SEC Nation, the traveling college football pre-game show featuring Tim Tebow and Marcus Spears alongside Paul Finebaum and host Joe Tessitore, will debut Thursday, Aug. 28 at 4 p.m. ET, with a customized version of Robert Randolph and The Family Band’s “Take The Party” as its opening theme song.
Robert Randolph and The Family Band gained national recognition for their multicultural American funk and soul sound led by pedal guitarist Robert Randolph – listed on Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” – accompanied by members of his family. The band has a ground-swell following nationwide, with a particular affinity for the southern states, having delivered marquee performances at Bonnaroo and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in recent years.
Randolph worked closely with network producers to develop custom lyrics that complement the show’s goal of bringing the sights and sounds of a SEC football tailgate to viewers every Saturday. The show will air on SEC Network, a new national sports network dedicated to the Southeastern Conference and operated by ESPN, every Saturday at 10 a.m. from a different campus. The network launches on August 14. The show,SEC Nation, debuts two weeks later from Columbia, S.C. with a special Thursday show at 4 p.m.
The soon to launch network and the band enlisted fans and band members from all 14 SEC schools to shoot the show’s dynamic opening this week in Macon, Georgia.