On air and online: Wednesday, Nov. 26 – Sunday, Nov. 30 – Turn on, tune in, crank up!
The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour returned to the historic Neshoba County Fair this past summer. Although the show occurred in late July, the usually furnace-like conditions relented and we were graced with a very pleasant evening.
Guests: Author/illustrator (and Emmy Award winner) Marshall Ramsey, roots rocker Webb Wilder and fife and drum duo, the Rising Stars.
(Recorded on Saturday, July 26, 2025 at the Founder’s Square Pavilion at the Neshoba County Fair outside of Philadelphia, MS).
Hosted by Jim Dees with the Thacker house band, Paul Tate and the Yalobushwhackers.
Airtimes:
Wednesday, Nov. 26 – 10 pm (ET) WUTC 88.1 FM Chattanooga, TN
Thursday – Nov. 27 – 8 am (CT) WYXR 91.7 FM Memphis, TN.
Thursday, Nov. 27 – 6 pm (CT) WUMS 92.1 University of Mississippi
Saturday, Nov. 29 –
7 pm (CT) Mississippi Public Broadcasting
9 pm (CT) Alabama Public Radio
Sunday, Nov. 30
3 pm (ET) WUOT | 91.9 FM, Knoxville
2 pm (MT) KNCE 93.5 | Taos, New Mexico
Archived here: Thacker Mountain Radio Hour – WYXR | 91.7 FM | MEMPHIS
Marshall Ramsey’s latest book, Saving Sam – A Banjo the Dog Story, won the Mississippi Library Association’s 2025 award for best children’s literature.
The book was also chosen to represent Mississippi in the Library of Congress’s 2025 “Great Reads from Great Places” list for the National Book Festival.
Ramsey is a two-time Pulitzer Finalist (2002 and 2006), a 2022 Southeastern Emmy winner, and a former editorial cartoonist.
His books include three cartoon collections, two short story collections (Fried Chicken and Wine and Chainsaws and Casseroles) and two delightful children’s books, Banjo’s Dream and SAVING SAM! A Banjo the Dog Story.
He is the former host of the award-winning weekly radio program, Now You’re Talking with Marshall Ramsey that aired on Mississippi Public Broadcasting.
Currently, Ramsey is the Director of the Mississippi Media Lab and the Director of Engagement for the Jordan Center at the School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi.
He lives in Oxford, MS.
Webb Wilder returns with Hillbilly Speedball, his first new album in five long years. The album’s 10 songs balance tempered restraint with raucous abandon.
Webb Wilder, the “Last of the Real Men” is a 40-year veteran of rock and roll, who brings wit and grit to every performance.
“Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard, grow big, wear glasses if you need ’em.”
To which he adds: “Trust your gut, even if it’s a beer gut.”
The Rising Stars are duo Sharde Thomas (fife/vocals) and Chris Mallory (bass drum).
The Stars are keeping alive a centuries-old musical tradition handed down to Sharde by her grandfather, the late Othar Turner, a leading practitioner of North Mississippi fife and drum music.
Among the Stars’ recent successful collaborations was the Voices Of Mississippi tour that included Luther and Cody Dickinson, Cedric Burnside, Bobby Rush, Ruthie Foster and Bill Ferris.
The pair also recently toured Africa, particularly across Senegal.
Their new show and album is The Evolution of Fife and Drum Music. The album won the Memphis Blues Society’s Self-Produced CD competition.
NOTE: Sharde continues Otha Turner’s long tradition of goat roast picnics in late August at the Coldwater Shrine Club in Coldwater, MS.
More info: G.O.A.T. PICNIC .
The New York Times has called Thomas and the Rising Stars, “the last living link to fife and drum music.”
