The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour returns to the historic Grove on the campus of the University of Mississippion Sunday, June 5 at 6 pm to kick off the 2022 Summer Sunset Series. The event will also serve as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council (YAC).
Guests on The Grove show will include bestselling authors Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Taylor Brown, plus singer-songwriter Kate Teague and Oxford rock band, Madrik.
The show is hosted by Jim Dees and Thacker house band, The Yalobushwhackers, led by guitarist Paul Tate. Admission is free and lawn chairs and picnics are welcome.
This show will not be broadcast live but will be recorded for air this summer.
Following the radio show at 7 pm, Madrik will play a 45-minute set.
The Summer Sunset Series is a community event made possible through a collaboration of Visit Oxford, Yoknapatawpha Arts Council, The Center for the Study of Southern Culture, The University of Mississippi Museum, The Ford Center for Performing Arts, The Oxford-Lafayette County Chamber of Commerce, and the Mississippi Arts Commission.
Upcoming concerts in the series include :June 12, Bill Perry Quintet; June 19, Alice Hasen & The Blaze; June 26, Aaron Hall.
Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of the memoir World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments (Milkweed Editions). Aheartfelt collection of essays in praise of the natural world, the slender volume became something of a phenomenon, spending weeks on the New York Times bestseller’s list and named the Book of the Year by Barnes &Noble.
World of Wonders was also named a Book of the Year by theNew York Times, NPR, Wall Street Journal, SmithsonianMagazine, Lit Hub, Indie Next, Esquire, Garden & Gun, and The New York Public Library.
Nezhukumatathil writes poetry, stories,and essays and is professor of English and Creative Writing in the University of Mississippi’s MFA program.
Taylor Brown’s latest novel is Wingwalkers (St. Martin’s Press), an epic historical novel about a female wingwalker and her husband, a former World War I ace pilot, and their journey across Depression-era America performing acts of aerial daring. During a 1934 visit to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, they encounter a young William Faulkner, mirroring a real-life incident.
Brown spins this chance meeting into a joyride of a novel in which he gives voice (flight?) to Faulkner and his brother Dean Swift as well as their beloved Mammie Callie and father Murry. Skeptical Oxford townsfolk are also heard cracking wise about the fanciful Faulkner, deriding him as “Count No Count.” Brown lives in Savannah, Georgia.
