This Saturday: Our 12th annual Delta Music Institute show, recorded at Delta State University! This event serves to raise awareness of DMI programming and the Duff Dorrough Memorial Scholarship Fund. Click here for more information on how you can support this fund.
- The time: Saturday, March 23, 7 p.m.
- The guests: Crime fiction writer William Boyle (A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself), Mississippi native roots musician Beth McKee (Dreamwood Acres), and the DMI Allstars.
- Your hosts: Jim Dees and Thacker house band, the Yalobushwhackers
Featuring
William Boyle
William Boyle was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and now makes his home in Oxford, MS. His latest novel, to be published on March 5, is A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself (Pegasus Books). The book is a screwball noir about finding friendship and family where you least expect it, in which Boyle draws readers into the familiar—and sometimes frightening—world in the shadows at the edges of New York’s neighborhoods.
"A brilliant and nasty piece of joyful ambiguity that I Ioved deeply. What a marvelous and unexpected bunch of female characters, in particular. With this one, William Boyle vaults into the big time, or he damn sure should.”
– Joe Lansdale, author of the Hap and Leonard series
Boyle’s previous books include Gravesend, which was nominated for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière and was shortlisted for the New Blood Dagger Award in the UK; the story collection, Death Don’t Have No Mercy; the novel Everything is Broken (published in France in 2017); and The Lonely Witness (2018).
Beth McKee
Keyboardist Beth McKee’s latest album is Dreamwood Acres. The album displays McKee’s signature roots music that rides the backroads of soul, gospel, blues, folk, pop, and rock.
From her native Mississippi, where she learned the blues firsthand from Malaco Records session musicians, to her immersion in the scenes of Austin, New Orleans, and now Orlando—all that musical territory can be heard in the funky sound of pianist/accordionist Beth McKee.
A working pianist since she was 14, McKee’s identity really began when she moved to Austin, Texas, where she was recruited by harmonica legend Greg “Fingers” Taylor to join his band and embarked on a tour opening for Jimmy Buffett. Afterwards, Beth moved to New Orleans to join noted ‘90s bayou-country band Evangeline, which was discovered and signed by Buffett to his Margaritaville Records label. She released two albums with Evangeline before setting out to make her own mark.
Her solo CDs include Sugarcane Revival (2015); Next to Nowhere (2012); and her acclaimed tribute to songwriter Bobby Charles, 2009’s I’m That Way.
“Dreamwood Acres is the kind of album to savor, and it is an example of just how vital and vibrant the independent American music scene remains.” – Pop Matters
B4Y2K
B4Y2K is a group of students and faculty from the Delta Music Institute of Delta State University. The ensemble specializes in classic songs from the 1990s. Students in B4Y2K can earn a B.S. degree in Music Industry Studies from DMI.
