Thacker Mountain Radio Hour’s 20th Anniversary show! Long haul trucker-author Finn Murphy and music by Bonnie Bishop, Jimbo Mathus and Kenny Brown!

Happy 4th of July weekend as we toast 20 years of live literature and music!

July 3, 2021 at 7 pm (CT) Mississippi Public Broadcasting; 9 pm (CT) Alabama Public Radio; 3 pm (ET) University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Thursdays 6 pm (CT) University of Mississippi; Fridays 9 am (CT) WYXR Memphis Community Radio

Happy Birthday, America! Join us as we celebrate The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour’s 20th Anniversary!

Guests: Long haul trucker-turned-author, Finn Murphy, Oxford native musician, Jimbo Mathus, North Mississippi Hill Country blues guitarist, Kenny Brown and country/soul, singer-songwriter, Bonnie Bishop.

Hosts: Jim Dees and our house band, The Yalobushwhackers, plus a special appearance by our original house band, the Sincere Ramblers: Caroline Herring, Bryan Ledford, Wendell Haag and David Woolworth. (From Oct. 2017)

Air times – On line and on air:

Saturday, July 3 – 7pm (CT) Mississippi Public Broadcasting

9pm (CT) Alabama Public Radio

3pm (ET) University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Thursdays 6pm (CT) WUMS – University of Mississippi

Fridays 9am (CT) WYXR Memphis Community Radio

 

 

 

Featuring

Author

Finn Murphy

In his memoir of driving a truck for three decades, The Long Haul – A Trucker’s Tales of Life on the Road (Norton), Finn Murphy offers a trucker’s-eye view of America on the move. Going far beyond the myth of the American road trip, he whisks readers down the I-95 Powerlane, across the Florida Everglades, in and out of the truck stops of the Midwest, and through the steep grades of the Rocky Mountains. As he crisscrosses the country, Murphy recounts with wit, candor, and charm the America he has seen change over the decades, from the hollowing-out of small towns to changing tastes in culture and the bonds we form with the places we live.

Music

Kenny Brown

Kenny Brown played with the late bluesman R.L. Burnside for nearly 30 years. In recent years, Brown has forged his own successful career, taking the north Mississippi hill country blues sound all over the world. His CDs include the double disc, Can’t Stay Too Long (Devil Down Records), Stingray and Meet Ya in the Bottom. Each June, Brown plays host to two dozen blues acts at the annual North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic. Brown was recently honored in Hernando, MS by the Hill Country Blues Hall of Fame with the unveiling of Brown’s sculpted hands playing a guitar by noted Como sculptor Sharon McConnell-Dickerson.

Jimbo Mathus

Jimbo Mathus’ latest release is an album collaboration with Andrew Bird, These 13. Prior to the pandemic, Mathus was on the road delighting national audiences as front man for the Squirrel Nut Zippers. As a sideman, Mathus has worked with Elvis Costello and Buddy Guy, among others. He plays in the old-timey acoustic trio, the South Memphis String Band, with Luther Dickinson and Alvin Youngblood Hart. As a solo act, his albums include, Band of Storms (Big Legal Mess) Blue Healer, Dark Night of the Soul and Confederate Buddha.

Bonnie Bishop

Country/soul singer Bonnie Bishop’s latest CD is The Walk, along with House Sessions, Vol. I. In 2016 she released, Ain’t Who I Was (Thirty Tigers) produced by Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbel). Bishop co-wrote (with former NRBQ guitarist, Big Al Anderson) “Not Cause I Wanted To” which appeared on Bonnie Raitt’s 2012 Grammy-winning album, Slipstream. Bishop credits her early years in Mississippi for her vocal chops. “I am from Texas, but there’s a lot of Mississippi in me,” she offers. “I definitely got my soul from hanging with all the black girls in choir there. That’s how I learned to sing.”

Check out the show!