The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour, Oxford’s award-winning music and literature show, will open its spring season of live performances this Thursday, Jan. 23 at 6 pm at Off Square Books, located at 129 Courthouse Square. Guests for the first show will include debut short story author, Ashley Wurzbacher, (pictured, left) pop-rockers Short in the Sleeve and Memphis soul-funk duo, The PRLVG (pictured above). Hosts of the show are Jim Dees and house band, the Yalobushwhackers. Admission is free.
The show can be heard live on WUMS (92.1 FM in Oxford) and online. It will be broadcast on Mississippi and Alabama public radio stations next Saturday, Feb. 1 at 7 pm.
Thacker’s season premiere is part of this year’s Pop Up Oxford a weeklong series of lectures, programs and events sponsored by local tourist organization, Visit Oxford.
Thursday’s broadcast will kick off 13 shows to be presented in Oxford over the spring culminating in an outdoor show on the Square on Friday night of the Double Decker Festival on April 24th.
Other highlights of the new season include noted crime novelist Don Winslow (April 9 – pictured above right); popular southern essayist, Sean Dietrich (March 3); the Oxford Film Festival show at the Ford Center with author Donna Rifkind (March 19); the Oxford Conference for the Book show with local faves, And the Echo (April 2); and a “big brass blowout” with the Mighty Souls Brass Band at the Lyric (April 16 – pictured above).
The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour capped off its 2019 season with its annual Holiday Membership party on Dec. 5th. Thacker producer Alice Pierotti says the holiday party – which includes a popular silent auction to raise production funds – was a great success and provided momentum for 2020.
“We offer our sincere thanks to everyone who donated such cool items to our auction and to everyone who bid on those items,” Pierotti said. “It was our most successful auction yet and has really laid the groundwork for our new season.”
As usual, the spring season will offer Thacker’s unique mix of authors and musicians spanning a wide array of genres and subject matter.
Thursday’s author, Ashley Wurzbacher, was recently honored by the National Book Foundation as one of “5 Under 35” authors to watch. Her debut story collection, Happy Like This, spans a wide range of distinct perspectives, voices, and styles, including social scientists, linguists, speech therapists, plant physiologists and dancers.
Thursday’s musical guests hail from Memphis, veteran pop-rockers, Short in the Sleeve, and newcomer funk duo, THE PRVLG.
The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour can be heard every Thursday at 6 pm on WUMS (on air and online) and every Saturday at 7 pm on Mississippi Public Broadcasting and at 9 pm Saturdays on Alabama Public Radio, both on air and online.
More information on the spring season is available at https://thackermountain.com/.
Thacker Jr., a children’s version of the show featuring an all-student cast, will be performed on Saturday, Jan 25 at 6 pm at Nutt Auditorium. Admission is free and the public is invited.