Authentic South

“Folks started talking about the New South after the Civil War," says Tom Hanchett, staff historian at the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, North Carolina. "Where we are now is the newest of the New Souths, the Newcomer South.” Tom speaks about the ever-evolving South, especially as it relates to food, from a booth in El Pulgarcito, a Honduran-Salvadoran-Mexican restaurant in the eastern part of the city. Special music in this episode courtesy of Charlotte-based band UltimaNota. Originally aired March 7, 2014.

Cynthia Graubart attained culinary celebrity status when she won a James Beard Award for the cookbook she co-wrote with famed Southern author Nathalie Dupree. It’s called Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking, and it is amazing. It took four years to write, and it weighs six and a half pounds. It’s got 750 recipes and another 650 variations on the standards. It is becoming itself a standard--a bible--for any Southern cook. Originally aired January 31, 2014.

Eudora Welty was one of the South’s most beloved writers, and her fiction is still a study in detail and dialogue and wit. Her settings were often Southern, but her themes were universal. Eudora won multiple awards in her lifetime, including a Pulitzer in 1973 for her novel The Optimist’s Daughter. She passed away in 2001.

The audio you hear of Eudora in this episode is part of folklorist Bill Ferris' book The Storied South, which is a collection of interviews with iconic writers, musicians, historians, photographers and artists.

I first featured Bill in Episode 10, and we talked extensively about his 40-year career and how the South has perfected the art of storytelling.

In this episode, Bill returns to tell us about his close friendship with the famous Southern writer. Originally aired January 16, 2014.

Contributor Kelley Libby visits a shape note singing event in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Sometimes this style of singing is referred to as Sacred Harp. That’s because there’s an old tune book called The Sacred Harp, and most shape note singers use it, especially in the deep South. Originally aired January 2, 2014.

From contributor Kelley Libby: For years, at historic plantation sites across the South, the focus was on the big house and not on the slave cabins. But cabins like that are now being resurrected by a program called Slave Dwelling Project on the grounds of Montpelier, James and Dolley Madison's home in Virginia. Originally aired August 21, 2014.