Photo Gallery: Thacker Mountain, November 1, 2012

Stephanie McAfee at Thacker Mountain Radio on November 1, 2012.

McAfee drew laughs, while Eric Deaton jammed with the house band.

Photo gallery by John R. Allison, Writer/Producer
john.allison@hottytoddy.com
Thursday, November 1 at 6 p.m. at Off Square Books, Thacker Mountain Radio welcomed author Stephanie McAfee and blues group the Eric Deaton Trio.
Author Stephanie McAfee has one of the more interesting publishing stories: The Mississippi native self-published a novel, Diary of a Mad Fat Girl on Christmas Day of 2010. In March of 2011, it showed up at No. 31 on the New York Times Bestseller list in combined print and e-book fiction where it lasted two weeks. That same week, it debuted at #17 in e-book fiction, and hung on there for twelve weeks. Now she has followed up that surprise success with, Happily Ever Madder (NAL Trade) which chronicles the further misadventures of her heroine, “plus-sized spitfire,” Graciela “Ace” Jones.
In the book, Ace has left the tiny Mississippi town of Bugtussle for the palm fronds and mojitos of Pelican Cove, Florida. She’s finally opening her long-dreamed-of art gallery, is kick-starting a life with her fiancé, Mason, and has vowed to leave her straight-talking, sassy ways behind. Of course those plans go awry when she run afoul of her snooty new neighbors and is forced to “throw her weight around.”
McAfee was born in Tupelo, graduated from Ole Miss and now lives in Milton, Florida, with her husband, young son, and chiweenie dog.
Eric Deaton moved from North Carolina to Mississippi straight out of high school in the late 1990s. He immersed himself in the world of hill country blues by playing at the world-renowned Junior Kimbrough’s juke joint. Apprenticing under the trance-blues masters such as the late Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside (and various other members of their extended families), Eric received a “higher education” in the North Mississippi blues tradition.
He played, lived and toured with other Mississippi blues artists such as T-Model Ford, Paul ‘Wine’ Jones, and Big Bad Smitty. Eric’s sound is firmly rooted in the electric juke joint style, with dashes of influence from early Funkadelic and a nod to the blues’ West African roots. His CDs include, Gonna Be Trouble Here, and Smile At Trouble. The Eric Deaton Trio is Deaton on vocals and guitar, Nate Robbins on bass and Kinney Kimbrough (son of Junior) on drums.
Local musician Cole Furlow also dropped by to perform songs.
Thacker Mountain Radio is a live radio show broadcast weekly for 15 years from the Square in Oxford, Mississippi, and rebroadcast every Saturday night on Mississippi public radio.