Acclaimed illustrator and author, Marshall Ramsey, will be the featured performer on Thacker Mountain Radio Hour’s Saturday, July 26 show at the 2025 Neshoba County Fair.
Ramsey and the Thacker show will perform live at 8 pm on Saturday, July 26 at the Founder’s Square Pavilion. Musical guests will include alt-rocker Webb Wilder and the Rising Stars Fife and Drum.
The show is hosted by Jim Dees with Thacker house band, Paul Tate and the Yalobushwhackers.
The Neshoba County Fair, known as “Mississippi’s Giant House Party,” after the 600+ cabins that house attendees for the full week, is located at 16800 Hwy 21 South, Philadelphia, MS.
Day trip! Ticket and parking information available at the Fair’s website.
The Thacker Fair performance will not be broadcast live but will air on Mississippi Public Broadcasting (and other platforms) Aug. 1-3.
The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour is heard every Saturday night at 7 pm (CT) on Mississippi Public Broadcasting.
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Marshall Ramsey’s book for young readers, Saving Sam! A Banjo the Dog Story, was recently chosen by the Mississippi Library Commission to represent Mississippi in the Library of Congress’ 2025 Great Reads From Great Places.
Copies of Saving Sam! will be available for sale and Marshall will sign books at the Neshoba Pavilion stage following the show.
Ramsey is a two-time Pulitzer Prize Finalist (2002 and 2006), a 2022 Southeastern Emmy Award winner and a former editorial cartoonist. He lives in Oxford, MS.
He came to national prominence in 2018 when his editorial cartoon in response to the death of former First Lady Barbara Bush went viral.
He is the former host of the award-winning weekly radio program, Now You’re Talking with Marshall Ramsey and is recognized as a cancer survivor and advocate.
Roadhouse rocker Webb Wilder’s current release is Hillbilly Speedball his first new album in five years. Wilder, the self-described, “Last of the Real Men,” is a 40-year veteran of rock and roll who brings Southern wit and grit to every performance.
“Rocker’s heart with a hillbilly’s soul. Tom Petty for the trailer park set.” — San Francisco Chronicle
Motto: “Trust your gut. Even if it’s a beer gut.”
The Rising Stars are duo Sharde Thomas (fife/vocals) and Chris Mallory (bass drum).
Their latest album is The Evolution of Fife and Drum Music. The Stars are keeping alive a centuries-old musical tradition handed down to Sharde by her grandfather, the late Othar Turner, a leading practitioner of North Mississippi fife and drum – and goat sandwiches.
Check out Sharde and Chris’s tribute to Otha August 29-30: G.O.A.T. PICNIC – #everybodyholleringoat.
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The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour, based in Oxford, MS, has appeared at the Neshoba County Fair for the past 15 years, including 2022 with the great Chapel Hart!
The show, now heard across the US Southeast as well as Taos, NM, will celebrate 28 years on the air in October.
See y’all at the Fair – and – On the radio!