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

We're coming to you tonight from Off Square Books in downtown Oxford, Mississippi.

♪♪ ♪ When you're feeling way down low.♪ ♪ You've got no place to go♪ ♪ Can't call a lover♪ ♪ Can't call 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?♪ ♪Put your hand on the radio.♪ ♪Woo!

Whoa, I'm down on my knees.♪ ♪I'm begging you, please.♪ ♪Here comes Jim Dees.♪ ♪No, no, no, no.♪ ♪Here comes Jim Dees.♪ ♪♪ - Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Welcome to the Thacker Mountain Radio Hour.

As I mentioned, we're at our old stomping grounds, Off Square Books, right here on the Square, downtown Oxford, Mississippi.

We have a fine show for y'all tonight.

Great songwriter from Nashville has a new album out called "Hunch."

I have a hunch.

Stephen Simmons is here, great songwriter.

From Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis Soul Reggae with Chinese Connection Dub Embassy.

And our author tonight, y'all, Tayari Jones' new book is called "Kin."

Well, let's get this band going.

We love 'em.

Y'all bring 'em on stage.

It is our house band, the Yalobushwhackers, boys!

[audience cheering] ♪♪ ♪If your mem’ry serves you well♪ ♪We were gonna meet again and wait.♪ ♪So I'm gonna unpack all my things♪ ♪and sit before it gets too late.♪ ♪No man alive will come to you with another tale to tell.♪ ♪But you know that we shall meet again if your♪ ♪memory serves you well.♪ ♪This wheel's on fire, rolling down the road.♪ ♪Best notify my next of kin♪ ♪This wheel shall explode!♪ ♪If your memory serves you well,♪ ♪I was gonna confiscate your lace♪ ♪and wrap it up in a sailor's knot and hide it in your case.♪ ♪If I knew for sure that it was yours, but it♪ ♪was so hard to tell, but you know that we♪ ♪would meet again if your memory serves you well.♪ ♪This wheel's on fire, coming down the road.♪ ♪Best notify my next of kin This wheel shall explode!♪ ♪♪ ♪If your mem’ry serves you well♪ ♪You'll remember that you're the one♪ ♪that called on me to call♪ ♪on them to get your favors done.♪ ♪After every plan had failed♪ ♪and there was nothing left to tell♪ ♪You knew that we would meet again♪ ♪if your mem’ry serves you well.♪ ♪This wheel's on fire, rolling down the road.♪ ♪Best notify my next of kin♪ ♪This wheel shall explode!♪ ♪This wheel shall explode.♪ ♪♪ [applause] - Thank y'all.

Yalobushwhackers, y'all.

Let 'em hear you, please.

[audience applauding] Our first guest tonight is Stephen Simmons.

As I mentioned, new album is called "Hunch."

Please welcome Stephen Simmons.

[audience applauding] ♪♪ ♪Well I hitched a ride to Memphis with a ragtag band♪ ♪They were chasin' Rock N' Roll and women in a van♪ ♪I was chasing the blues with strongest whiskey I could get,♪ ♪chasing the truth and a tune in my head.♪ ♪I've been riding these roads and slinging these songs.♪ ♪Town to town I keep moving along.♪ ♪Every now and then a little something I find.♪ ♪That can make a town a little hard to leave behind.♪ ♪♪ ♪Ooooooooh,♪ ♪Ooooooooh,♪ ♪♪ ♪Well I tried my luck at love in Memphis before♪ ♪The Mississippi flowed back- wards 'fore I tried once more♪ ♪But somewhere on her heart there was one weak spot♪ ♪And you could pick it just right on an ole flattop♪ ♪Well, I dreamed a smoky kiss outside of Neil's Bar.♪ ♪Her pressed up against some dirty white car.♪ ♪Pressed up against her soft white skin.♪ ♪Like the soft wet beads on a glass of gin.♪ ♪Ooooooooh,♪ ♪Ooooooooh,♪ ♪Well, I lied and said soon I'd be♪ ♪back in town.♪ ♪I didn't know that then, but I know that now.♪ ♪Trust the art, not the artist, I guess.♪ ♪Who he is in a song is his idealized self.♪ ♪You hear the whole city sing along♪ ♪When you tap the right vein in a hard blues song.♪ ♪They warn the out-of-towners it's hard to draw.♪ ♪Yeah, they wonder why we ever♪ ♪come down here at all.♪ ♪Ooooooooh,♪ ♪ Ooooooooh,♪ ♪Ooooooooh,♪ ♪Well, they call this stretch of 40 the Music Highway,♪ ♪but I can't seem to make it sing today.♪ [applause] Thank y'all.

- All right, Tayari Jones is here.

As I mentioned, the book is called "Kin."

It is from Knopf.

It is a novel about two lifelong friends, both who become motherless as little children from Honeysuckle, Louisiana.

And Honeysuckle, Louisiana is such a great name, Tayari made it up.

[laughter] That's how good it is.

Y'all please welcome Tayari Jones.

[applause] What a fun novel, but also profound.

That's what I like Annie Padgett's take on it.

It was smart and funny, but also profound.

Let's start with our two motherless girls who are the best of friends in the world.

Annie and Vernice.

Let's start with Annie.

Tell us about Annie.

- Well, Annie and Vernice grew up together.

They've known each other since they were infants.

They call themselves cradle friends.

And Annie's mother abandoned her when Annie was just, you know, a couple weeks old.

And so she's lived her whole life desiring to find her mother.

Where, you know, Vernice, known as Niecy, her mother died when she was an infant.

So she knows that she'll never see her mother again.

So even though they're both brought together from being motherless, they have very different kinds of motherlessness.

And it's a novel about the ways that their lives, you know, take different forks in the road.

- Oh boy, do they ever.

I read that you were working on a contemporary novel about Atlanta, where you live and where a lot of your fiction and work is set.

And somehow this 1950s story took over.

- I mean, it's mysterious to me.

I believe myself to be a very contemporary novelist.

I think that my mission is to write the story of my generation, but I was trying to write this novel about the neighborhood where I live in Atlanta.

And, you know, like my students would say, you know, the book wasn't booking.

It just wasn't-- whatever that magical thing is that lets you know you're on the right track.

I felt like I was working with a hammer, nails, a saw.

I felt like I was making noise when I was supposed to be making music.

And so I just went back to basics.

I took out a spiral notebook and a pencil-- not even a pen, a pencil that I had to sharpen with a crank.

And I just started writing just to see what was in my head.

And I met these two characters, Annie and Vernice, and they were living in the 1950s.

And I thought, that's strange.

I said, well, maybe they're the parents of my real characters.

But once I got about 100 pages in, I realized that what I thought was backstory was THE story.

- It is amazing how it shows itself to you.

- Yes, our characters are on this exciting road trip to Memphis because Annie has heard that is where her mother is.

And she climbs out the window in the middle of the night.

You know, people used to do a lot more running away back then.

- That's true.

- And they get in this old Packard and they're heading to Memphis, but the car breaks down.

They go to a rooming house they see in the green book, But because it's two guys and two girls, the proprietress of the rooming house says, "Y'all not staying here.

"This is not no hot sheet kind of place.

Y'all not shacking up on my property."

But she refers them to another place.

And they get there and the proprietress of that place says, "Are y'all saved?"

And they're just like, "Yes, ma'am.

"And we are all of us baptized.

And she says, "Well, just so you know, this is a whorehouse."

[laughter] But it was safe.

- There are so many great characters in this book.

So much is going on.

We'll make you think.

We'll make you laugh.

Some great one-liners, especially from Auntie Irene and Granny.

Very funny stuff.

Words to live by.

And we're going to hear some of those words.

If y'all don't mind, can we get Tayari to read a little bit from the book?

[APPLAUSE] It is called "Kin," and it is wonderful.

And I'm going to get out of the way and let y'all enjoy.

- This is from a moment early in the book when Vernice and Annie are just little girls.

And they're coming to see the difference in their lives because of the ways that they lost their mothers.

And keep in mind that each of them is reared by a family member whose idea this was not.

So they all, they feel like they're imposing on their caretakers.

Later that evening, Annie was invited over to our house for dinner because her granny had to work overnight.

Standing on a stool to help cook, I asked Aunt Irene when Annie's mama would just come on home.

"Don't be jealous of Annie," she said, straining the water off a steaming mass of spaghetti.

Her apron was faded and stained.

"I'm not jealous," I said, marveling at her ability to see into my little heart.

"Yes, you are," Anne Irene said, "and that is the one thing "the Lord cannot abide, covetousness.

"You got to pray that off your spirit.

Money ain't the root of all evil, it's envy."

I dropped my shoulders and tucked my head hoping she would see my shame and pet me.

"I'm sorry."

"You don't have to apologize to me.

You give your sorry to the Lord."

When I was a child I was tender as a bruise.

I knew my aunt didn't like crybabies so I taught myself how to cry without water but I I couldn't control my trembling lip.

Aunt Irene spread spaghetti and sauce in a pan and slipped it in the oven while I melted into a pool of voiceless contrition.

Finally, she turned, squatting so we were the same height.

"Listen here, Vernice.

"You think Annie is the lucky one because her mama might "come walking in her front door one day.

"She's got that hope, but she goes to bed "every night shot down.

"She's a little girl now, so she can handle it.

"But trust me, over time, the daily discouragement "will wear her down, like the heel on a loafer.

"You are the fortunate one.

"You know you won't see your mama's face till Gabriel blows his horn."

I know now that her words were meant to comfort, but they lashed me sharp as a switch.

I erupted into a sadness so profound that I choked and gagged.

"Oh, s***," Aunt Irene said, patting my arm.

"I'm no good with children."

By the time the spaghetti was done, Aunt Irene had washed my face with hard swipes of a warm cloth.

"Now, get yourself together before Annie gets here.

You don't want her asking you what's wrong."

I did my best to fix my face.

Aunt Irene gave us heaping plates of pasta, and we washed it down with lemonade, even though it was the middle of the week.

I knew the sweet drink was Aunt Irene's way of saying that she was sorry for all the straight talk.

Annie ate her food, but her eyes were busy checking my face and my aunt's.

Annie has looked 35 years old for her entire life.

It wasn't that she was one of those girls that developed early, ripening like a teenager.

We were both built straight up and down, but Annie's old soul showed in her face.

The set of her mouth gave the impression that she had seen some things already.

After she drained her glass and started in on a hunk of angel food cake, she looked not at me but at my aunt.

"What is it?"

Annie said.

"You're not supposed to talk with food in your mouth" I said, hoping to shift the mood.

Aunt Irene pressed a paper napkin to each corner of her mouth and spoke directly to Annie.

"Baby, let's make us an agreement.

If your mama doesn't come back by the time you reach your majority, let her go.

Don't waste your life waiting on that heifer."

Annie's raised fork fell, landed with an ugly clank.

"My mama ain't no heifer."

Aunt Irene said, "I know Hattie.

You don't."

Old soul or not, Annie bawled her face up and cried like the 10-year-old she was.

"Oh, Lord in heaven," said Aunt Irene, "I just don't know how to talk to children."

[LAUGHTER] [APPLAUSE] - Tayari Jones, y'all.

[applause] The novel is "Kin" from Knopf.

It's great to have a reggae band right in our backyard in Memphis.

Y'all please welcome our buddies, Chinese Connection Dub Embassy.

[APPLAUSE] ♪♪ ♪Rastafari, you've got to stay focused, realign,♪ ♪and always put the negative to the side.♪ ♪You've got to stay focused, refine, 'cause you know♪ ♪they're coming for you.♪ ♪You got to stay focused on your grind,♪ ♪'cause in the life, it'll pass any time.♪ ♪You got to stay focused, all right,♪ ♪'cause you know they're coming for you.♪ ♪Live up for your people, Live up to the task♪ ♪cause inna dis time now it will clash♪ ♪You got to stand up to every steeple,♪ ♪Demolish every evil, for the memories are gonna last.♪ ♪So picture this, we're standing tall.♪ ♪Together, y'all, we will never fall.♪ ♪Then reach the final level, I swear y'all better be careful.♪ ♪'Cause you know that they don't care at all.♪ ♪You've got to stay focused, realign, and always♪ ♪Put the negative to the side.♪ ♪You've got to stay focused, refined,♪ ♪because you know they're coming for you.♪ ♪You've got to stay focused on your grind,♪ ♪because in the life, it'll pass any time.♪ ♪You've got to stay focused, all right,♪ ♪because you know they're coming for you.♪ ♪Bridge.

No matter what you've done,♪ ♪no matter you've been through, Jah Jah will be there♪ ♪to watch over you.♪ ♪No matter where you're from, no matter you've been through,♪ ♪Jah Jah will be there to watch over you.♪ ♪No matter what you've done, no matter you've been through,♪ ♪I and I will be there to watch over you.♪ ♪Divide and find until the world is through,♪ ♪'Cause I would never give up on you.♪ ♪You've got to stay focused.♪ ♪You've got to stay focused.♪ ♪You've got to stay focused.♪ ♪♪ ♪You've got to stay focused.♪ Thank you all.

Bless, bless.

- Chinese Connection Dub Embassy Y'all one more time for them.

Memphis, Tennessee, reggae.

Great job fellas, thank you so much.

Let's get one more tune from this band.

We'll see you on the radio.

♪♪ Oh, the wayward wind is a restless wind, a restless wind that yearns to wander.

And he was born the next of kin, the next of kin to the wayward wind.

In a lonely shack by a railroad track, he spent his younger days.

And I guess the sound of the outward bound made him a slave to his wandering ways.

Oh, the wayward wind is a restless wind, a restless wind that yearns to wander.

And he was born the next of kin, the next of kin To the wayward wind.

Oh, I met him there in a border town.

He vowed we'd never part, though he tried his best to settle down.

Now I'm alone with my broken heart.

Oh, the wayward wind is a restless wind, a restless wind that yearns to wander.

And he was born the next of kin, the next of kin to the wayward wind, the next of kin to the wayward wind... [applause] - Thank y'all, good night!

♪♪ Oh, I met him there in a border town.

He vowed we'd never part.

Though he tried his best to settle down, now I'm alone with my broken heart.

Oh the wayward wind is a restless wind, ♪♪