OUR PEOPLE

Gabe McCauley uses humor on his TV show to look at America’s future and examines our past as a framework for what lies ahead. Written by J. M. McSpadden / Photography courtesy Reconnecting Roots Questions:  In 2023 – three years after a global pandemic, a summer of riots, political division, and unrest not seen since the […]

For one Texas woman, inheriting family quilts inspired a journey to repair, restore and conserve this legacy for another hundred years. Written by Sarah Durst / Photography Lena Seaborn Additional Photography Courtesy of Sue Ann Goodman When Alabama really quilted, the winters were colder.  That’s not true, though, and you know it, as well as I. Alabama has never

For Sara McDaniel, with every season of despair, faith has been the architect of her restoration, both personally and professionally. Written by Susan Marquez / Photography by Hector Sanchez Sara McDaniel has a passion for old houses. “There is something special about them,” she says. “I love the history and the charm of an old home.”

LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA’S COUNTY SMOAK IS ON FIRE Written by Laura Drummond / Photography by Scott Speakes The tantalizing smell of smoke and meat slowly cooking over a pit draws you in. From the outside, County Smoak in Lynchburg, Virginia may look unassuming. On the inside, however, classically trained chefs and husband-and-wife duo Ken and Jess

Shaking the hand that feeds you  Written by Melissa Corbin / Photography Courtesy Microledon Farm While it’s unclear why exactly the human species turned from hunting and gathering to agriculture, the art of nourishing our bodies with the very food that we raised brought a nomadic species together forming villages because they needed to stay

SINGER-SONGWRITER CHARLIE MARS RELEASES A NEW ALBUM, BUYS SOME LAND, AND FALLS IN LOVE Written by Joseph McSpadden / Photography by David McClister RAMBLING MAN Charlie Mars has lived, as he likes to say, in a lot of places for short periods of time, but he always comes home to Mississippi. Born in Laurel, the forty-nine-year-old

Driven is a word used to describe many successful people, and it’s no different for Robert St. John. Most chefs have their plate full with a restaurant or two. Robert St. John has eight in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and all eight are good–very good, with the emphasis on serving great food and treating people right. St.

The tradition of Southern Blues-Rock is in great shape, in the capable hands of Eli Cook of Nelson County, Virginia. Located west of Charlottesville, Nelson County is farm country, home to orchards and vineyards, as well as traditional crop farming. But young Eli had different plans. He started guitar at a young age and by

Two men sit at a picnic table on a sunny day. The contrast is striking. On one side sits Craig Martin a white, fifty-something producer at the helm of a TV show called The Good Road, here to document life in Alabama Village. Across from him sits a young African American man, Da’Cino Dees, describing

Sonny Landreth plays a mean slide guitar. From his humble beginnings in Mississippi to stages around the world, he has managed to stay grounded, his roots firmly set in the South. Oddly enough, his first instrument was the trumpet, guitar came later.    Guitar was my first love.” Landreth is on the phone from Lafayette,

I wanted coffee to start my morning. I gave a whiff of the stuff in the hotel lobby and decided that coffee could wait. I struck out down I-95 and figured I would find a shop on my way to Gilliard Farms. I settled for a Starbucks and ordered two cups of dark roast. As

Outfitted in the camo baseball hat he often wears, Chef David Bancroft kneels down and pushes lettuce between a space in the wire fence separating him from two hogs and a wiggly pack of piglets. “Hey girl.” He’s addressing a black sow who gladly and greedily devours the offering, the large curly green leaf disappearing in

Bill Nelson is the sort of guy who would rather go a little out of his way to get what he likes. The sort of things you can’t get in a supermarket, even one in a town as big as Nashville. Bill and his two sons, who were both home from college on summer break,

Driving from Llano to Brady, Texas along TX-71 you might miss the roadside hamlet of Pontotoc. It’s not a large place. From edge to edge it’s about the length of a long, par-5 golf hole and there’s not much commerce happening to catch your eye. No billboards. No storefronts with neon. Not even a gas

Cowboy Culture in the Mississippi Delta   At the 2016 Christmas parade in Cleveland, Mississippi, I had an epiphany of sorts. Finishing up the end of the parade was a small group of African American cowboys. Their presence instantly struck me. My entire life, I had failed to consider the diverse history of cowboy culture. My

The future of Delta blues may rest in the hands of one man. Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram swims into deeper waters on his debut album.   When people talk about Clarksdale, MS, it’s often in reference to the fabled crossroads, where blues legend Robert Johnson exchanged his soul for the devilish guitar licks that made him famous. Or

The line of people stretched out the door of Tri-County Family Ministries. Third-grader Katie Stagliano helped to serve the more than 275 guests who waited for what might be the only meal they would have that day.  It forever changed her life.   Backtrack to early 2008 when Katie’s class participated in the Bonnie Plants

Caleb Caudle explores new musical territory and in the process reaffirms his country roots. The result is the best record of his career.   On the surface Caleb Caudle would seem to be a puzzle. A native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Caudle is a rising country star who absorbs a world of diverse musical influences,

Let the Deer Camp Special shine its ever-lovin’ light on me!   This past summer I went missing; not literally but figuratively. I was going through the motions of everyday life and work. I carried on “adulting”, as they call it. This is an expression some folks use meaning to do grown-up stuff like taking

Randall Bramblett has become a symbol of strong, nuanced, Southern writing.

Q & A with Author Bryce Gibson   Bryce Gibson is a farmer by day, writer by night. He’s lived in South Carolina his entire life, grew up on a farm, and when he’s not writing, that’s where you’ll find him. Though he was a voracious reader as a teenager, he doesn’t really remember any

Summertime when I was a child meant waking up before dawn on Saturdays to my father singing “She’ll be Comin’ Round the Mountain” or “This Train Is Bound for Glory”—his signal that it was time to pile in the truck and head to the country. There were vegetables and fruit to be gathered, and he wanted us pullin’ and

Fly Me to the Moon Pie, Ruby   I have just returned from a visit to my hometown’s Piggly Wiggly— the queen of grocery stores known to most Southerners – and I shall be forever in awe of simply for the long gone moments recalled there.   Many a time I was sent to “The Pig” to fetch

Haunting and lyrical.

“It’s intoxicating,” Justin Hill says as he leans over an open bee box and inhales deeply while 40 or so bees buzz around his head and his constant companion, Jake the hound dog, bounces around behind him, chasing cloud shadows across the grass. The perfume of still-curing honey, a slightly more floral fragrance than harvested

A force all her own

Hitting with a big heart

Support for working musicians

Mosquito Supper Club

The Vanishing Point or “No Way, Jose”   I listen to the radio a lot when I’m driving. My job can send me all over the state of Mississippi, state to state lines sometimes. I usually try to tune in to AM radio when I’m in rural areas just to hear what the locals might

Selma, AL Jason Smith   MEET JASON: Where did you grow up and how did it influence your life? I grew up in Selma, Alabama and never in my younger years did I ever think about being a farmer. How did the journey to farming begin? We had become conscious of what we were eating and decided

The Vrooman family

Katherine “Peanut” Belk • Shawn Jardnicek Molly Belk • Henry Hernandez Chester, SC   MEET PEANUT: Where did you grow up and how did it influence your life? I grew up in the suburbs of Charlotte and as one of five kids with a much larger extended family, I was energized by chaos and commotion. I spent

Clayton, GA   MEET DARBY: Where did you grow up and how did it influence your life? I grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in the heart of Amish Country. As a teen, I took for granted the lush agricultural community that surrounded me and had no real interest in farming.  After going to College, I

Everything has its season.

“It’s like medicine to me. I suffer with arthritis, but when I’m quilting, I can’t feel the pain,” said Mary Ann Pettway. Sitting in the Gee’s Bend Quilting Collective in Gee’s Bend, Alabama, she selected a long, thin piece of purple fabric, laid it next to a small square of pink and white shapes already

Robert “Shotgun” Giddens

Charming their town

Listen to the Mocking Bird here is a row of old crepe myrtle trees that line the sidewalk in front of the house I grew up in. They are gigantic trees now, even towering above the house. A little tidbit of information for you here, don’t park your car under them because you’ll get what

Q & A with Author: Augustus Jenkins Farmer A self-proclaimed “plantsman,” Augustus Jenkins “Jenks” Farmer began growing his own plants as a young boy after stealing some seeds from the nuns at a convent, near where he went to school. “I think I was sitting there with my Scooby Doo lunchbox and I saw some

Miller, baker, seed collector.

One to look for

Formed in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the late 90’s, The Dexateens have since been redefining the sound of Southern rock n’ roll. They’re one of a handful of bands in the Southeast currently coupling the mix of country and rock, made famous by originators like Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Marshall Tucker Band, with punk rock influence

Food has consequences. To sustain our lives with nourishment, something else must perish. Plants are cut and harvested, animals are butchered. All of it comes to the table for our sustenance. It sounds like a clichéd trope, but the taking of life to sustain life is truly the “circle of life.” Over time we’ve lost

Lower some Heaven

Introducing Jo Smith

Focus on the music

Old-school hospitality in NC

It’s a love story

A modern revolutionary

I take care of my farm

Rodney Smith Jr. is a dreamer, doer and leader.

Kevin Gillespie’s love affair with Southern food.

Mr. Okra is the last of a dying breed in NOLA.

Keeping the rural South alive through painting.

More than a quilt replica

Gip’s Place is a blue’s lovers dream