Name: TrueSouth
Genre: Reality
Cast: John T. Edge

John T. Edge

TrueSouth is an SEC Network/ ESPN television show, conceived by executive producer Wright Thompson and host John T Edge, directed by Tim Horgan of Bluefoot Entertainment. We tell honest stories about the past, present, and future of the South. In each city, we focus on two restaurants that talk to each other in interesting ways. From barbecue joints to gas station ceviche cafes, we share the origins of these restaurants, the forces threatening them, and the belief systems that support them.

TrueSouth

Greek natives and their kin built the Birmingham restaurant scene, from barbecue joints to hotdog stands to steakhouses. Bright Star, founded in 1907, is the old guard and Johnny's is the new guard Greek restaurant.

Birmingham

From Wright Thompson and John T. Edge, TrueSouth introduces viewers to Southern food and culture. The series takes viewers to two bedrock spots and explores various cities and their environs, getting to know good people through good food.

Athens

Nashville

Shreveport

New Orleans

Beaumont

Hodgenville

Memphis

Oxford

Brownsville, TN

Fort Benning

Bowman

Scott

Lake Village

Mobile Bay

St. Louis

Mississippi River Road Trip

Tompkinsville

Madisonville

Jackson, Miss.

Brunswick

Season Five, Episode Five

Season six begins in a bathhouse in Hot Springs, Ark., an odd and endearing resort town tucked in the Ouachita Mountains, west of Little Rock. Mobsters once caroused here. Major league teams traveled here for spring training. Hot Springs began as a spa. Scalding hot water, pushing up through those mountains, still draws pilgrims.

Hot Springs

TrueSouth travels The Black Belt of Alabama, southwest of Tuscaloosa, to eat barbecue and witness what art makes possible. Visiting York, Gainesville, and Gee's Bend, we eat pig tails and pork ribs with pitmasters who bridge the gap between craft and art.

The Black Belt

In search of Old Florida, walk the ice boxes at Kyle's Seafood to survey the catch and eat smoked mullet on the bed of a pickup; drink beer and talk about home at a beach bar with local author C.H. Hooks; and line up for a table at O'Steen's Restaurant to dunk fried shrimp in a datil pepper sauce that burns bright like a beach sunset.

St. Augustine

TrueSouth drives into Dublin, Ga., a postcard small town off the interstate between Savannah and Macon, with a courthouse square hot dog joint, a seven-decade-old soul food café, and a big story to tell about what it takes to face down the toughest of foes.

Dublin, GA

Host and writer John T Edge teaches a class on "Writing Place" for the Department of Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Mississippi. To students, he says things like: Pretend your head is a camera. Capture the scenes that add up to the story. Our crew works to stay in scene, to let our viewers see and hear the South and its people, so that we can all better know the story of our region. This time out, we captured 13 scenes from our never-ending road trip.

Season Six, Episode Five

Season 7 kicks off in Oklahoma City, exploring the oil and cattle work that puts money in pockets and ribeyes on tables. Cattlemen's Steakhouse, open since 1910, sits hard by the Oklahoma National Stockyards. Junior's Supper Club, owned by the Shumsky family, does business at the bottom of mid-rise, where the light is always low and every hour is happy hour.

Oklahoma City

Rudy Cisneros still looms large on the east side of Austin, TX, a city within this rapidly-changing city. At Cisco's, open since 1950, the migas and huevos rancheros are good as ever. Also on the east side, we track Kareem El-Ghayesh of KG BBQ, a new arrival from Cairo, Egypt, who has learned to two-step and introduced Texas to pomegranate-speckled ribs.

Austin, Texas

Western Tennessee is one of the cradles of American barbecue culture. Less than 20 miles separate two of the best old-guard joints in the South, BE Scott's BBQ in Lexington and Ramey's BBQ in Parsons. Here, the team witnesses how the Parker and Ramey families, working hard to do right by their inheritances, depend on each other to cook whole hogs over hickory coals.

Lexington, Tenn.

In Little Rock, AR, Jordan Narvaez introduces the crew to his people and places. They begin at El Super Pollo, the chicken al carbon tent he runs with his brother, set in front of their western wear store. Traveling southwestern Little Rock in Jordan's pickup, they drink micheladas, eat enchiladas in the style of San Luis Potosi, and slurp homemade watermelon ice cream.

Little Rock, Ark.

Jasper, AL, was, for the longest time, a coal mining town. Father-and-son stories from the Johnson and Evans families help the crew see what has changed and what has remained. Two restaurants serve as the lodestars: At Brown's Deli and Package Store they bake biscuits and sells half-pints. Across town at Bayou Fresh Seafood, Zhu Jianjun and his crew serve spicy tuna rolls and fried pickles.

Jasper, Ala.

The team then went on to follow author George Singleton through the Upstate region of South Carolina, walking the aisles at a flea market in Pickens, eating chili dogs at Holmes Hot Dogs in Spartanburg and Saxon's Hot Dogs in Abbeville. George writes short stories for a living. He reminds them that TrueSouth shows are short stories about home, married to music and pictures.

Upstate, S.C.

The behind-the-scenes episode returns. Among the highlights: A rolling cocktail party, staffed by Jesse Edge, son of host John T Edge, who joined the crew this season as a production assistant. And an indulgent dinner of oysters on the half shell and royales with cheese at a new restaurant set behind an old train station, Elsie's Daughter in Chattanooga, TN.

Season Seven, Episode Seven

Season 8 kicks off in Clinton, the small Georgia town where host and writer John T. Edge was born. During season 3, Edge began writing a memoir. House of Smoke, which publishes this September, brought Edge back to reconnect with the places and people that made him. The restaurants that catapult Edge back in time are Nu Way Weiners in nearby Macon, where he and his father ate chili-slaw dogs; and Fresh Air Bar-B-Que near Jackson, to which father and son traveled on pilgrimages. On this return to where he began, Edge asks honest questions about home and belonging that transcended the personal to become universal.

Clinton, Ga.

This is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the nation, the subject of endless magazine listicles and breathless influencer reels. Is it possible to sidestep the algorithms and really see and hear and taste Charleston? In the process can we learn something about the past and present South? Those are the questions the crew asked. Answers came in conversations with, among others, architect Reggie Gibson, observer of alleyways and courtyards; Jaime Tinoco and Pamela Sierra of Kooben Cafe Mexicano, the vibrant new brunch restaurant near the airport; Bethany and Dano Heinze of Vern’s, a neighborhood restaurant that out-punches its weight; and the daughters of the Albertha Grant, who serve red rice and okra soup at Bertha’s, the Gullah-soul mainstay named for their late mother.

Charleston, S.C.

Across generations, people have flocked to this Atlantic Coast city to follow their dreams. Farm workers from south Georgia arrived here in search of jobs as longshoremen. Immigrants from Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries came in search of religious and economic freedom. Those dreams inspired prayerful songs like “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” And they inspired the hard work and adaptation that drives a sandwich culture here that’s second only to New Orleans. Getting to know the Salameh family, proprietors of All American Hot Dogs and Sandwiches; and the Doe and Boutros families, who run Russ Doe’s Sandwich Shop, we get a glimpse of what it takes to realize those dreams.

Jacksonville, Fla.

Walter Anderson was one of the most prolific and visionary artists the South has produced. His drawings, paintings, sculptures and ceramics reflect his mantra: “In order to realize the beauty of humanity, we must realize our relation to nature.” Beginning at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs, this episode takes viewers on a search for beauty and truth. Along the way, the team pulls oysters from the water off Eagle Point and spend an idyllic Sunday at Wat Buddhametta Mahabaramee, the Thai temple in Gautier, where monks in saffron robes wok-fry cashew chicken for weekly fundraisers and a beautiful woman named Jume Bessier welcomes all.

Ocean Springs, Miss.

The behind-the-scenes episode returns for a sprint across the belly of the SEC, in search of really good cheeseburgers. Highlights include: Burger Burger in Biloxi, Miss., for po-boy loaves, layered with double patties and onion sauce; Troy’s Snack Shack in Montezuma, Ga., for beautifully sloppy chili-slaw burgers; Hamburger King near downtown Montgomery, Ala., for burgers that pick up an ideal char from the griddle; and Downton Grill in Macon, Ga., for a conversation with Will and Jenni Harris of White Oak Pastures in downstate Bluffton, who talk with Edge about the new-old promise of raising beef cattle on grass.

TrueSouth

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