Via Bleidner is author of the essay collection, If You Lived Here You’d Be Famous By Now (Flatiron Books).

The book was optioned last year for a Netflix series, Calabasas, currently in development from producers Kim Kardashian, Marlene King, and actress Emma Roberts.

Read about the show here.

The essays present the fish-out-of-water story of Bleidner transferring to Calabasas High in Los Angeles from the private Catholic school she’d attended since second grade. The results were a seismic culture shock as well as abject loneliness.

Bleidner took notes on her classmates and jotted down bits of overheard gossip.

The result is “hilarious and poignant.” (Booklist)

Via Bleidner grew up in Los Angeles and is currently studying for an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Mississippi where, she notes, she lives in a “haunted centenarian cottage.”  

Roots/Americana songwriter Amelia White is based in Nashville.

Her music straddles rock, country and folk and she’s been described as a “Lucinda Williams sandwich with a Tom Petty, Aimee Mann bun.”

Her latest album is LOVE I SWORE, produced by veteran Nashville songwriter Kim Richey.

Following her Thacker appearance, Amelia will perform at This Is Noteworthy in Water Valley, MS on Friday, March 28 at 7 pm.

Proud Hound is a blues/rock trio from Como, MS. The small town is located in the heart of the north Mississippi hill country that was home to such influential blues pioneers as R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough and Otha Turner, among others.

The trio, Kane Harrell on bass, Connor Alexander on guitar/vocals and drummer Justin Webb, honor their monumental musical forbears while exploring their own path.

The group is currently working on a new album.

Following their Thacker appearance, the band will play a free show at Proud Larry’s in Oxford on Saturday, March 29 at 9 pm.

Photo: Connor Alexander (Jean Frank Photography)