When the prestigious 2024 Pulitzer Prizes were announced on May 6, producers at Thacker Mountain Radio Hour took notice.
The long-running Oxford-based music and literature program hosted Jayne Anne Phillips as one of its guest authors last fall. Phillips was announced as the winner of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her post-Civil War novel, Night Watch, set in (then referred to as) an “insane asylum” in West Virginia.
Thacker producers immediately scheduled Phillips’ November 2023 show as part of this summer’s re-broadcast series. That’s when things became interesting.
“We looked over our other shows from the recent past and realized we had the makings of an incredible, very ‘buzzy’ summer line-up,” says Jim Dees, host and associate producer of the show.
Thus, the “Summer of Buzz” was born.
Over the next three months, Thacker Mountain Radio Hour will present encore presentations of recent shows featuring its usual, eclectic mix, including: superstar country trio Chapel Hart; bluesman (and homemade guitar maker) James “Super Chikan” Johnson; 1980s movie heartthrob-turned-author Andrew McCarthy; bestselling novelist Kaveh Akbar; beloved southern essayist Sean “Sean of the South” Dietrich; fife and drum master, Sharde Thomas; bestselling mystery/thriller author Ashley Elston, and Mississippi gospel rockers, the Staples Jr. Singers, among many others.
Times and schedules for all shows are available at the Thacker Mountain website, https://thackermountain.com/. Mississippi listeners can tune in on Mississippi Public Broadcasting (MPB) every Saturday at 7 pm, as well as on demand platforms such as Spotify and Soundcloud.
Host Dees says the show’s powerhouse line-up, week after week, year after year, is no accident.
“We have (Oxford bookstore) Square Books booking our authors,” he notes, “and we have Tim Lee, who has 40 years’ experience in the music business, as our production director in charge of music. That’s about 80 years of know-how between the two.”
Each broadcast also features the Thacker house band, the Yalobushwhackers, led by veteran guitarist Paul Tate, who open and close each show and often accompany guest performers.
Dees notes that authors and musicians who appear nationally on shows such as NPR’s All Things Considered, or in publications such as the New York Times, often appear on Thacker Mountain Radio Hour the same week.
“Not bad for a little radio show in Mississippi with a fraction of the budget,” Dees declares. He encourages new or unfamiliar listeners to jump on board, noting the show is funded by grants and listener donations at its website.
In the meantime, the music and literature roll on.
This summer the program will travel around Mississippi to Clinton, to the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, and to the Gulf Coast in Ocean Springs for ticketed performances.
All fall season shows in Oxford will take place from September 5 through November 21 and are free and open to the public.
“Mississippi is known for its music and writers,” Dees states. “Our show is perfectly positioned to continue to be a vital voice for these artists. “Plus,” he says with a laugh, “we somehow manage to have a lot of fun. We invite everybody to tune in and join up.”
In other words, keep “the buzz” going.
