Thacker Mountain Radio Hour heads to the Delta for Juke Joint Festival

Thacker Mountain Radio Hour returns to the Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Friday, April 13. The show will begin at 6 p.m. at the New Roxy Theatre, located at 363 Issaquena Ave.

Admission is free. The New Roxy is a unique venue: there is no roof so it is basically an outdoor venue. Lawn chairs and weather awareness encouraged. A cash bar and food service will be available.
Guests will include blues historian Roger Stolle and blues musicians Big George Brock and the New House Rockers and Jimmy “Super Chikan” Johnson. This show will not be broadcast live but will be recorded for air this spring on Mississippi Public Broadcasting.
Born James Louis Johnson in Darling, Mississippi, James “Super Chikan” Johnson got his nickname from working with chickens on his family’s farms, moving around the Mississippi Delta until they settled in Clarksdale. Writing songs during long hauls as a truck driver, he cut his debut album, “Blues Come Home to Roost,” in 1997 for the Rooster Blues label. Other CDs include, “Chikan Supe,” “Sum Mo Chikan” and “Chikadelic,” which was named the Best Traditional Blues Album of the Year in 2010. Chikan makes his own guitars (“Chiktars”) from auto mufflers, rifle butts and plumbing parts as well as cigar box guitars. Johnson is a recipient of a Mississippi Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.

Veteran harmonicist Big George Brock was born in Grenada and spent his teenage years near Clarksdale before settling in St. Louis, Missouri, in the 1950s. During his career he has shared the stage with legends such as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Jimmy Reed and others. His CDs include “Heavyweight Blues” and “Round Two” (owing to Brock’s former occupation as a boxer), “Alive at Seventy-Five” and “Club Caravan.”

Roger Stolle is an author, filmmaker, producer and blues promoter in Clarksdale. He moved to Clarksdale in 2002 to “organize and promote the blues from within.” Stolle has produced three “comeback albums” for Big George Brock. He is a contributing editor at Delta Magazine and the author of “Hidden History of Mississippi Blues” (The History Press/Arcadia). Stolle is co-creator (with Jeff Konkel, Broke and Hungry Records) of the web series “Moonshine and Mojo Hands.” Stolle also co-produced the films “Hard Times,” “M for Mississippi” and “We Juke Up in Here.”
Stolle is the owner/proprietor of the Cat Head Delta Blues and Folk Art store at 252 Delta Ave. in downtown Clarksdale.

For more information on Clarksdale’s Juke Joint Festival, visit https://www.jukejointfestival.com/.
For more information on Thacker Mountain Radio, including the show’s line-up for the Friday night of Double Decker, visit https://thackermountain.com/.

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