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

We're coming to you tonight from the Hendricks Building in downtown Water Valley, Mississippi.

♪♪ - ♪When you're feeling way down low♪ ♪You got no place to go♪ ♪Can't find a lover, can't find no friend, can't find♪ ♪your so and so, just put your hand on the radio.♪ ♪Can you feel it?♪ ♪Down to your toes.♪ ♪Can you feel it?♪ ♪That's how it goes.♪ ♪Can you feel it?♪ ♪Lord, only knows♪ ♪Can you feel it?♪ ♪Whoa, just put your hand on the radio.♪ ♪Whoo!♪ ♪Oh, I'm down on my knees,♪ ♪I'm begging you please,♪ ♪Here comes Jim Dees.♪ ♪Naw naw naw naw naw Here comes Jim Dees.♪ [applause] - Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Welcome once again to the Thacker Mountain Radio Hour.

As I mentioned, we're in downtown Water Valley, Mississippi, here at the Hendricks Building, a beautiful venue here in downtown Water Valley.

Great show for y'all tonight.

Wiley Gaby is here.

He is a country singer like you have never heard.

We're gonna be hearing from Wiley and this great band that he's brought with him.

Also, we've got our man, Dre Walker is here.

He is a fine R&B singer, North Mississippi Delta man.

And Latoya Watkins is here.

The story collection is called Holler Child, Holler Child.

This book is like listening to a really good Blues album.

You're going to love it.

But you're going to love this band.

Look at these guys we've got assembled for you all tonight.

Please bring them to the stage.

It is the Yalobushwhackers, boys.

[APPLAUSE] ♪♪ ♪Well, everybody ought to treat a stranger right,♪ ♪long way from home.♪ ♪Everybody ought to treat a stranger right,♪ ♪Long way from home.♪ ♪Be careful how you treat a stranger,♪ ♪By the light you can turn him away,♪ ♪But the fate that you may obtain When you drive him♪ ♪from your gate, no, no.♪ ♪Everybody ought to treat a stranger right,♪ ♪Long way from home.♪ ♪Everybody ought to treat a stranger right,♪ ♪Long way from home.♪ ♪Be mindful of your speaking, Be careful how you go along.♪ ♪You must always treat a stranger right,♪ ♪Don't insult him in your home.♪ ♪Well, all of us down here are strangers,♪ ♪None of us have no home.♪ ♪Don't you hurt your brother, Don't send him home alone.♪ ♪Oh, everybody ought to treat a stranger right,♪ ♪long way from home.♪ ♪Oh, everybody ought to treat a stranger right,♪ ♪A long way from home.♪ ♪♪ ♪Well, Christ came down as a stranger,♪ ♪He didn't have no home.♪ ♪Well He was cradled in a manger,♪ ♪There was nothing to keep Him warm.♪ ♪Well the wise man found a Stranger,♪ ♪Well the Child was one that day.♪ ♪Now be careful then how you treat a stranger,♪ ♪Don't be different in your circle.♪ ♪Oh, everybody ought to treat a stranger right,♪ ♪a long way from home.♪ ♪Oh, everybody ought to treat a stranger right,♪ ♪a long way from home.♪ ♪No, no, everybody ought to treat a stranger right,♪ ♪a long way from home.♪ ♪Well everybody ought to treat a stranger right♪ ♪A long way from home♪ ♪A long way from home♪ ♪A long way from home.♪ [applause] Thank y'all.

- How about 'em, y'all, the Yalobushwhackers with the Yalobushwhacker horn section.

[applause] Yes, yes, yes.

Now please welcome Wiley Gaby.

- Thank you so much.

♪♪ Sun beaming down, tempers getting hotter, Raising more hell than a preacher's daughter, Stay clear, cause something's burning down here.

My daddy is a good old boy, he's top of the line, Long as things are perfect, long as mama don't raise no queer, But Lord, the flames are rising down here.

Oh, but I make it work.

I make it work.

So it don't work on me.

Some things still gonna hurt.

They ain't just gonna hurt.

Ain't gonna stop me, oh, from being at home.

Every creature with a billboard at the North County line Dress it up in Jesus, but the gospel ain't found there That's how it goes around here.

Everything is louder when you ain't just the same.

Everybody different is somebody to blame.

Till it's clear, you ain't too welcome around here.

Oh, but I make it work.

I make it work.

I make it work.

So it don't work on me.

Some things still gonna hurt, they just gonna hurt, Ain't gonna stop me from going back home.

You had the keys to the kingdom since we learned how to drive.

We've been right beside you since the starting of time.

Going nowhere, oh let me be.

All about your freedom till they murdering mine.

Just another way for you to keep us in line.

I ain't going nowhere, oh let me be, oh let me be.

I ain't going nowhere, oh let me be, oh and I'll make it work, oh I'll make it work.

Some things still gon' hurt, oh let 'em hurt.

[applause] Hey, thank y'all so much.

Thank y'all.

- Y'all please welcome Latoya Watkins.

[applause continues] All righty, Latoya Watkins, this story collection is called "Holler Child" as in "Holler Child".

First of all, before we get to the book, and it is, like I said, it's like listening to a really good Blues album.

It's got such great characters.

And you mentioned you maybe listened to some Blues while you were writing it.

- There's always a playlist.

And my grandmother was a... she loved Blues, was always playing it in the background.

So she had passed away when I started working on this collection.

And so the playlist was in honor of her.

- One of the first things that hit me when I finished reading your stories was you write about family.

That is your thing.

Generate, they mentioned multi-generational trauma.

We got you covered here, pal.

Oh boy, jackpot.

But mothers in particular.

Tell me about you writing about mothers as a character because you do it so well.

And these are not June Cleaver, "Oh, hello, Wally."

This is not that.

These mothers are troubled people.

They've been through it.

- They've been through it.

When I first started, I was researching, but not for fiction writing.

I thought I would be a historian or something like that.

And I thought I wanted to look at church and religion.

So I started doing a lot of research on church in Texas, in West Texas specifically.

And I kind of got a hold of cults and wanting to look at survivors.

And in all the stories that, all the people I sat with, all the stories that I heard, the mother was the heart of these communities.

Like it was the mothers who told the stories, who kept the history, who knew the psychology of whatever community I was looking at.

And it always kind of, family always bled out of that.

So I those were the two things that I ended up always focusing on.

Mother and family.

- If this book was a bottle of whiskey, it'd be a hundred proof.

Yeah.

Please welcome again Latoya Watkins.

[applause] - Thank you.

I'm going to read from an excerpt of a story that's not actually it's not the book of Chuck, which is a novel, but it's in the book that I sold with the book of Chuck.

So it's another short story collection.

And this is an excerpt.

You don't need any-- I don't need to say anything around it.

It stands on its own.

So I'll go ahead and read.

As company policy, Light in August don't allow us attendants to handle no more than three patients at a time.

My three is usually Vic, Teresa, and Tabby.

Ain't none of them never really been violent.

I always been thankful for that.

They just all from rich families that don't want to deal with grown men and women's down syndrome and stuff like that.

In the three years I've been at Light in August, ain't one of them give me no problem.

They like my family.

I done even took to bringing them around my boys.

So yesterday, I thought I had the best three patients in the world.

I decided to treat them to a day at the Eastside Community Pool.

My job is mainly to drive my patients to the doctor and sit with them at the group home, but sometimes I get them out and take them around town.

Yesterday, I decided I was going to take them swimming and there ain't no way in the world I was about to take them three to the pool and leave my baby stuck up in my mama's house.

I ain't really supposed to be hollin' my boys around while I'm on the clock, but they hate being at my mama's house as much as I hate 'em being there.

I get my boys out of there as much as I can.

That's all I was doing yesterday, getting 'em out for a little while.

But when it came time to leave the pool, Vic, old, tall, goofy-lookin' self, wanted to act funny.

I had to keep telling him to get out the kiddie pool and come on.

He finally looked at me with them big buck teeth and yelled at me as loud and as slow as he could, "No!"

I walk right up to the edge of that pool and bent down where all them babies and his big butt was splashing.

My boys and Tabby and Teresa was standing behind me.

They was waiting because we all thought I had it under control.

They always look at me like I got stuff under control, 'cause I usually do.

I was thinking about that when I stuck my finger right in his face and gritted my teeth real hard and said, "Get out that pool, Victor Duncan."

That fool opened his mouth like he was about to say something and closed it around my finger hard as he could.

He wouldn't let go either.

Tabby and Teresa was yelling at him, my boys was yelling at him, and I was praying to God to spare my finger.

I could feel his front teeth breaking through my skin and tearing through my flesh.

And when I felt the bone crack like a breakable thing, I was sure it was the end of my finger.

A lifeguard started blowing his whistle, and I guess that got him.

Because he don't like sharp sounds.

He let go, but I couldn't call nobody for help.

Had to hide and act like it wasn't that bad, like my finger wasn't dangling by whatever it was dangling by.

Had to say, "It's all right.

I'll be all right."

Had to go through the rest of the day acting like it ain't hurt before I could even go to the hospital after I was done with my shift.

See, I would have lost my job if Light in August had found out where we was when Vic attacked me, that my sons was there with me.

I didn't feel like making up no lie, so I didn't say nothing.

I didn't report what happened to nobody.

But Victor Duncan, Victor ain't going to never be like family to me no more.

[applause] Thank you.

Thank you.

[applause] - Latoya Watkins, y'all, let her hear you.

[applause and cheers] Y'all please welcome Mr.

Dre Walker.

[applause] ♪♪ - So y'all good people, I went and put on some brand new boots for y'all when I was coming to Water Valley, Mississippi, okay?

♪Ooh, yeah, yeah.♪ ♪Mm.

Ooh, yeah.♪ Let me tell you what happened on my way, y'all.

Listen.

♪See I just left the liquor store♪ ♪To pick up some of that brown♪ ♪I got a party to get ready for♪ ♪Down in the country I get down♪ ♪I need to get to that floor♪ ♪I want some close to me.♪ ♪We can do the Electric Slide.♪ ♪And we can do it to the 3rd degree.♪ Everybody, everybody, everybody, guess what?

♪I'm 'bout to put on my boots, head to the party.♪ ♪We're having a time.♪ ♪I'm about to put on my boots, head to the party,♪ ♪we're having a time.♪ ♪:isten, see I just walked on in, and I see LaShawty there.♪ ♪Sitting over there in the room, oh yeah,♪ ♪Sitting like she just don't care♪ ♪I wanna pull her to the floor♪ ♪'Cause I want her real close to me♪ ♪Now we can do the Electric Slide♪ ♪And we can do it to the third degree♪ Everybody, everybody, I'm trying to tell you what I had to do.

I had to put on my boots and head to the party.

We're having a time.

I had to put on my boots and head to the party.

We're having a time.

I'm glad I wore mine to the party.

See my cowboy boots at the party.

See I look good at the party.

See I feel good at the party.

Somebody say, "Wooooo, at the party.

Woooooo, at the party.

Come on, come on, come on."

Yeah.

♪♪ [applause] Thank you, thank you.

[Applause] Alright y'all good people now, so I'm just gonna let people know I'm from a small town called Como, Mississippi, right down the road from y'all.

So I'm a Mississippian.

All right, so since I'm from Mississippi, I went and wrote a song.

Can I sing my little favorite song I wrote about Mississippi?

All right, because I went out of state and I started singing, and the people was looking at me like, oh my god, what is he singing about?

I'm going to tell y'all what I went and wrote.

It went a little something like this.

One, two, three.

♪♪ So y'all good people, y'all done heard of Howlin' Wolf, Coco Taylor, all those great Blues legends right?

I'm gonna tell you about it.

So when I was in front of this great crowd, this is what I told them.

♪I've been in the city too long, I have wasted so much gas.♪ ♪Ready to get back to the dirty south, so I can show my...♪ ♪So many people talking about that spoonful, see♪ ♪I'm a product of this man.♪ ♪I'm telling you life ain't always been easy, but♪ ♪I'm doing the best I can.♪ ♪I'm just a down home country boy, you know♪ ♪Mississippi made, it's the truth.♪ ♪I'm just a down home country boy, yes sir, let me♪ ♪take you back to my roots.♪ ♪I'm just a down home country boy,♪ ♪You know Mississippi baby the truth,♪ ♪I'm just a down home country boy,♪ ♪Yes sir, let me take you back to my roots,♪ ♪Listen, see I can't get down with them boujee people,♪ ♪But I can get with some country folks,♪ ♪I'm telling you life ain't always been easy,♪ ♪But I get out on the floor.♪ ♪Dirt boots and daisy dukes, trail riding on them grooves.♪ ♪We gonna have a good time♪ ♪if you don't want to just turn it loose.♪ ♪I'm just a down home country boy.♪ ♪You know, Mississippi made me the true.♪ ♪I'm just a down home country boy,♪ ♪Yes sir, let me take you back to my roots.♪ ♪I'm just a down home country boy,♪ ♪You know, Mississippi made me the true.♪ ♪I'm just a down home country boy,♪ ♪Yes sir, let me take you back to my root.♪ ♪Did I say, "A-whooo, a-whooo"?♪ ♪A-whooo, a-whooo♪ ♪You know that Howlin' Wolf said, "A-whooo, a-whooo"?♪ ♪♪ ♪My baby don't stand no cheating, my baby.♪ That's what some old legends said, ♪My baby don't stand no cheating, my baby.♪ ♪My baby don't stand no cheating,♪ ♪Don't care for that midnight creeping.♪ ♪But my baby don't stand no cheating, my baby.♪ Can y'all do something for me?

Everybody clap those hands.

Everybody clap those hands.

Everybody clap those hands.

That sounded real good.

Can we do that one more time?

Just one more time, I know.

♪My baby don't stand no cheating, my baby.♪ ♪My baby don't stand no cheating, my baby.♪ ♪My baby don't stand no cheating,♪ ♪Don't care all of that midnight creeping.♪ ♪My baby don't stand no cheating, my baby.♪ One more.

Old legend said, they said, ♪I'm gonna kick out all the windows,♪ ♪I'm gonna bust down every door.♪ ♪I'm gonna kick out all the windows,♪ ♪I'm gonna bust down every door.♪ ♪We gonna pitch a wingding through the whole night.♪ Y'all, that's all those wonderful legends that we singing about y'all good people.

I truly appreciate y'all helping me.

♪Clap your hands.♪ Can y'all make some noise for this wonderful band, cause they flat out can play.

Make some noise!

Thank y'all again, my name is Dre Walker.

[cheers and applause] - How about him, y'all?

Mr.

Dre Walker.

Dre Walker.

How about him?

We'll see you on the radio.

♪♪ Down in New Orleans where the blues are born Takes a cool cat to blow a horn On this silent Rampart Street The combo's playing a mambo beat.

Mardi Gras Mambo, Mambo, Mambo.

Mardi Gras Mambo, Mambo, Mambo.

Mardi Gras Mambo Down in New Orleans.

In good time, well the cat's on it.

Mardi Gras Mambo with the beat, they shout and They shout and cheer for the Voodoo King.

Track on down where the Mambo's sung.

Mardi Gras Mambo, Mambo, Mambo.

Mardi Gras Mambo, Mambo, Mambo.

Mardi Gras Mambo Down in New Orleans.

♪♪