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.
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.
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.
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.
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.