Kentucky native and author Emily Bingham to visit Madison County Library for book talk

Oct. 18—Spencer Mahon

It's been 170 years since the current state song 'My Old Kentucky Home' was published. Whether you are native to Kentucky or not, you've probably heard a verse of the Commonwealth's state song adopted in 1928.

What may not be known to those that sing the song during the Derby every year is the story of this song's past and the history of how the song has been performed over its near two-century lifespan.

That is what you can find within Emily Bingham's book 'My Old Kentucky Home: The Astonishing Life and Reckoning of an Iconic American Song.'

"[The song] is known so widely, it's been performed by everybody from Bugs Bunny to Louis Armstrong to Tyler Childers, in one form or another," Bingham, a Louisville native and historian said.

The version done by Tyler Childers appears on his album 'Long Violent History' in the last track of the album, the title track, at 2:51 as a few short bars at the end.

It's enough to fit in the last two lines of the chorus:

"We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home /

For the old Kentucky Home, far away."

Childers, a Kentucky native, left the interpolation in there long enough to make a statement after he is done singing. According to NPR's Ann Powers, the Childers song "pushes back against southern values and our long, violent history."

Powers later pointed out the same history that Bingham did.

Other versions have been recorded with altered lyrics and song interpolations (like the Villebillies and Nappy Roots version that came out in 2004) or re-written for certain events in history (like the assassination of Gov. William Goebel in 1900). Warning: The version re-written for the assassination of Gov. Goebel linked has direct and very offensive language used in the lyrics throughout the song.

Bingham talked about her roots with the song as she grew up a stone's throw away from Churchill Downs being like a spiritual nirvana.

"Growing up in Louisville where the Derby was such a great, big moment every year, I loved horses, so I watched it and that moment when the horses come on the track, it's like Christmas morning practically," she said. "If you hear about the Derby and you've been waiting a really long time, it almost becomes like a holy moment."

Bingham said that in those moments growing up the song had this glow, excitement and celebration with hints of anticipation. However, she's come to find as an adult with a Ph.D degree in History from UNC-Chapel Hill that there's a totally different side to the song that she had learned at a young age.

"I was faced with a very jarring discovery, that this sonic monument that I grown up around was absolutely... about slavery," Bingham said.

After realizing that, she said that it took her a long time to figure out what to do with it because it made her uncomfortable.

"I realized that if I didn't know that history, then probably a lot of other people didn't know it either," she said. "I also noticed that the people didn't want to talk about it either. It made other people uncomfortable just as it had me," Bingham continued.

She felt there was a lot more to uncover, thus the idea for her book came to be.

Though the copyright for the lyrics, written by Stephen Foster in 1852, expired long ago, the song has continued in one fashion or another to continue to be reproduced.

Re-recordings include a cappella groups like the Acousikats from the University of Kentucky and choirs like The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah, along with many more artists.

"This is a complicated story," Bingham said. "My Old Kentucky Home is part of us, it's part of our history, especially in Kentucky."

Bingham could not make it to Madison County Library's "Bookfest" earlier in the year so Katlyn Ramsey and the staff adjusted so they can get her in and connected with the Madison County community.

"We are always very excited to welcome authors to Madison County Library," Ramsey, the Adult Program Coordinator for the Library said.

"We are very excited to have [Bingham] come and talk about this book," she said.

Bingham will be at the Richmond Branch of the Madison County Public Library on Thursday, Oct. 19 at 6 p.m.

The address for the Library is 507 West Main Street.