Southern Americana

Most everyone enjoys a cup of coffee to jumpstart the day. Jeff Daniels, the Director of Sales at Non-Fiction Coffee, provides insight on making a better cup at home or knowing what questions to ask your local barista.

Based in Pelham, Alabama, Non-Fiction Coffee strives to roast the best coffee while dignifying the coffee producers they work with and buy from worldwide. Jeff describes how Non-Fiction selects their growers and the details behind the roasting process, including tips on brewing or purchasing better coffee.

John T. Edge is a prolific, award-winning Southern food writer, TV host, Writer-In-Residence at the University of Mississippi, and a visiting professor at the University of Georgia.

As a graduate student in 1998, Edge helped organize the Southern Foodways Alliance, an organization he led until an unforeseen and unnecessary controversy motivated him to retire in 2021.

Edge is a contributing editor for Garden & Gun magazine and a former New York Times and Oxford American contributor. He also writes and hosts TrueSouth, an SEC Network TV series that profiles people and restaurants impacting the region's food scene. Currently, Edge is writing a memoir scheduled for publication in 2025. He's written numerous books, including The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South.

Edge lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with his wife, Blair Hobbs, an acclaimed author and university instructor.

If you sat next to Mark Narmore on an airplane, chances are you wouldn't think he is an award-winning songwriter. He also hails from Muscle Shoals royalty. That's the way this humble wordsmith prefers it.

In the late 1980s, Mark was a student at the University of North Alabama. For pocket change, he spun records at WLX in Lexington, AL. An aspiring songwriter, Mark honed his skills by working at the feet of Fame Recording Studios founder and producer, Rick Hall. It was at this famous studio where he wrote "The Moon Over Georgia," a top-ten Country Music hit for the group Shenandoah.

In 1995, Mark and Walt Aldridge, another hall of fame Muscle Shoals songwriter, penned "Like There Ain't No Yesterday" for Blackhawk. However, his blockbuster hit came along a decade later when Craig Morgan cut "That's What I Love About Sunday," which was the most performed song on Country radio in 2005.

Mark grew up on the outskirts of Muscle Shoals listening to his cousin, keyboardist Spooner Oldham. He also had the good fortune of seeing the infamous Swampers and dozens of major artists who ventured to Fame and Muscle Shoals Sound recording studios during the 1970s and 80s.

Keyboards are his primary instrument, yet this versatile musician can also play guitar and sing. Artists such as Josh Turner, Alabama, Reba McIntyre, Terri Clark, Guy Penrod, and others have recorded his material.

Mark continues writing songs for Noble Vision Music Publishing in Nashville, TN. He also has a star at the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. Mark and his wife, Sandy, live in his hometown of Center Star, AL. You don't want to miss Mark discuss his career and his memories of the Muscle Shoals recording scene.

Robert St. John is indeed a renaissance man, especially when restaurants and food are involved.

When I mentioned food during a recent visit to Southern Mississippi, two close friends immediately said I should interview Robert St. John. I felt terrible that I never heard of the man who has been named Mississippi Magainze's Best Chef, not once, but three times!

I finally caught up with him during his Florida vacation and scheduled a meeting in his office the following week. I came away convinced that St. John loves talking about food as much as he loves preparing it.

Raised by a school teacher mom in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, St. John didn't grow up dreaming of running a restaurant, much less owning several. It's doubtful he imagined authoring cookbooks, organizing food tours of Italy, or becoming one of the regions leading proponents of dining and shopping locally.

Like many of his friends, when St. John graduated from high school he left Hattiesburg for Starkville and Mississippi State University. However, his first attempt at college was short-lived.

Thankfully, this South Mississippian took the lemons given to him by life and proceeded to make lemonade.

Returning to his hometown, St. John took put his engaging, 19-year-old personality to work and found a restaurant job, learning important skills like customer service and how to prepare dishes that kept patrons returning.

Admittedly, St. John will tell you he's not a great chef. "My desire to cook came after I had to fire my chef on opening night," he stated with a wide grin. "I did learn to cook, but deep down I'm just a restauranteur who loves family, people, food, and my community."

Once St. John realized his true talent was the hospitality industry, he had to figure out how to make a respectable living serving food.

First, he decided to continue his college education in his hometown and enrolled at the University of Southern Mississippi, even taking extra hours while holding down a full-time restaurant job.

At the ripe age of 26, St. John opened his flagship restaurant in 1987, the Purple Parrott Cafe.

Since then he's added other eateries to his collection including Crescent City Grill, Mahogany Bar, Branch Tabella, Ed's Burger Joint, The Midtowner, and Midtown Donut.

Unfortunately, St. John closed Purple Parrott in August of this year after a 32-year run. The coronavirus pandemic certainly didn't help, yet the other reasons were determined in part by access and style.

"In years past the Purple Parrot was one, if not the nicest restaurant in town," explained the weathered restauranteur. "People loved to dress up and eat at a white-cloth establishment. Today, they have access to more venues, including private clubs. We also live in a more casual society, and that also dictates where people dine."

That's how building a well-balanced restaurant portfolio comes into play. Crescent City Grill is an ideal venue for today's diner. They serve excellent food (the cajun dishes are wonderful) in a casual, yet tasteful atmosphere.

More importantly, St. John realizes that adapting to your customer's taste is key to surviving in the hospitality and restaurant industry.

A Tex-Mex eatery is opening soon. St. John also thinks the way customers order and receive take-out is changing and he's excited about some innovative concepts he hopes to roll out in the near term.

For now, this husband and dad is enjoying the fruits of his labor. St. John's plans also include future writing projects and a few more trips to Italy. In the meantime, he'll be thinking about even more ways to improve Hattiesburg and the state and region he loves so dearly.

Listen to the complete episode below, or on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

John Berry recorded 20 songs that hit the country music charts in the 1990s and early 2000s, including three that captured the top spot on both Billboard and Radio & Records. During his successful climb, John endured the first of two major health scares in the mid-90s. The second came in January of 2019 when he was diagnosed with throat cancer. After 35 successful treatments, John returned to making music and memories for his many fans, and he's busier than ever. In this episode, we discuss his career, how he's handling being home in 2020, and his new podcast project about faith and family.