Cicada Rhythm is Julliard-trained bassist Andrea Demarcus and guitarist David Kirlis. Their debut CD is Cicada Rhythm (Normaltown Records). It’s a diverse and adventurous 12-song collection that slides easily between folk, rock, blues and Americana. Following their Thacker appearance, Cicada Rhythm will perform at the Stephen McDavid Law Office (Music in the Hall space at 1109 Van Buren) at 8 pm (Doors: 7:30). A $10 suggested donation will benefit the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council.

Anne Freeman and the Garbage Sons are based in Oxford and include Freeman, Ethan Frink, Kell Kellum, and Harrison Smith. For their Thacker appearance, pianist Eric Carlton will also join the band. The group hopes to record their first album this summer. Following their Thacker appearance, Anne Freeman and the Garbage Boys will perform at 8 pm at the Shelter located across the street from Off Square Books in the basement of Neilson’s (1221 Van Buren Avenue).

Keith Lee Morris’s new novel is Traveler’s Rest (Little, Brown) a chilling fable about a family marooned in a snowbound Idaho town who rent rooms in a crumbling, eerie hotel. The family soon finds themselves in a ghostly struggle for survival. Morris was born in Mississippi, but grew up in Idaho. He is the author of two previous novels, The Greyhound God and The Dart League King. His short stories have been awarded the Eudora Welty Prize in fiction. Morris lives in South Carolina, where he is a professor of creative writing at Clemson University.

The “Elvis Meets Einstein Award” was begun in 2012 by poet D.C. Berry to provide income each year to a deserving student in the Department of English’s Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Mississippi. This year’s winner is David Tran who was also awarded the runner-up spot by a panel of voters. Tran will read from his winning prose selection.