This edition of the Thacker Mountain Radio Hour is in partnership with the Double Decker Arts Festival and will be performed on the Double Decker Main Stage on North Lamar Avenue. All events are FREE and open to the public
6pm Cory Branan in concert
7pm Thacker Mountain Radio Hour (feat. Kiese Laymon, Cory Branan, and the Nightowls)
8pm The Nightowls in concert
NOTE: There will be NO Thacker Mountain Radio Hour on Thursday, April 21. The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour will perform on FRIDAY, April 22, 2016.
The show is hosted by Jim Dees and our house band, The Yalobushwhackers. Live music. Live literature. Hear Mississippi on the radio.
Cory Branan is a singer/songwriter from Southaven whose work has drawn comparisons to John Prine and Leonard Cohen. Branan’s CDs include, The Hell You Say, 12 Songs, Mutt and his latest, The No-Hit Wonder (Bloodshot Records). Grammy-winning songwriter Jason Isbell said of Wonder: “Beautiful melodies, heartbreaking phrases, and very smart lyrics. This is the kind of record that makes you hit pause every so often to process what the crazy bastard just said. Brilliant stuff.”
CORY BRANAN will be in concert on the Double Decker Main Stage at 6pm April 22, 2016.
The Nightowls are a soul band from Austin, Texas, formed in 2011. Their debut album, Good As Gold, was named one of the Top 10 Austin Albums of the Year. Their follow up was FAME Sessions. Texas Music Magazine calls their music, “a dancing-in-the-street spirit straight outta Motown.” In July, the group will release a new EP, The Royal Sessions recorded at Royal Studios in Memphis. This month the band performed at South by Southwest as a “Showcase Artist” for the second year in a row.
THE NIGHTOWLS will be in concert on the Double Decker Main Stage at 8pm April 22, 2016.
Kiese Laymon, a Jackson, Miss. native, is the author of the novel, Long Division; a collection of essays, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America and a forthcoming memoir, Heavy. A reviewer described Long Division: “A Twain-esque exploration of celebrity, authorship, violence, religion, and coming of age in Post-Katrina Mississippi, written in a voice that’s alternately funny, lacerating, and wise.” Laymon served as the 2015-2016 John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence at Ole Miss.