Thacker Mountain Radio Kicks off the Double Decker Arts and Music Festival

2017 Double Decker Arts Festival. Photo by Joey Brent

The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour kicks off the Double Decker Arts and Music Festival on Friday, April 26 at 7 p.m. on the Double Decker stage at 300 North Lamar Ave.

Admission is free and lawn chairs are encouraged but coolers will not be allowed. Guests on the show will include southern humor author Helen Ellis, Memphis-native blues guitarist Eric Gales and singer-songwriter Lilly Hiatt. Hosts of the show are Jim Dees and Thacker house band, the Yalobushwhackers.

The program will be broadcast live on WUMS 92.1 FM in the Oxford area and streamed online at http://myrebelradio.com/.

Hiatt will play a set at 6 p.m., followed by the radio show at 7 p.m. and Gales and his band will close out the evening with an hour-long set beginning at 8 p.m. Only the 7 p.m. radio show will be broadcast live.

“We’re honored to be a part of the Double Decker Festival,” said Thacker producer Kate Teague. “Friday night is a good locals night and the weather is supposed to be nice. Eric Gales is a truly exceptional act, not to be missed.”

Guitarist Gales recently told Guitar.com, “I have been labeled as a blues-guitar player or a blues-rock guitar player… I am a whole lot more than that.”

His previous album, Middle of the Road, reached No. 1 on the iTunes Blues chart and No. 4 on the Billboard Blues chart. His latest album, his sixteenth, is The Bookends (Provogue/Mascot). On the new disc, Gales expands his sound to include elements of hip hop, heavy metal, soul, jazz and progressive rock.

Helen Ellis is the author of Southern Lady Code (Doubleday), a fiercely funny collection of essays on “marriage and manners, ghosts, gunshots, and gynecology, and the Calgon-scented, onion-dipped, monogrammed art of living as a ‘Southern Lady.’” Publisher’s Weekly said, “Ellis is a strong, vivid writer—and this book is gut-busting funny.”

The Southern Women’s Code podcast is available on iTunes. An interesting side note: Ellis is a poker player who competes on the national tournament circuit. Raised in Alabama, Ellis lives with her husband in New York City.

Lilly Hiatt is a singer/songwriter based in East Nashville. Her latest CD, is Trinity Lane (New West), an intensely personal collection of songs produced by Michael Trent of Shovels & Rope.

The Associated Press described the record as the sound of “a confessional songwriter who rocks out with a twang.”

Rolling Stone Country said, “The daughter of John Hiatt, she keeps the family tradition alive, mixing Southern influences – Americana, folk and left-of-center country – with a raw approach that’s better suited to the garage than the saloon.”

The Friday Double Decker show will wrap up the spring season in Oxford for the Thacker Mountain Radio Hour. The show hits the road this summer for a series of out-of-town performances beginning next Saturday, May 4 in Mobile, Alabama. 

More information at the show’s website: http://thackermountain.com/.

Courtesy of Thacker Mountain Radio