Thacker Mountain Radio celebrates April Fool’s Day with a show that is no joke. Our musical guests will be Kenny Brown, Shannon McNally and Bryan Ledford, with his newest band. Our author is a first-time novelist who will spin a satirical spy story that, like a good April Fool’s joke, may not be what it appears.

Join host Jim Dees and our house band, the Yalobushwhackers, at 6PM, April 1, at Off Square Books. If you can’t make it in person, tune in to Rebel Radio 92.1FM. Don’t forget our rebroadcast every Saturday night at 7PM on Mississippi Public Broadcasting (90.3FM in Oxford) immediately following A Prairie Home Companion.

Keith Thomson’s new novel is Once a Spy (Doubleday), a “wildly original debut, a darkly satirical thriller,” which features an unlikely, if endearing, father-son spy duo: retired appliance salesman Drummond Clark, who at age 64 suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, and Charlie Clark, a down-on-his-luck gambler who owes $23,000 to Russian loan sharks. Soon after Charlie rescues his dad from the Brooklyn streets, where he’d been wandering, the older man’s house blows up and the two barely escape with their lives. Clark and son begin an adrenaline-fueled cross-country flight in which they must evade ruthless CIA assassins long enough to understand why they’re being targeted. The Birmingham News said Spy is, “An engaging tale of father-and-son redemption wrapped up in a pedal-to-metal thriller that's told with much humor and great enthusiasm.” Thomson has been a semi-pro baseball player in France, an editorial cartoonist for Newsday, and a filmmaker, whose short film,“Cupidity,”won the Napor Award at Sundance. Now a resident of Alabama, he writes about intelligence and other matters for The Huffington Post.Related link: Once a Spys Website.

Horse Trailer is country/rock/gospel combo composed of Jackson, MS musicians moonlighting from other bands. Singer/guitarist Taylor Hildebrand and drummer Dave Hutchinson are from the Jackson band, Passenger Jones. Singer/guitarist Johnny Bertram and mandolin player, Jamie Weems, have played with Johnny Bertram and The Golden Bicycles. Singer/guitarist Tommy Bryan Ledford is formerly of the Kudzu Kings and The Taylor Grocery Band; and standup bassist Valley Gordon is known for her work with the Dixie Nationals and the Scramblers.

Kenny Brown is a blues slide guitarist from Potts Camp, MS who has continued the North Mississippi Hill Country blues tradition he learned from his mentors, R. L. Burnside, (with whom he played for 26 years) and his neighbor, Joe Callicott. Brown’s CDs include, Stingray, and his latest, Meet Ya in the Bottom (Funky D Records). In recent years he has hosted an annual two-day summer blues picnic in Potts Camp that attracts a Who’s Who of roots/blues acts.

Related link: Kennys Website.

Shannon McNally is a singer/songwriter who was raised in Long Island, New York, before relocating to New Orleans, and, following Hurricane Katrina, settling in Holly Springs with her husband and daughter. Her newest CD is called Coldwater. It was recorded with Jim Dickinson at his Zebra Ranch Studio just before his passing last summer. The record features Shannon’s regular touring band, Hot Sauce, including guitarist Jake Fussell, bassist Eric Deaton and Shannon’s husband and drummer, Yalobushwhacker Wallace Lester.

Related link: Shannons Website.