The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour winds up its spring season Thursday, May 19 at 6 pm at The Old Armory Pavilion. Guests for the season finale will include novelist Jenny Tinghui Zhang, blues singer Peggy “Lady Trucker” Hemphill and gospel singers, The Wilkins Sisters.
The show is hosted by Jim Dees & The Thacker Mountain Big Band with the Thacker Horns and guest vocalist, Mary Frances Massey.
Admission is free and the public is invited. Lawn chairs and picnics are encouraged. Party Waitin’ To Happen will offer a signature cocktail for sale. Square Books will have a signing table on site with copies of Zhang’s novel, Four Treasures of the Sky, available.
The Old Armory Pavilion is located at the corner of University Avenue and Bramlett Boulevard. There will be no live broadcast of this show, which will air next week.
The Thacker Mountain Radio can be heard locally every Thursday at 6 pm on WUMS 92.1 FM and every Saturday at 7 pm on Mississippi Public Broadcasting. The show is also carried by Alabama Public Radio and community radio stations in Memphis and Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The show continued its weekly broadcasts even after the pandemic hit in March of 2020 by producing a combination of studio shows with no audience and recent performances at the open-air Pavilion.
“I’m so proud of our band, crew, and Board of Directors,” says show host Dees. “They kept the show rolling along. Of course, we’re always grateful to our live audience in Oxford for coming out every week and making it a show.”
The program has also announced its plans for this summer. The show will kick off the popular Summer Sunset Series in The Grove on Sunday, June 5 at 6 pm. Guests for the Grove show will include bestselling author Aimee Nezhukumatathil, southern novelist Taylor Brown, plus songwriter Kate Teague and Oxford rock band, Madrik.
The day before, on Saturday, June 4 at 6 pm, the show will perform in Yazoo City as part of festivities for the unveiling of a Writer’s Trail marker in honor of the late Willie Morris. That show will feature David Rae Morris, the author’s son who has just published a book of photos and letters from his father, Love, Daddy. The Soul Tones and pianist Jim “Fish” Michie will be musical guests.
The show returns to Clinton, Mississippi, on Saturday, June 18 at 6 pm for a show at Alumni Hall on the campus of Mississippi College. Guests will include author Curtis Wilkie (When Evil Lived In Laurel) and musical guests, roots keyboardist Beth McKee and New Orleans jazz band, The Shotgun Jazz Band.
Other road shows include The Neshoba County Fair (July 23), The Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson (August 20), and The Walter Anderson Museum in Ocean Springs, Mississippi (Aug. 27).
The show will resume live shows in Oxford in early September. The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour will celebrate 25 years on the air this October. More information: https://thackermountain.com/.
