♪♪ - Welcome once again to the Thacker Mountain Radio Hour.

We're coming to you tonight from the Powerhouse Arts Center in Oxford, Mississippi.

♪♪ ♪ When you're feeling way down low ♪ ♪ Got no place to go ♪ ♪ Can't find a lover ♪ ♪Can't find no friend, they call you so and so,♪ ♪just put your hand on the radio.♪ ♪Can you feel it down on your toes?♪ ♪Can you feel it?♪ ♪That's how it goes.♪ ♪Can you feel it?♪ ♪Blow it on the nose.♪ ♪Can you feel it?♪ ♪Put your hand on the radio.♪ ♪Oh, I'm down on my knees.♪ ♪I'm begging you, please.♪ ♪Here comes Jim Dees.♪ ♪Oh, here comes Jim Dees.♪ - Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Welcome to the Thacker Mountain Radio Hour.

As I mentioned, we're at the Powerhouse Arts Center right off the square here in Oxford, Mississippi.

Fine show for y'all this evening.

From Memphis, Tennessee, a fine singer-songwriter goes by the name Aybil.

She is Aybil, and you'll find out just how [able] she is.

Great songs, great voice.

Look forward to hearing from her.

Also a fine songwriter and guitar player and historian of rock and roll and an author, to boot, y'all, Lenny Kaye is here, the great Lenny Kaye.

Yes, yes, yes.

Great guy, co-founder and guitarist of the great Patti Smith group.

So we look forward to Lenny being here.

And Dennard Dayle is here, y'all.

Dennard Dayle with his book, "How to Dodge a Cannonball."

But we're not gonna dodge these guys.

We love 'em.

It is our house band.

Bring 'em to the stage, y'all.

It is the Yalobushwhackers, boys!

♪♪ ♪Thou swell, thou witty, thou sweet, thou grand.♪ ♪Wouldst kiss me pretty?♪ ♪Wouldst hold my hand?♪ ♪Both thine eyes are cute too;♪ ♪What they do to me, hear me holler I choose♪ ♪the lollapaloosa in thee.♪ ♪We'd be so sweet, in a hut for two, two rooms♪ ♪and kitchen, I'm sure, will do.♪ ♪Give me just a plot of , not a lot of land.♪ ♪And thy swell!

Thy Witty!

Thy Grand!♪ ♪ [applause after guitar solo] [piano solo] ♪ ♪ ♪Whoa, whoa, thou swell, thou witty, thou sweet,♪ ♪Thou grand!

Wouldst kiss me pretty?♪ ♪Wouldst hold my hand?♪ ♪Both thine eyes are cute too;♪ ♪What they do to me.♪ ♪Hear me holler I choose the sweet lollapaloosa in thee♪ ♪We'd be so sweet in a hut for two, two rooms and kitchen,♪ ♪I'm sure would do.♪ ♪Give me just a plot of not a lot of land♪ ♪Whoa, whoa, thou swell, thou witty, thou sweet,♪ ♪Thou pretty,♪ ♪Thou swell, thy witty, thy grand.♪ [applause] Thank y'all.

- Yalobushwhackers, y'all.

One more time for them, please.

[applause] Y'all, please welcome Aybil.

[applause] - This song is called "American Body."

♪♪ ♪American body♪ ♪settle my soul, settle my soul.♪ ♪American body,♪ ♪you got blood in the water,♪ ♪poison in the soil.♪ ♪And all these things♪ ♪make me believe♪ ♪we can win.♪ ♪And they're breaking bones just to watch them bend.♪ ♪And I heard them talking,♪ ♪say stand by,♪ ♪you can't stand by,♪ ♪'cause we've been a target.♪ ♪You watch men cry, you watch them die.♪ ♪Oh, when the bullets have flown,♪ ♪will this still be home?♪ ♪I believe that it won't.♪ ♪Oh my God, can You hear me now?♪ ♪World's gone crazy, what is that about?♪ ♪Oh my God, You in a saving mood?♪ ♪These young bones are feeling like I can't make it through.♪ ♪Oh my God, we just living for fun, spending these days♪ ♪waiting for the next ones.♪ ♪We got troubles, troubles, troubles.♪ ♪We got troubles, troubles, troubles.♪ ♪American body.♪ ♪American body, American body.♪ [applause] - Aybil, y'all.

One more time for her, please.

[applause] All right, Dennard Dayle is the author of "How to Dodge a Cannonball" from Henry Holt Publishers.

It is a satire of the Civil War.

New York Times just said it bluntly.

This is a knockout punch.

Y'all please welcome Dennard Dayle.

[applause] - Excellent to be here and thank you.

You all have amazing energy.

- You you love humor, obviously.

And I was reading that, from a young age, you've been interested in humor and you and your mother, in fact, would visit comedy clubs together.

- Yeah, me and my mom, she would take me to clubs around New York, New Jersey, and I was lucky enough to see a lot of people I still admire to this day in that context.

I remember I saw D.L.

Hughley so many times.

I was even lucky enough later in life to see Dave Chappelle.

- Oh, wow.

- Yeah.

Live and in color.

And I saw Maria Bamford, who's someone else I admire a lot.

You can really triangulate my exact age from those name drops.

Right, right.

And yeah, it's always been super special to me and a way to comment on the world.

- Well, to take it even a step further, a lot of us may enjoy going to comedy clubs.

You took up stand-up comedy and became a stand-up comedian.

How'd that go?

- It was going really well in 2017, '18, '19, and then it slowed down a bit in 2020.

- Right, right.

- Yeah, it was a little more difficult at that point.

But humor is a part of every project I enter, and it is a big part of my fiction, my prose.

Naturally, it led to this here novel about the Civil War.

And it really, I think, gives me access to-- there are these things that seem impossible to talk about.

And humor is a way to really get at them in a meaningful way, make that connection, even when it seems like something you would never want to talk about in good company.

And it's, you know, hence the cannonball.

Dennard Day, y'all.

[APPLAUSE] - Thank you, thank you.

My ego needed that.

Anders twirled flags for the Union until he'd been captured and shown the light.

Now, he twirled flags for Southern freedom.

No man deserved to lose his property, human or otherwise.

Tonight, Anders twirled of pride.

He was the only flag carrier intelligent enough to be trusted with military intelligence.

The others didn't understand a proper spin's role in preserving morale.

An underperforming flag twirler might as well hang his commander himself.

His skills shone better under the sun, with more than a dying lantern to illuminate his sets.

But he could use the tent's long shadows and cramped spacing to his advantage.

The silhouette was simply another character, a larger, stronger version of the rebel ideal.

The silhouette's sleeves stopped short of its wrists.

Anders' jacket once belonged to someone shorter and perhaps younger.

He didn't know if they'd died or defected and never asked.

His thoughts stayed with the mission.

If morale fails, the enemy prevails, Anders whispered under his breath.

Croaks and cheer-ups crept into the tent, distracting Anders from the mosquitoes floating around his forehead.

He'd spun through battles, but Pennsylvania wildlife tested him.

Perhaps they were Union mosquitoes scouting for mead.

He repeated his maxim, shaking mosquitoes and, underperforming, frogs from his mind.

"What was that, son?"

Asked the general.

Anders had drawn the eyes of all superiors away from the war map.

This was like a normal map, but with chess pieces.

Understanding it was beyond Anders' duties.

"Nothing, sir.

"I'm being judiciously silent, save responding "to your question, sir.

"Thank you for choosing me as your flag waver, sir.

"If another general is a Union spy, "I will take the bullet for you, sir.

Please send my body back to my mother, sir."

Lee stared without comment, confronted with his first unsolvable puzzle.

The others looked amused.

Anders wondered what the joke was and resolved to pay better attention.

A spy could have lit a stick of dynamite behind his back by now.

He remembered the Union as a pack of wily cowards who didn't even have decent beans in their rations.

"Is the boy touched?"

asked General Ewell.

He sat in Jackson's old chair and wore his beard in Jackson's old style.

When anyone slipped, he even answered to Jackson's name.

The war prophet's death had left a hole in the men's hearts and the command chain, and Ewell dutifully filled it.

"No......

Maybe."

"We need to nurture the next generation," answered Lee.

"Nurture a cannonball," said General Pickett.

He spat on the war map, drowning a detachment in saliva.

Lee grabbed the chipped game piece by a dry edge, wiped it against Pickett's shirt, and replaced it on Cemetery Ridge.

Pickett spat on it again.

Distracted by said heresy, Anders nearly missed a spin and let the stars of freedom slip out of his grip.

Like all men, he loved Lee like a father, more, since Lee had never abandoned him without strategic benefit or struck him directly.

An insult to Lee attacked the very image of a soldier.

That image's beard had grown wider, longer, and more jagged over the campaign.

It also picked the spots of fresh blood from his new nervous habit of chewing his fingertips.

And as you can imagine, you know, Cemetery Ridge, Lee, Pickett.

Things take a certain turn from there.

I deeply appreciate all of your time.

You have been an amazing audience.

[applause] - Dennard Dayle, one more time for him.

[applause continues] All right, we're going to get Lenny Kaye up here.

Lenny was on the show some years back at the Lyric.

We had such a great time, and I believe at that time, your book maybe had just come out.

Lenny is known primarily as a guitarist and rock and roller co-founder and guitarist for the great Patti Smith group all these years.

Yeah, absolutely.

[applause] Also, very well known for curating the highly influential rock and roll album Nuggets, A compilation two album set released in '72.

Also wanted to mention his book, "Lightning Striking", where Lenny goes around to various cities around the world that helped birth rock and roll.

Think of Liverpool, think of New York, goes out to Seattle, of course he goes to Memphis and writes about all those cities as only a true rocker like himself can do.

It's a really wonderful read.

You are the man, Lenny Kaye.

Thanks for being here.

Y'all please welcome Lenny Kaye.

[APPLAUSE] - I have family here.

I'm very pleased to be joined by my son-in-law, Frank Wood.

[APPLAUSE] Yeah!

And I'd like to send this one out to my grand boys, who are turning 10 on Tuesday.

Can you believe it?

Rylan and Emmett.

Yeah!

[APPLAUSE] And, of course, my beautiful daughter, Anna, who brought us to this town.

This is a song about family that I learned from Waylon Jennings, and I'm proud to sing I'm getting for my family.

♪♪ Living on free food tickets, watering the milk from the hole in the roof where the rain crept through.

What can you do?

Tears from little sister, crying 'cause she doesn't have a dress without a patch for the party to go.

How can you know you'll get by?

'Cause you'll be living in the love of the common people, right in the heart of a family man.

Daddy's gonna buy you a dream to cling to, and Mama's gonna love you just as much as she can.

And she can.

Well it's a good thing you don't have money.

Why it would fall through the hole in your pocket and you'd lose it on the snow and the ground.

Going to town to find a job.

Trying to keep your hands warm, but the hole in your shoe lets the rain come through and it chills to the bone.

Boy, you gotta go home, 'cause you'll be living in the love of the common people, right in the heart of a family man.

Daddy's gonna buy you a dream to cling to, and Mama's gonna love you just as much as she can.

And she can.

Living on dreams ain't easy But the tighter the knit, the closer the fit and the chills stay away.

Keeping you warm where you belong.

Let faith be your foundation.

With a whole lotta prayer and a warm conversation plenty of pride keeping you warm deep inside.

'cause you'll be living in the love of the common people, right in the heart of a family man.

Daddy's gonna buy you a dream to cling to, and Mama's gonna love you just as much as she can.

Livin' in the love of the common people, pride in the heart of a family man.

Daddy's gonna buy you a dream to cling to, And momma's gonna love you just as much as she can.

And she can.

[applause] - Lenny Kaye, y'all.

One more time for him, please.

Lenny Kaye.

[applause] Great, great, great.

Thank y'all for being here.

What a fun time we've had.

We're gonna get one more tune from this cool band And we'll see y'all on the radio.

[applause] ♪♪ ♪I was dreaming in my dreaming♪ ♪of an aspect bright and fair♪ ♪and my sleeping it was broken♪ ♪but my dream it lingered near♪ ♪in the form of shining valleys♪ ♪where the pure air recognized♪ ♪and my senses newly opened♪ ♪I awakened to the cry♪ ♪That the people have the power to redeem the work of fools.♪ ♪upon the meek the graces shower it's decreed the people rule♪ ♪The people have the power.♪ If you know it, sing it.

♪The people have the power.♪ ♪The people have the power.♪ ♪The people have the power.♪ ♪♪ ♪Vengeful aspects became suspect♪ ♪and bending low as if to hear♪ ♪and the armies ceased advancing♪ ♪because the people had their ear♪ ♪and the shepherds and the soldiers♪ ♪lay beneath the stars♪ ♪exchanging visions and laying arms♪ ♪to waste in the dust♪ ♪in the form of shining valleys♪ ♪where the pure air recognized♪ ♪and my senses newly opened♪ ♪I awakened to the cry♪ ♪The people have the power♪ ♪The people have the power♪ ♪The people have the power♪ ♪People have the power.♪ ♪Where there were deserts♪ ♪I saw fountains.♪ ♪like cream the waters rise♪ ♪and we strolled there together♪ ♪with none to laugh or criticize♪ ♪and the leopard and the lamb♪ ♪lay together truly bound♪ ♪I was hoping in my hoping♪ ♪to recall what I had found♪ ♪I was dreaming, in my dreaming, God knows a purer view.♪ ♪As I lay down to my sleep and I commit my dream to you.♪ ♪The people have the power.♪ ♪The people have the power.♪ ♪The people have the power.♪ ♪The people have the power.♪ ♪The power to dream, to rule, to wrestle the world of fools.♪ ♪It's the creed that people rule.♪ ♪It's the creed that people rule.♪ ♪Listen.

We believe everything♪ ♪we dream can come to pass through our union.♪ ♪We can turn the world around.♪ ♪We can turn the Earth's revolution.♪ ♪We have the power.♪ ♪People have the power.♪ ♪People have the power.♪ ♪People have the power to dream.♪ ♪♪ [applause] [cheers and applause]