By Jim Dees – The careers of writer David Sheffield and blues musician Christone “Kingfish” Ingram (pictured) – are case studies in how to go for it, reach the pinnacle of your profession and stay true to the heart of your hometown. You can hear them both Saturday May 1, along with roots duo, Sugarcane…
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The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour will record a live edition of its show – “Ladies of the Blues!” – this Friday, April 16 at 6 pm in Clarksdale, MS as part of this year’s pandemic-modified Juke Joint Festival. The show will appear at the Delta Blues Museum Stage located at 1 Blues Alley in Clarksdale….
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The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour kicks off its spring 2021 series of shows this week with a virtual visit to the Oxford Conference For The Book and a reading by poet Sandra Beasley. Beasley (top photo) will read from her new collection of poems set in the Washington, D.C. area, Made to Explode: Poems….
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By Jim Dees – Wright Thompson, senior writer for ESPN, has written a book about bourbon and family that goes down like a warm shot of love. In Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon, and the Things That Last, the subject is more family than bourbon. The titular family is three generations of the…
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The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour, the Oxford, MS-based music and literature show, opens its spring season this weekend with two legends: celebrated poet Nikki Giovanni (above) and veteran bluesman, Bobby Rush. Also featured will be Colorado singer-songwriter, Xanthe Alexis. The show is hosted by Jim Dees and Thacker house band, the Yalobushwhackers. The broadcast can be…
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The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour wrapped up its first season ever without in-person audiences at Off Square Books. The show, bowing to Covid-19 restrictions, put together each broadcast in-studio with host Jim Dees interviewing authors by phone and using recorded musical performances, including those by the show’s house band, the Yalobushwhackers (above). Now,…
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Suzi Quatro, 70 years young, with 55 million records sold and half a century of rock and roll under her leather jumpsuit, is the perfect guest for Halloween. She can’t be scared. She can’t be tricked and doesn’t need your treat. She’s fearless with the ‘Bring it’ energy of a prize fighter about to…
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In our cookie-cutter world where gratification is instant (depending on your service provider), it’s refreshing to know that Freeman Vines is out there taking individuality to the limit – and beyond. For 50 years in and around his Fountain, North Carolina home he has hand-carved guitars with a planer. Using an electric planer, the job…
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The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour will start its fall 2020 season with more listeners than ever. The Oxford, MS-based music and literature show has announced it will now be heard on WUTC at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and on WYXR, a new public radio station debuting Oct. 1 in Memphis. The…
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Natasha Trethewey, former Mississippi and US Poet Laureate, is our author this Saturday (8-1) on The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour. Our phone interview was recorded last week and man, she’s a sweetheart and a heavyweight, a case of gracious gravitas. Hear the show this Saturday as we kick off an all-star August of shows. Although…
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