The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour will feature a former teacher’s stirring account of life in the Delta this Thursday, Sept. 28 at 6 p.m. at Off Square Books at 129 Courthouse Square. Admission is free. Along with teacher-turned-author Michelle Kuo, guests will include roots rockers, Blue Mother Tupelo and New Orleans funk band, Water Seed. Hosts are Jim Dees and the Thacker house band, the Yalobushwhackers.

The show can be heard locally on WUMS 92.1 FM on Friday, Sept. 29 at 6 p.m. The show will be broadcast on Mississippi Public Broadcasting on Saturday, Oct. 7 at 7 p.m.

Michelle Kuo’s Reading with Patrick (Random House) is a gritty, yet tender, memoir about the life-changing friendship between an idealistic young teacher and her gifted student, jailed for murder in the Mississippi Delta. Following graduation from Harvard, Kuo joined Teach for America and landed in Helena, Arkansas where she encountered Patrick Browning who blossomed under tutelage. When he is later charged with murder, (while defending his special needs sister) Kuo puts her life on hold to continue reading with Browning in jail as he awaits trial. Their bond is the heart and soul of this “gorgeous, urgent and heartbreaking memoir.”

Blue Mother Tupelo are Ricky and Micol Davis from Hendersonville, TN. The husband and wife duo belt out mountain blues that blends soul, country and gospel. Micol plays keyboards, drums and tambourine while Ricky moves from dobro to slide guitar all the while harmonizing as only loved ones can. Micol says it’s music to “make you stomp and sway.” Their latest CD is, Only Sunshine.

  Water Seed are a funk band from New Orleans that is on tour in support of their latest album, We Are Stars. The album draws from classic funk, 60s and 70s soul mixed with hip-hop influences. The band’s founder is drummer Lou Hill who says, “We were taught to be versatile,” noting the band’s origins at Xavier University. Gambit Magazine said of We Are Stars, “Within 15 minutes, the band spans the funk encyclopedia, leafing through pages of gospel, R&B and soul.”

  For more information on The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour — including their upcoming 20th Anniversary show on Oct. 19 – visit the show’s website: http://thackermountain.com/.