Thacker Mountain Celebrates New Members Friday at Southside Gallery

The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour will hold its annual membership party this Friday, Dec. 5 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Southside Art Gallery on the Square.
Admission is free to current members and new members can join at the door ($75 couple, $50 individual, $20 students) or by credit card online. Checks may be sent to PO Box 2196, Oxford, MS 38655.
The one-hour radio show is recorded live every Thursday at Off Square Books and features an author reading and a guest band performing each week. Entertainment for Friday’s party will be provided by the Thacker Mountain house band, the Yalobushwhackers. Food will be catered by Party Waitin’ to Happen with refreshments from Yalobusha Brewery, Cathead Vodka and Star Package. A special “signature cocktail” will be donated by Snackbar.
A Silent Auction will feature over two dozen “Oxford-centric” prizes to raise money for Thacker’s 2015 production costs. Perhaps the most exciting of these prizes will be a “Ghost Tour” on the Double Decker bus of some of Oxford’s most historic sites complete with a “bite and beverage” and a ghost story at each stop.
The bus tour will take place on March 20, 2015. The top 20 bidders will visit such Oxford landmarks as Ammadelle with stories by Tim Tatum, the Oxford Cemetery with stories by Rusty Faulkner, Cedar Oaks with stories by Diane Fergusson, Maud Faulkner’s home with stories by Larry Wells and Rowan Oak with stories by Bill Griffith and Kaye Bryant. Food and beverages will be provided by the Cedar Oaks Guild, McAllister’s (Jason Elliot/Austin Mitchell), the University Museum and Rowan Oak.
Other silent auction items include dinner for two at Honey Bee Bakery, sushi and a movie at Jensei and Malco, a pastry tray from Bottletree Bakery, tennis lessons from the Goose Greek Club, Biscuits and Bloody Marys for 40 prepared by the “Debutante Farmer,” Elizabeth Heiskell of Woodson Ridge Farms, a Delta hunting trip, a Destin, Fla. getaway, a golf outing and a New Orleans dining weekend at restaurants owned by acclaimed chef, John Besh.
Another prize expected to generate interest is from novelist Ace Atkins who will offer patrons a chance to bid on choosing a name for a character in one of his next books. The name can be a loved one, an inside joke, whatever name the winning bidder comes up with.
Attendees are encouraged to come early and sport “holiday attire.” Last year’s event drew a large crowd and Thacker event planners expect the same this Friday. Live production of the radio show is on winter break, but the Thacker Mountain Radio Hour can still be heard every Saturday night at 7 pm on Mississippi Public Broadcasting radio (90.3 FM in Oxford) and online.
More information is available at the show’s website. Photos from past broadcasts are available on the show’s Facebook page.