The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour returns to the Neshoba County Fair on Saturday, July 27, 2024, at 8 pm at the Founder’s Square Pavilion on the grounds of the Fair, located some ten miles west of Philadelphia, MS.
Author: Kate Medley – “Thank You Please Come Again” – photos/essays of convenience store food culture
Music: Bluesman Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and songwriter/keyboardist Beth McKee
The show is hosted by Jim Dees and Thacker house band, the Yalobushwhackers.
Following the one-hour radio recording, stick around for a 30-minute after set of music at the Pavilion.
This show will not be broadcast live. It will air the weekend of August 15-18.
The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour is heard in Neshoba County every Saturday at 7 pm on WMAW 88.1 FM – Meridian. The Neshoba County Fair is located on County Road 147, some ten miles west, outside of Philadelphia, MS.
Information on Neshoba County Fair tickets, parking, etc. is available at the Fair’s website: http://www.neshobacountyfair.org/.
Kate Medley is a North Carolina-based visual journalist and filmmaker documenting the American South.
Her most recent book is Thank You Please Come Again: How Gas Stations Feed & Fuel the American South. (Bitter Southerner)
Kate and her book have recently been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NPR.
Thank You Please Come Again is a coffee table book that documents the dozens of road trips Medley undertook to explore the diverse (and surprising) cuisines served up at our favorite convenience stores.
Along the way, she pulls over for tamales, fried fish, and banh mi at venues both familiar and new.
She shows us the true “filling stations” of our time, offering a cup of hot coffee, a bag of chips, an answer to a question, or just a place to stop and sit a minute.
How do these gathering spaces fuel an ever-changing scene of customers, cashiers, cooks, and attendants?
In Thank You Please Come Again, Medley gives us her thoughtful answers in a very satisfying to go box.
Bluesman Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, of Bentonia, MS was nominated for a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album for his 2019 LP, Cypress Grove. The record was produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys.
Cypress Grove is an aural postcard of a typical Saturday night at Holmes’ Blue Front Café, America’s longest operating juke joint.
“I want to play this music as much as I can, because I want younger people to see it and get the passion for it and carry it on,” the 74-year-old declares. “It’s important. It’s blues, so it’s the foundation all American music was built on. And it’s the truth — all true stories about real life, ’cause country blues got no room for lies.”
Keyboardist Beth McKee’s latest release is the EP, Monday After Sunday. Her funky single, Swamp Sistas Cosmic Drifter, is also available.
Her previous releases include the single Hold On (Italians in the Night) and the albums Dreamwood Acres, Sugarcane Revival and Next to Nowhere.
From her native Mississippi to her immersion in the scenes of Austin, New Orleans, North Carolina, and Orlando, Florida – McKee’s music encompasses a southern gumbo of sounds.
The New York Times perfectly under-stated her talents: “… a perfectly fine roots act…” – (Nov. 6, 2021).
