Thacker Mountain Radio Hour Returns This Thursday At Off Square Books

The Thacker Mountain Radio kicks off its spring 2017 season this Thursday, Jan. 26 at 6 p.m. at Off Square Books (129 Courthouse Square) in Oxford.

Admission is free. Thursday’s show will feature acclaimed Southern author Tim Gautreaux and oral historian Diane Williams. Musical guests include The Nellie Mack Blues trio and Austin, Texas, soul band, the Nightowls. The show is hosted by Jim Dees and Thacker house band, the Yalobushwhackers.
The show can be heard live in Oxford on WUMS 92.1 FM and every Saturday at 7 p.m. on Mississippi Public Broadcasting, 90.3 FM in Oxford, or online: https://www.mpbonline.org/.
Thursday’s show is part of the week-long Pop Up Oxford series https://visitoxfordms.com/pop-up-oxford/ as well as the Fiber Arts Festival: https://www.knit1oxford.com/.
A calendar of Thacker Mountain Radio’s spring shows is available at the Thacker website: https://thackermountain.com/.

Tim Gautreaux’s latest book is the short story collection, Signals (Knopf). The twenty-one stories (new and collected) take place mostly in the bayou country of Louisiana and are populated by Gautreaux’s signature working class characters who wrest with affairs of the heart as well as “heat, humidity and bugs.” His previous books include the novels, “The Clearing,” “The Missing” and “The Next Step in the Dance.” His previous story collections include “Welding with Children,” “Same Place,” “Same Things” and “Waiting For the Evening News.” Gautreaux lives in Chattanooga.
The Nightowls are a soul band from Austin, Texas. Their debut album, “Good As Gold,” was named one of the Top 10 Austin Albums of the Year. “Texas Music Magazine” calls their music, “a dancing-in-the-street spirit straight outta Motown.” Their latest release is the EP, The Royal Sessions recorded at Royal Studios in Memphis. The band has performed at South by Southwest as a “Showcase Artist” for the past two years in a row.

Diane Williams is an oral historian, performance artist and storyteller. Her book is “Mississippi Folk and the Tales They Tell: Myths, Legends and Bald-Faced Lies (The History Press).” Williams traveled across the Magnolia State to gather local legends and compile them into an inquisitive, laugh-out-loud collection. Williams also serves as the director of grants for the Mississippi Arts Commission. She teaches at Millsaps College and at Jackson State University.

Mississippi Blues artist, Nellie Mack (Nellie McInnis), has been playing bass since she was a teenager. She now fronts her own blues trio, The Nellie Mack Project, as well as a gospel group, Soft Wind. Mack is a high-energy performer who dances as she plays. With a master’s degree in music, Mack also presents workshops to children as well as gifted and physically challenged students. Nellie Mack is a roster artist with the Mississippi Arts Commission.
Photos of past Thacker Mountain Radio Hour shows can be found on the show’s Facebook page and podcasts can be heard on the show’s Soundcloud page at https://soundcloud.com/thackermountain.

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