Remember the days of guitars and glory? What’s on tap for pre-Derby concerts this year.
The sounds of the Kentucky Derby? You know them well.
The echoing roar made by a crowd of over 150,000, a number Churchill Downs will this weekend host for the time since pre-pandemic days.
The call of the Derby itself, which will be made this year by Travis Stone (his seventh outing).
And, maybe, if you’re watching from home and some well-placed microphones capture it, the competitive stampede of 20 (as of this writing) horses racing for a place in history.
But those in the Louisville/Lexington regions know there is also another sound that leads up to “the most exciting two minutes in sports.” We’re talking music, of course. Electric music. The kind of music designed to reflect the celebratory mood Kentucky loves to show off to the rest of the world during Kentucky Derby Week.
In terms of rock ‘n’ roll and country, those sounds have a longstanding history with Derbytime. One of the more famed traditions through the decades was/is the Derby Eve Jam, a concert staged initially at Freedom Hall in the 1970s and ’80s that brought in some of the biggest acts of the era at the height of their commercial heydays.
The initial Derby Eve Jams read like an all-star chapter from the rock ‘n’ roll history books.
In the mid ’70s, when the event firmly established itself as an annual tradition, it reflected what was then an arena-level fascination with Southern rock music. A triple bill of The Charlie Daniels Band, The Marshall Tucker Band and Wet Willie played Freedom Hall for the Jam in 1975 followed by the patriarch of Southern troupes The Allman Brothers Band (in one of the final shows of the group’s earliest era) in 1976.
The geographic (though not really the stylistic) scope widened with performances by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band in 1977 and Journey in 1980. By 1986, the event reached to the South again for ZZ Top, then in the thick of its MTV-generated career renaissance.
Lexington hasn’t staged a yearly Derby Eve concert, per se, but it has often presented shows leading up to Derby day. The ultimate example came on Derby Eve of 2001 when a perfect storm of performances played here that upstaged all activities in Louisville.
At Rupp Arena, U2 played a sold-out show at Rupp Arena in what (so far) stands as the second of only two concert visits to Lexington (the first, also at Rupp, came in 1987.) Around the block at the Opera House, folk hero John Prine held court in another sold out performance. Prine played the Opera House every year or so back then, selling out each time. Finally, at the long-since-defunct Lynagh’s Music Club on Woodland Ave., roots music renegades Southern Culture on Skids performed. Not bad for a single evening in Lex-town.
Louisville concerts this year
Louisville’s Derby Eve Jam still exists, but as an event of far more modest design. In fact, it lives on this weekend in two separate editions on the evening of May 6.
At Louisville’s Waterfront Park, located in the heart of downtown, will be country artist and reigning Academy of Country Music New Male Artist of the Year Parker McCollum. A native of Conroe, Texas, McCollum’s love of music encompasses an obvious affinity for the writers and artists that defined earlier generations of Lone Star music – including Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt and Steve Earle. McCollum co-wrote his recent single, “To Be Loved You” with fellow country star Rhett Akins. The curiously country-friendly rap artist Blanco Brown (of “The Git Up” fame) will open the 8 p.m. concert.
McCollum’s concert concludes a nine-day run of shows (that included Lexington’s Joslyn and the Sweet Compression on May 1) making up Kroger’s Fest-a-Ville, a longtime staple of the Kentucky Derby Festival. Admission is free is with a Pegasus Pin (available at the performance for $7).
The other event is called Rockin’ Derby Eve 2022. Better gather your nickels, as this one is a bit pricey. How much? $850. The reason? The evening is a Woodford Reserve-presented benefit for the Norton Healthcare Foundation Derby Divas and the Thoroughbred Charities of America. Despite the “Rockin’” title, though, the headline entertainment centers around more country music – specifically Florida born singer Jake Owen, whose hits include “Beachin’,” “Homemade” and “Made for You.”
The fun takes place at Paristown Hall, 724 Brent St. in Louisville. Tickets are available at derbyeve.com.
Rolling Stones connection
Of course, what roundup of Derby Eve jams new and old would be complete without remembering rock ‘n’ roll’s most direct nod to Louisville’s little horse party – specifically, the famed reference to “making bets on Kentucky Derby Day” in the Rolling Stones’ country-fried rocker “Dead Flowers.”
Interestingly enough, the Stones played the song at Churchill Downs in 2006 – a time when the racetrack briefly flirted with staging epic-scale concerts. The show didn’t fall anywhere near Derby week, though. It was instead present on a cold September evening in the pouring rain. “Sorry about the (expletive) weather,” Mick Jagger told the crowd. The Stones have not played Kentucky since then.
Derby lovers and Kentucky-ites still view the “Dead Flowers” reference as a brush with greatness, which it essentially is. But the song hails from 1971, a far wilder era for the Stones than the one that eventually brought the band to Churchill Downs.
And as is often the case when a mere fraction of verse is championed, a misleading – or, at the very least, incomplete – interpretation of a song resulted. Maybe Derby revelers should view the full “Dead Flowers” verse to absorb what the kind of party the Stones were really singing about.
“When you’re sitting back in your rose pink Cadillac/Making bets on Kentucky Derby Day/I’ll be in my basement room with a needle and a spoon/And another girl to take my pain away.”
That’s rock ‘n’ roll for you, or at least the kind the Stones were immersed in a generation or two ago. So enjoy the music, make your bets and soak in the all the Derby fun you can this weekend. You might want to steer clear of the basement, though.