This Saturday, June 27, we’re gonzo for gumbo! Tune in to The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour and hear the history of gumbo, some original rock and roll and classic R&B sounds.
Guests: Author Ken Wells (“The Gumbo Life”) with singer-songwriter Sydney Layne (“Monsters Under the Bed”) and R&B revue, The Soul Tones (“You’ve Made Me So Very Happy”). From March 2019.
Hosts: Jim Dees and our house band, the Yalobushwhackers
Air times:
Mississippi: Saturday, June 27 at 7 pm: http://www.mpbonline.org/
Alabama: Saturday, June 27 at 9 pm: http://www.apr.org/#stream/
Ken Wells is the author of the cookbook/memoir The Gumbo Life – Tales of the Roux Bayou (Norton). Wells recounts visits with octogenarian chefs who turn the lowly coot into gourmet gumbo; joins a team at a highly competitive gumbo contest; visits a factory that churns out gumbo by the ton; observes the gumbo-making rituals of an iconic New Orleans restaurant where high-end Creole cooking and Cajun cuisine first merged, setting off a culinary explosion. He also explains how gumbo got to China and how it became beloved of a pope, presidents and even Sumo wrestlers.
The book includes ten unique recipes.
Wells is the author of the novels Meely LaBauve, Junior’s Leg, Logan’s Storm and Crawfish Mountain, and a young-adult book, Rascal, a Dog and His Boy. His non-fiction books include Travels with Barley: The Quest for the Perfect Beer Joint, a travelogue through the nation’s $75 billion beer industry, and The Good Pirates of the Forgotten Bayous, about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
He splits his time between Chicago and his summer lakeside cabin in Maine.
Don’t miss Ken’s way cool website here.
The Soul Tones are considered one of Oxford’s premier party bands, with decades of combined musical experience. The band puts their distinctive stamp on classic and contemporary tunes from New Orleans jazz, Memphis soul, Nashville country, St. Louis rhythm & blues to Muscle Shoals rock-n-roll. The band is anchored by drummer Ricky Burkhead (from our house band, the Yalobushwhackers) and longtime Thacker collaborators, vocalists Damein Wash and Effie Burt.
Sydney Layne is a Denver-native singer-songwriter now based in Nashville. Her releases include the EP Valmot Road and the singles, Monsters Under the Bed, How It Really Feels and Space.
