Tales of family love (and food) from Mobile, AL!

Bestselling author Rick Bragg and 'The Best Cook in the World,' Americana-roots musician Will Kimbrough and Birmingham songwriter, Love Moor!

December 26, 2020 at 7 pm (CT) Mississippi Public Broadcasting; 9 pm (CT) Alabama Public Radio; 3 pm (ET) University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Thursdays 6 pm (CT) University of Mississippi; Fridays 9 am (CT) WYXR Memphis Community Radio

The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour headed to Mobile, Alabama with bestselling author Rick Bragg for this show recorded on Saturday, May 4, 2019 at The Cedar Street Social Club (4, 2106 North Cedar Street, Mobile, Alabama 36602). Much thanks to their staff for a wonderful evening.

Guests: Bestselling author Rick Bragg, Americana musician Will Kimbrough and singer-songwriter, Love Moor

Hosts: Jim Dees and Thacker house band, the Yalobushwhackers

Air times:

Saturday, Dec. 26 – 7pm (CT) Mississippi Public Broadcasting

9pm (CT) Alabama Public Radio

3pm (ET) University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Thursdays 6pm (CT) WUMS – University of Mississippi

Fridays 9am (CT) WYXR Memphis Community Radio

Featuring

Author

Rick Bragg

Rick Bragg’s book, The Best Cook in the World: Tales From My Mama’s Table (Knopf) is a delectable and rollicking food memoir, cookbook, and loving tribute to a region, a family, and, especially, to his mother.
Margaret Bragg does not own a single cookbook. She measures in “dabs” and “smidgens” and “tads” and “you know, hon, just some.” She cannot be pinned down on how long to bake corn bread (“about 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the mysteries of your oven”). Her notion of farm-to-table is a flatbed truck. But she can tell you the secrets to perfect mashed potatoes, corn pudding, redeye gravy, pinto beans and hambone, stewed cabbage, short ribs, chicken and dressing, biscuits and butter rolls. Many of her recipes, recorded here for the first time, pre-date the Civil War, handed down skillet by skillet, from one generation of Braggs to the next.

“Heartfelt, often hilarious stories from an Alabama kitchen, a place from which issue wondrous remembrances and wondrous foods alike…Affectionate, funny, and beautifully written: a book for every fan of real food.”
Kirkus (starred review)

Rick Bragg is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, journalist, and author of two bestselling memoirs, All Over But the Shoutin’ and Ava’s Man. He is also a regular contributor to Southern Living and Garden & Gun magazine. Born in Piedmont, Alabama, Bragg has a home in Fairhope and commutes to Tuscaloosa once a week to teach. Lately he has spent much of his time with his ailing 81-year-old mother (and often book subject) in Calhoun County, Ala.

Excellent podcast with Rick from Garden and Gun plus Best Cook in the World playlist: https://gardenandgun.com/articles/rick-bragg-best-cook-in-the-world/ 

Bragg’s latest book is Where I Come From: Stories From the Deep South, a collection of his wide-ranging and endearingly personal columns.

Music

Will Kimbrough

Will Kimbrough is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer. A Mobile native, he’s now based in Nashville. His latest album, I Like It Down Here will be released on April 19. The album includes the single “Alabama (for Michael Donald),” about the horrific 1981 murder of Donald, an African-American, by the Ku Klux Klan in Mobile. The resulting civil suit in 1987 awarded the Donald family $7 million and effectively bankrupted the largest KKK organization in America

A second single from the album is the light-hearted, “Hey Trouble.” Kimbrough describes the song as “pure fun, playing with the language of the blues with a heartfelt tip of the hat to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ irresistible jangle and hooks.”

Kimbrough’s guitar and multi-instrumental prowess makes him an in-demand producer and session musician. Some of his latest productions include Doug Seegers, Shemekia Copeland, Radney Foster and Jimmy Buffett. During his years as a touring guitarist, Kimbrough toured with Todd Snider, Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris, among others.
Kimbrough’s previous releases include Mockingbird Soul and Daddy Let’s Do This!

Rolling Stone previews both of Kimbrough’s new singles here: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/will-kimbrough-new-album-i-like-it-down-here-alabama-hey-trouble-795306/

Love Moor

Love Moor (Erica Andrew) was born in Brooklyn, grew up in Miami, and is now based in Birmingham. Her neo-soul tunes reflect those various geographical locales and revolve around themes of sexuality, nostalgia, abandonment, and self-love. Her album, Simp Girl was produced by Robot House’s Angel “Suaze” Perez. Her previous CD is Blu Polka Dots.

“Erica Andrew makes assured and ingratiating R&B that doesn’t hit a nerve so much as slide under the skin when no one’s looking.” – NPR

After Andrew performed at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas in 2018, NPR Music included her among their handpicked “Austin 100.” AL.com included Love Moor on its list of “25 essential Alabama musicians to know for 2018.”