34 A LUMNI R EVIEW SUMMER 2008 35
As the sun sets on
a Thursday night
in Oxford, a string
of twinkling lights
turns on inside Off
Square Books.
Mamacita, the tor-
toiseshell house cat,
roosts on a nearby
countertop while staff and
a few volunteers
transform the bookstore into a venue for
the “Thacker Mountain Radio” show.
A low stage in the front faces a blond
sea of folding chairs, and flanking all of
this, besides the two hulking speakers,
are books. Conceived in 1997 by the
owner of the local bookstore and two
University of Mississippi Southern stud-
ies graduate students, “Thacker Moun-
tain Radio” remains a no-frills affair
that mixes musical performance with
author readings.
People arrive an hour before the
event and put down magazines to save
seats for friends. Others come from as
far away as the Gulf Coast, Canada and
California and, on one night, even Paris.
By 5:30 p.m. the bookstore is dark and
buzzes with anticipation. Everyone is
ready for the show’s host to begin the
countdown with 5…4…3…2…1...
Jim Dickinson hammers out the first
chords of the theme song on a piano, lay-
ering gruff vocals with a lilting, blue-
sy tune. A legendary producer who has
worked with Bob Dylan and Aretha
Franklin, Dickinson is a virtuoso in his
own right. By the end of the hour, he
will have played at least three more songs
36 A LUMNI R EVIEW
with the Yalobushwackers, the show’s
house band. People don’t know it, but
they haven’t rehearsed. They never do.
“Rehearsal is for sissies,” says the
show’s host Jim Dees, a phrase the band
has adopted as its motto.
It’s something they can joke about
because, in truth, it’s not something
they need to do. Seasoned musicians,
the Yalobushwackers include Duff
Dorrough of the Tangents fame, bass-
ist Slade Lewis (BA 97) formerly of
Wiley and the Checkmates, and drum-
mer Wallace Lester, a New Orleans
transplant.
By the time Dees steps to the mike,
the show is in full swing. For the next
hour, nothing exists outside “Thack-
er Mountain Radio.” The show distills
the South’s rich, cultural landscape into
music and words. Every week there are
different guests, including other musi-
cians and authors. There is also the
occasional “third element,” which Dees
describes as a short segment that high-
lights Mississippi culture. A few years
ago, one of those featured a man who
demonstrated turkey calling. Another
was a dramatic performance by Oxford
High School’s Latin Club—in Latin.
“Nobody knew what was going on,
“ [Thacker is] deliberately eclectic, and,
sometimes ... downright disorderly.”
—Scott Barretta, host of ‘Highway 61’
LEFT:
The Yalobushwackers, Thacker Mountain Radio’s
house band, are a popular constant on the show.
er Mountain Radio” oversees the pro-
duction, operation and music booking,
Square Books’ connections with pub-
BELOW:
Legendary producer Jim Dickinson brings his
lishing houses in New York City and in
Oxford have put Pulitzer Prize winners
such as Edward P. Jones and local hero
own style of piano and vocals to the radio show. and English department writer-in-resi-
dence Barry Hannah on the stage.
Continuing a tradition that argu-
ably began with William Faulkner,
other writers—including John Grisham
( JD 81), Willie Morris, Barry Han-
nah, Tom Franklin, Beth Ann Fennelly,
Ann Fisher-Wirth and, most recently,
UM John Grisham Writer-in-Residence
but they thought it was funny,” recalls
Lyn Roberts (JD 89), a former Thacker
producer who now books the authors.
Jack Pendarvis—are the latest genera-
tion in a literary lineage that’s created
an author per capita in Oxford higher
As for music, which constitutes the than in Brooklyn. Hannah and Pen-
largest part of the show, the audience darvis make regular appearances on the
has seen it all. From Elvis Costello and show and, in the case of Pendarvis, not
T. Model Ford to local bar bands, the just to read but also to play the accor-
collaboration of “Thacker Mountain dion. On the Thacker stage, writers are
Radio” with Oxford music venues in also performers.
town and nearby recording companies “What I appreciate about Thacker
can account for more than 250 musi- is how it runs against the trend of cul-
cal acts performing on its stage. New tural consumption’s becoming increas-
and unusual music also has its place. ingly fragmented,” says Scott Barretta,
Few people had seen a washboard used host of “Highway 61.” “It’s deliberate-
as an instrument, let alone an electric ly eclectic, and, sometimes, particularly
version, until Cody Dickinson of the via Jim Dickinson and Jim Dees, down-
North Mississippi Allstars stepped on right disorderly.”
stage with one around his neck. Tempered by the people who put it
“‘Thacker Mountain Radio’ is the together, things never get out of hand
best place to debut a band in Mississip- though. In fact, to the audience, the
pi,” he recently said before his perfor- show is seamless. People can’t believe it,
mance to a standing-room-only crowd. but it hasn’t always been this way. Ten
Authors feel the same way about years after its first broadcast, the show
appearing on the Thacker stage. Wheth- continues to evolve from its humble
er reading a selected passage or engag- roots.
ing the audience with a personal story, The earliest incarnation of “Thacker
they profess that they have been a part Mountain Radio” was the “Words and
of something completely original. Music Community Radio Hour,” a vari-
Since the show began, Square Books ety show put together by Oxford locals
has been responsible for bringing the Ed Dye and Peyton Cooper. Broadcast
authors to the show. While “Thack- by the university’s radio station from
SUMMER 2008 37
 Blind Jim’s, a local watering hole on
the Square (now home to the Burgundy
Room), the show featured music by the
Sincere Ramblers, which included Uni-
versity of Mississippi Southern studies
graduate students Caroline Herring (BA
92, MA 98) and Bryan Ledford, and
other local musical guests.
While the show grew in popularity,
a noisy bar was hardly the ideal venue.
Herring, seeing the potential for the
show at Off Square Books, the annex
store for Square Books, approached
owner Richard Howorth (BA 72), about
moving the radio show’s location.
“Richard said OK if we could split
the show time with writers,” Herring
said in an e-mail, “and that was it. We
hoped someone would come.”
Before the f irst show, ever yone
decided on t he show’s ne w
name. According to Howorth,
who came up with it, Thacker
Mountain is the highest point in
Lafayette County and had a fire
tower where kids who grew up
in the area would go to get away
from the watchful gaze of their
parents.
Inspired by old-time radio
show s suc h a s t he “L ou i si-
ana Hayride” and the “Grand
Ole Opry,” Ledford penned a
theme song to evoke the sense of
place that Howorth envisioned.
“Thacker Mountain Radio” was
set in motion with a bluegrass
tune. Although there were only
12 people in the audience for the
show’s debut, the Sincere Ramblers wel-
comed every one of them to their “fire
tower radio hour” that broadcast “6,000
watts of power.”
The first show featured author John
Bentley Mays and musician Tony Furta-
do, who played a short set on his banjo,
then appeared at a local music venue for
a late-night gig. The format was dynam-
ic. When not introducing guests, former
host Tom Arriola (MFA 94) performed a
radio drama or read off the weekly spe-
cials from a nearby restaurant that spon-
sored the show. The Sincere Ramblers
played original music and covers, but
also jingles to advertise local sponsors.
The arrangement seemed to work,
and, in 10 years, the audience grew
from 12 to 200. During the show’s first
decade, a handful of people have learned
38 A LUMNI R EVIEW
what goes in to putting together some-
thing like “Thacker Mountain Radio.”
Among them have been the show’s four
producers, four house bands and three
hosts. Herring, who with Ledford and
Howorth produced the show’s first sea-
sons, left Oxford after she graduat-
ed to pursue a music career. Her recent
appearance on the show to debut her
latest album, “Lantana,” was a kind of
homecoming.
Co-founder Ledford returned for
the show’s 10th anniversary in October
2007. He now lives in Jackson, where he
is at work on a new album.
In conjunction with its 10th anni-
versar y show, “Thacker Mountain
Radio” incorporated as a Mississippi
nonprofit. During the show, Howorth
proclaimed that “‘Thacker Mountain
“Thacker Mountain Radio” is broadcast
live from Off Square Books on Thursdays
during the spring and fall semesters at
5:30 p.m. It can be heard live on Rebel
Radio 92.1 FM and at 7 p.m. Saturdays
on Mississippi Public Radio. Learn more
about “Thacker Mountain Radio” at
www.thackermountain.com.
Radio’ belongs to the community.”
With its proximity to the UM cam-
pus, that means it doesn’t just belong
to Oxford. The university adds it own
color, and the show can count among
its fans UM Chancellor Robert Khayat
(BAEd 61, JD 66). His fondness for
“Thacker Mountain Radio” has found
him making appearances on the show,
and not necessarily just to speak. Dur-
ing one broadcast, Khayat walked on
the stage to play guitar with his friend
Marty Stuart, a Nashville-based musi-
cian and “Thacker” fan. Although the
show has been performed on the univer-
sity’s campus a handful of times, Khayat
has invited “Thacker Mountain Radio”
to be broadcast twice a year from the
Ford Center as a fundraiser beginning
with the 2008-09 season.
The extent of the university’s involve-
ment in the show goes beyond camara-
derie and fanciful interest, however. Last
season, the live broadcast of “Thack-
er Mountain Radio” was the responsi-
bility of the student-run radio station
Rebel Radio 92.1 FM, which exposed
the show to a new generation of listen-
ers. Through the Center for the Study
of Southern Culture, countless students,
both graduate and undergraduate, have
donated their time and energy to the
production of the show. Students’ duties
have included designing posters, rais-
ing money and helping with the show’s
setup and the breakdown.
Students also appear as guests. Last
year, Clarissa Romano, a graduate stu-
dent in creative writing, sang a set of sul-
try standards, and Dent May (BA 07)
played the ukulele with a post-
modern aesthetic. When author
John Berendt was scheduled to
read from The City of Falling
Angels, a nonfiction book set in
Venice, he was paired with the
Ole Miss Opera Theatre.
Whatever it means to people
and represents in the communi-
ty, the most compelling descrip-
tion of the show is summed up
by Charles Reagan Wilson, Kelly
Gene Cook Chair in History and
former director of the Center for
Study of Southern Culture.
“It’s like church,” Wilson says,
“Jim Dees is the preacher, and
the audience is the congregation.
Many of them sit in the same seat
every week to listen to the sermons of
the authors and music.”
By the end of the show, everyone is
uplifted. It’s not unusual for the Yalo-
bushwackers to close out the show with
a song like “Sunshine, You Are My Sun-
shine,” during which the audience will
join in to sing along. Then, after Dees
thanks everyone—including the audi-
ence—the young and old file out and
into the night. Chairs get put up, checks
are dispersed, and the place reclaims its
identity as a bookstore—until the next
Thursday. AR
Mary Warner is the producer of “Thack-
er Mountain Radio.” She is currently a
Southern studies graduate student and
freelance writer.
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