Host Post: Lobby Love at Graduate Oxford

by Jim Dees – The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour will perform in the lobby of the Graduate Hotel today, Thursday May 17, at 6 pm. Admission is free. The show was originally scheduled for the rooftop bar but has been moved to avoid rain. The lobby is bigger, has more seats, a full bar and it’s air-conditioned. A win-win-win. And yet…

I’m grateful for the lobby but there’s no question that a rooftop has more glamour. A lobby is for waiting, anticipating; the rooftop is action. Nobody hangs in the lobby for the breath-taking view. Nobody hassles with luggage on the roof.

Popular culture is rife with roof love. Classic songs have immortalized rooftops; from Carole King’s Up on the Roof, to Broadway’s Fiddler on the Roof to – who could forget? – the Meat Puppets and Roof with a Hole.

A quick Google of “lobby songs” turns up only, “Waiting in the Lobby of Your Heart” by Hank Thompson. Hank has some great tunes but this ain’t one of them.

Though we’ll be in the lobby, the harmonies on the show will be heavenly thanks to our musical guests, The War and Treaty, featuring the husband/wife duo of Michael Trotter, Jr. and Tanya Blount (pictured above). They’ll be backed by their full band and may just turn the lobby into the roof…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CykLNcH2lHY

As always, we’ll feature fine books and authors. Chef/author Edward Lee will discuss his travels in food with his book, Buttermilk Grafitti, which includes his mouth-watering chapter on beignets in New Orleans.

Mobile, Alabama native Connie Simpson will join us to discuss her book, The Nanny Connie Way: Have No Fear – Secrets to Mastering the First Four Months of Parenthood. Simpson’s down-home expertise has taken her to Hollywood where she has become “nanny to the stars.” We’ll cut to the cheese and ask her immediately about “Poop Time for Breast-Fed Babies.”

Our buddies at Square Books will be on hand with copies of both books. Buy local baby!: https://www.squarebooks.com/event/edward-lee-connie-simpson-graduate-hotel

Special thanks to the Graduate Oxford for being super-cool and Oxford chef John Currence. John’s foundation, Move On Up Mississippi is sponsoring our show as part of its overall mission to improve nutritional and educational opportunities for Mississippi students. Read and support here: https://moveonupms.org/.

As always our rocking house band, The Yalobuswhackers, will bookend the show with their mystifying mix of zen and zaniness.

Let’s do this. Beat the heat and the rain, y’all: It’s Lobby Time!

 No live broadcast. This show will air on Mississippi Public Broadcasting on Saturday May 26  at 7 pm.

Location: Graduate Hotel in Oxford 400 N. Lamar Blvd Oxford, MS, 38655.