Downtown legend Joyce Durand plays a gig prior to the Kansas State-Nebraska football game.

Back from the dead, wrapped in her trademark feather boa, the legendary rocker works her audience into a frenzy as she bellows the chorus from a "Piece of My Heart," punctuating each note with a closed fist.

Upon closer inspection, the stout woman on stage is not Joplin but Sidetrack owner Joyce Durand.

With a little imagination, or a lot of beer, it's easy to imagine the 64-year-old great-grandmother as the late great singer.

She's that good. "We request certain things of her because the crowd goes nuts every time," said Sidetrack veteran and Nebraska football fan Terry Mylander of North Bend. "We especially like it when she does Janis Joplin."

A night at The Sidetrack wouldn't be complete without Durand's impersonation.

Nor would it be without 20 renditions of "There's No Place Like Nebraska," for The Sidetrack is a favorite pre- and post-game destination.

Let's not forget Durand's request box, which patrons fill with cocktail napkins asking for their favorites songs such as Wilson Pickett's "Mustang Sally" or Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl."

If you're lucky, Joyce will invite you on stage to perform one of those cherished numbers.

Because before karaoke was fashionable, even before there was karaoke, there was Joyce.

"That's why I've been in business so long," Durand said. "People like to sing. They like the sound of their own voice. This is participatory entertainment here. I don't see it happening at too many places."

Sadly, it will happen far less at The Sidetrack.

After 23 years and two locations, Durand is selling the Lincoln nightclub that's considered an institution by many.

"Her energy level and her enthusiasm is contagious, and frankly when I heard she was selling The Sidetrack I was sad," Lincoln Mayor Don Wesely said. "She's really a legend downtown. She provided an enjoyable time for so many."

Duffy's owner Reg McMeen agreed. He patterned his bar's successful Thursday night karaoke with the band Shithook after Durand's popular sing-a-longs.

"She's an original," he said. "She was definitely something Lincoln hadn't seen in a long time and won't see for a long time."

That's McMeen's nice way of saying Durand is her own person. Those who know her know that's the truth. She is blunt, forward and extremely opinionated. She had to be. She was, after all, a divorced, single mother running a bar. Talk about flying rumors.

"She calls it the way she sees it," said Paul Newton, Durand's lead guitarist and dear friend. "An awful lot of the world may not agree with how she sees it, but she will tell you how she sees it anyway."

The sale isn't the end of Durand or her band. The new owners - former Nebraska football player Matt Vrzal, D.J. Rezac and Neal Grummert - will bring in The Sidetrack Band for Husker home football games and special events.

"The entertaining part still appeals to me," Durand said. "I want a little more freedom - freedom from the business end of it."

Durand is celebrating the sale of The Sidetrack with a boisterous three-night party, which began Thanksgiving night.

Today will be the usual game-day routine, with the band playing before and after the game into the wee hours.

Saturday will be reunion day. She is asking anybody who has met his or her spouse at The Sidetrack to return. Same for those who have broken up there. And former players of "Knowledge is Good," the bar's old trivia game, will be have one last go around at 5 p.m.

"It will be an interesting day," she said.

Durand opened the original Sidetrack with fellow entertainer Pat Glenn in 1977. The bar got its name from its location across the street from the train station at the corner of Seventh and P streets (currently JaBriSco's).

Durand called The Sidetrack "a big neighborhood tavern in the middle of town" with "peanut shells on the floor and all that."

Five nights a week, she entertained from her piano, mixing salacious humor with everybody's favorite songs.

"I've always tried to run this place like I'm in somebody's basement around the upright piano, only you wouldn't tell them they had to go home at one o' clock," she said. "I still think we have that flavor here."

Durand moved The Sidetrack in 1985 to O Street between Ninth and 10th streets and doubled the bar's capacity. She considered a name change, but stuck with what people already knew.

The entertainment developed long before the move, expanding from just Joyce to a karaoke-style band. Newton came on board about 20 years ago. He's responsible for many of the football songs and parodies, many of them about sex.

"We never, ever, make fun of anybody's color, age or anything like that," Durand said. "We make fun of sex, but it's a funny thing."

Bassist Fred Meyer and drummer Jim Rupert complete the current quartet, which has been together about five years.

"They are willing to sit up there as much as nine hours at a time and play what the audience wants to hear, even play it six times a night," she said.

Durand began playing the piano at age 4 and joined her first band at 15. "My daddy went to every gig with me and would sit at the end of the grandstand," she said. "It never occurred to me he might prefer to be doing something else."

She came to Nebraska with her former husband in 1966 and divorced him a year later. The marriage produced three boys: Dallas, Darrin and Doug.

In 1967, Durand became an assistant on the Legislature's revenue committee. It marked the start of her political career. A staunch Democrat, Durand ran Terry Carpenter's U.S. Senate (1972) and lieutenant governor (1974) campaigns.

She went to work for the Public Service Commission in 1970 and became its director of budget and research. In 1976, she ran for public service commissioner. She won her primary but lost the general election.

During this time, Durand continued to entertain. She had three kids to feed, so she worked piano bars in and around Lincoln, including Lincoln's Cornhusker hotel and The Five O'Clock.

After losing the election, she opened The Sidetrack and compared her new work - tongue-in-cheek - to her old profession.

"It's all show business," she said.

She built her bar around an obvious theme: Nebraska football.

Today, The Sidetrack is a shrine to the Huskers. License plates cover the wall behind the stage: CRZY4NU, HUSKRUS, IB4NE. Posters and prints are found elsewhere. A Lisa Walker mural circling the entire bar depicts fans inside Memorial Stadium.

Husker celebrities Bob Devaney, Danny Nee, Johnny Rodgers, Grant Wistrom and Jason Peter have visited The Sidetrack.

The late Devaney came by often. Durand remembers his last visit well. "He was a little feeble, but when he came up on stage and talked about the Huskers he seemed to be 35 years old again," she said.

And so the Sidetrack's success is tied to football. The bar overflows with fans the nights before games and on game days.

Mylander, a 10-year regular, arrives with his twin brother, Todd of Lincoln, at 6:30 a.m. on game days. The bar doesn't open until 8.

"We've been to Barry's and a couple of other places, and they're OK," Mylander said. "We had to come back here."

Why?

"For the atmosphere," his brother Todd said. "We've made a lot of friends here over the years. Joyce and her band get you pumped for the game."

Those words are music to Durand's ears.