jr. in the intro to ESPN's 'Monday Night Football.' The 'All My Rowdy Friends' song was pulled from Monday night's broadcast after Williams compared President Barack Obama to Adolph Hitler on 'Fox and Friends.' AP Photo/John Raoux

ESPN is no longer ready for some Hank Williams Jr. on Monday Night Football after his ill-advised Hitler play on Fox and Friends Monday morning. That has sparked a new scrimmage over free speech and political correctness.

It is also the latest reminder that invoking the names Hitler or Nazis really takes rhetoric to new, ugly levels.

Williams, whose politics are no secret, was invited on the Fox News morning show to assess the GOP Presidential primary field. He said he didn’t like any of the current candidates and expressed a particular distaste for efforts at bipartisanship, even in a friendly game of golf.

“You remember the golf game they had, ladies and gentlemen? Remember the golf game?” Williams said, referring to the June round of golf Democratic President Barack Obama and Vice-president Joe Biden played with Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner and Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich at the height of last summer’s debt ceiling debate. “That was one of the biggest political mistakes ever. That turned a lot of people off.”

Asked why, Williams said, ”It’d be like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu,” referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It was a comment that even seemed to startle the conservative Fox hosts.

Some people have correctly pointed out that at that moment, Williams did not say President Obama was like Hitler. But toward the end of the interview, co-host Gretchen Carlson pointed out that Williams had just compared Obama to “one of the most hated people in all of the world to describe, I think, the President,” and Williams replied, “Well that’s true. But I’m telling you like it is.”

ESPN quickly replied, ”While Hank Williams Jr. is not an ESPN employee, we recognize that he is closely linked to our company through the open to Monday Night Football. We are extremely disappointed with his comments, and as a result we have decided to pull the open from tonight’s telecast.”

ESPN did not say weather Bocephus’ signature All My Rowdy Friends opening has merely been benched or kicked off the MNF team, but it was pulled from Monday night’s broadcast.

Like we said, Hank’s politics are well known. He campaigned with Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin in 2008 and gave crowds plenty of red meat in his stage patter and songs, warming up for the then-Alaska Governor. So if Hank being an outspoken Republican was a turn off too you, you’ve had plenty of notice.

But Monday, in what was a rambling an incoherent commentary, Williams made the same mistake people on the left and right constantly make and never learn from: making comparisons to Hitler and Nazis.

Read the rest of this entry »

Laura Bell Bundy performing in October 2010 at the Spotlight Lexington Festival during the Alltech-FEI World Equestrian Games. © Herald-Leader photo by Mark Ashley.

OK, you won’t be able to pull your pick-up or RV up to the Riverfront stage in Nashville, where Laura Bell Bundy will perform on Thursday afternoon. But if you are heading to Music City for the season-opening football game between the University of Kentucky Wildcats and the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers at 9:15 p.m. ET/8:15 CT Thursday, you can take in a free concert by the Lexington native and Nashville recording artist before heading across the Cumberland River to LP Field.

Bundy will take the stage at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT for an hour-long set that will feature hits from her Mercury Nashville debut, Achin’ and Shakin’, as well as hints of her follow-up, which she expects to release early in 2012.

With her Wildcat pride in overdrive, we caught up with Bundy Monday afternoon to ask her about the show.

Q. Tell us how this show came about.

A. I got a call from my label saying ESPNU was doing this thing where it’s College Colors Day and it’s University of Kentucky vs. Western Kentucky, and they were going to ask you or David Nail. I said, ‘I WANT TO DO IT!’ I responded, ‘I have to do this, and not David Nail, because he’s not from Kentucky, and I’ll be going to this game anyway, because if the University of Kentucky is playing in Nashville at any point, I’m going to be at the game.’

Q. What did you think when you heard UK was going to open its season in Nashville this year?

A. I was excited because it makes it easier for me to go to a game. At the same time, I thought, ‘Oh God, I hope I’m in town,’ because I travel so much. I’ll have friends call me and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to be in Nashville this week, wanna hang out?’ and I’ll be like, ‘Uhhhh, I’m in L.A.’ or ‘I’m in Wisconsin,’ so I got lucky with this because I happened to be here and even luckier because my work happened to be surrounded by the game.

Q. So are folks who check out your show and then go to the game going to get a full Laura Bell Bundy set here?

A. Yeah, it’s an hour-long set, and it’s a lot of the Achin’ and Shakin’ record, and then I’ve been working on a new record that I’m almost finished with – we’ve finished tracking and doing all the vocals, and now we’re just doing background vocals – so I do a couple of new songs in my set now. And if I have time to rehearse with my band, we might do more. But we’ll do at least three or four new songs.

Q. Tell us about the new album.

A. Well, Achin’ and Shakin’ was a concept record – the two sides, the achin’ side and the shakin’ side, depending on whatever mood you’re in you listen to that side. For me, my albums are definitely a representation of where I am emotionally in my life. I’ve definitely become more reflective and a little more thoughtful in terms of this record. Some of the songs are a bit more … I don’t know. I talk about family more in this, I talk about when my parents split and my perspective as a kid on the record. I talk about my family and my love for them, and it’s a lot of stuff that I didn’t include on Achin’ and Shakin’.

It’s up-tempo, it’s mid-tempo, it’s slow. It’s all over the place. I have some power ballads, and I didn’t have any of those on Achin’ and Shakin’. But there’s some very personal stuff on there that’s very revealing, and I’m OK with that.

Q. You’ve done stuff with UK before. What kind of thrill will it be for you on Thursday to be part of a UK event?

A. It’s the best thing ever. I’m a fanatic UK fan, so getting to perform for UK fans and other fellow Kentuckians in Nashville is kind of ironic. It’s the epitome of a hometown show for me.