We miss our live audience but hope all of our listeners are safe at home!
Due to ongoing health concerns, all of our April shows will be performed in the studio – the Thacker Shack! – without an audience and using recorded performances sent in by our previously scheduled guests, when possible. We’ll also dip into the Thacker archive for the occasional chestnut from the vault.
Every Saturday, on air and online. Check local radio listings or click the links. Next show:
Air date: Mississippi: Saturday, April 11 at 7 pm: Mississippi Public Broadcasting
Alabama: Saturday, April 11 at 9 pm: Alabama Public Radio
This week’s guests:
Author: Michael Farris Smith (“Blackwood”)
Music: Songwriter Dan Montgomery (“Smoke and Mirrors: a phonographic memory”) and electronica duo, And the Echo (“Made For You”)
Hosts: Jim Dees and our house band, the Yalobushwhackers
Michael Farris Smith’s new novel (just published) is Blackwood (Little, Brown), a dark and mythical tale of love and harm.
From Kirkus Reviews: “Still bearing psychological scars from his childhood, Colburn, a junkyard sculptor, confronts the traumatic past when he returns to his hometown of Red Bluff, Mississippi. No mere metaphor in Smith’s hands, the novel’s ever-present kudzu vines are a malevolent force, ‘strands of bondage’ with the power to disappear people, cars, and entire houses, concealing ghostly caves and tunnels once dug by slaves.
“Such is the power of Smith’s pitch-black poetic vision that the deeper you get into the book, the more entwined you are by its creeping effects.
“A gleaming, dark masterpiece by one of Southern fiction’s leading voices.”
Smith’s previous books include The Fighter, Desperation Road, Rivers, and The Hands of Strangers.
Don’t miss our interview and Michael’s reading from this riveting page-turner.
Memphis Americana stalwart Dan Montgomery has just released his sixth full-length album, Smoke and Mirrors (a phonographic memory) (Fantastic Yes Records). The album is a song cycle about an unlikely friendship/mentorship that takes in bank robbers, meat cutters, hard-timers and a backdrop of a decade of methamphetamine.
Smoke and Mirrors is a vinyl-only release with a limited run of only 300 copies, hand numbered by the artist.
“A tremendous record. It’s got brains. Hooks. Variety. Emotion. The Rock. Humor – everything you’d want from a record.” – Rick Cornell, No Depression
And the Echo is a synth-pop/electronica duo from Oxford, a collaboration between Winn McElroy and Morgan Pennington. Their new single Made for You, is off their forthcoming new album. Their self-titled debut album came out in April of 2015, flowed by And The Echo II.
Of the new single, Atwood Magazine wrote: “And the Echo established a sonic timbre and texture that continues to ring true for the Mississippi band. Glittering and pulsating, their new song “Made for You” is a raw indulgence of ambience and connection, purpose and place.”
