Happy 250th birthday America!
To honor this country’s biggest anniversary, we’re sharing our visit to the birthplace of America’s most distinctive voice, William Faulkner and his hometown of New Albany, MS.
The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour, was proud to bring the show to the Union County Heritage Museum in New Albany.
Big thanks to Nancy Carpenter (pictured right with Thacker Executive Director Lucy Gaines) and the Help Mississippi Celebrate 250 Years of American History – America 250 – Mississippi campaign for the support!
New Albany, MS (Pop. 7,700) is the birthplace of William Faulkner and the Union County Museum is a must see. The library is impressive – over 2,000 Faulkner-related books – but even more impressive are the gardens curated with plants, fauna and flowers mentioned in Faulkner’s work. (“Odor of verbena?” Check. Granny Millard’s poke salat berries that she used for ink? — Check).
Plus: Varner’s Country Store, an early 20th century doctor’s office, a blacksmith shop, agricultural exhibits, public art, pottery and did we mention the big green train caboose?
Big congratulations to Museum Director Jill Smith and the museum staff as they celebrate 35 years this year! Many more!
The museum is located at 114 Cleveland Street, New Albany, Mississippi 38652. (Phone: 662-538-0014).
We had a great show on April 17, 2026. It was warm enough for a Hawaiian shirt, the garden was in pre-spring bloom and there were no bugs.
Thanks to Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area for their support as well as our cool buds at the Mississippi Department of Archives & History. Thanks to all!
Our New Albany show is the third in our series of Lit Trips that began with our June 18-21 broadcast from Holly Springs to celebrate Pulitzer Prize winner, Ida B. Wells-Barnett.
From there we rolled on to Columbus, MS (broadcast on June 25-28) to the Tennessee Williams Welcome Center and Museum.
After our Faulkner show, the series concludes next weekend (July 9-12) with our trip to Jackson and the beautiful Eudora Welty House & Garden.
Our guests for this very special Fourth of July weekend show:
Mississippi author Exodus Oktavia Brownlow (When It Gets Cold In The South) and
“Swamp ‘n Rollers,” Bear Ryan and the Delta Snakes (Low and Slow) plus…
North Mississippi bluesman Cameron Kimbrough!
The show is hosted by Jim Dees with Thacker house band, Paul Tate (New Albany resident) and the Yalobushwhackers with vocalist Mary Frances Massey.
Tune it in, crank it up! (A/C too!)
Thursday, July 2 – 8 am (CT) WYXR 91.7 FM Memphis, TN.
Thursday, July 2– 6 pm (CT) WUMS 92.1 University of Mississippi
Saturday, July 4
5 pm (CT) Mississippi Public Broadcasting
9 pm (CT) Alabama Public Radio
Sunday, July 5
2 pm (ET) WUTC 88.1 FM Chattanooga, TN
3 pm (ET) WUOT | 91.9 FM, Knoxville
2 pm (MT) KNCE 93.5 | Taos, New Mexico
6 pm (CT) Mississippi Public Broadcasting
One month archive: Thacker Mountain Radio Hour / WYXR 91.7 FM Memphis, TN.
Exodus Oktavia Brownlow’s short story collection, When It Gets Cold In The South, will be published in January 2027 by Screen Door Press, The University of Kentucky Press.
Set in the imagined town of Honey, Mississippi, the women and girls in Brownlow’s stories move through generations of shared history where people can be tender, sticky, and biting all at once.
One of her micro-short stories: Bobby Rush Brought Out His Biggest, Baddest, Best’est Booty Shaking Black Women and Blew All Them White Folks ‘Way from The Hot Air Balloon Fest – Doric Literary
Exodus Oktavia Brownlow is a writer, editor, fashion designer and sewist native to Blackhawk, MS.
Brownlow received a Pushcart Prize nomination for her flash fiction story, “When It Gets Cold in The South, The Youngest Baby Dies.”
She is an associate editor at Fractured Lit and is the Editor-in-Chief of The Loveliest Review.
Cameron Kimbrough is an accomplished drummer, slide guitarist and vocalist originally from Potts Camp, MS.
His releases include the single, “Still Standing;” the EPs, Breakfast for Dinner (2013) and Head for the Hills (2016).
Kimbrough is the grandson of North Mississippi Hill Country blues legend Junior Kimbrough and the son of blues drummer, Kent Kimbrough and blues singer Joyce “She Wolf” Jones.
Cam credits his Uncle David Kimbrough with showing him his first guitar chords and his grandfather’s juke joint, Junior’s, (where he was babysat from age 4-7) with invaluable life lessons.
Bear Ryan + The Delta Snakes, a Texas-native, now of Clarksdale, MS, Bear Ryan calls her band, the Delta Snakes and her music, “swamp n roll.”
Her latest album is Low and Slow, recorded at Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, MS. It features the single, “Bad Old Man” with harmonica legend, Charlie Musselwhite and Thacker Yalobushwhacker drummer, Ricky Burkhead.
Ryan is a left-handed guitarist who plays home-made cigar box guitars crafted by her partner and accompanist Ryan Robertson.
His custom guitar shop is in Clarksdale, MS: https://www.deltaavenueguitars.com/.
Ryan’s previous releases include the singles Dead Man’s Shoes, I Am the Weather and Mississippi Mornings.
