Welcome to the Southern Americana Podcast
Recorded at Puckett's Grocery in Leiper's Fork, TN, welcome to the Southern Americana Podcast: Where we will Connect the South's music, people, and places.
Our first episode with singer/songwriter Emily Elgin is up on Apple Podcast (formerly iTunes).
The South is an amazing place. It's given birth to a multitude of remarkable music and amazing personalities. And as I've heard all of my life, the entire Southeastern United States is the "garden spot of the universe."
I'm Paul Stanley, and I'll be your host for this Southern Americana podcast. For the past seven years, I've been a freelance writer and publish much of my work about the South on my website, OneSouthernMan.com. I love the South, everything about it, especially the music and people, and I want to share it with you.
I grew up in the small town of Savannah. No, not Georgia, Savannah, Tennessee, which sits on the banks of the Tennessee River, just a few miles from Shiloh battlefield and Pickwick Lake. I've spent almost my entire life in Tennessee and the South, except for my college years in Texas, another state, or should I say a country that I adore. Oh, and I spent three years in my mid-twenties on foreign soil, in what I refer to as "the tundra," or Kansas.
Yet the South has always called me home. Where I grew up, there were many sayings about the South that hung on our walls:
A Southerner:
"A person born or living in the South; gracious, easy-going, slow-taking, friendly, devoted to front porches, oak trees, cool breezes, magnolias, peaches, and fried chicken."
Another said, "The South is a place where...tea is sweet, and accents are sweeter, summer starts in April (thank goodness), macaroni and cheese is a vegetable, those front porches are wide and our words long, pecan pie is a staple, Y'all is a proper noun, biscuits always come with gravy, even chocolate gravy, everything is "darlin', (and you're preferred to that or Honey by any respectable diner waitress) and someone's heart is always blessed."
I could add a lot more to that list, such as bourbon, barbecue, SEC football, and tailgating in The Grove at Ole Miss. We'll talk about these and many more subjects in future episodes.
From time to time, I'll bring in co-hosts who will also share their love for music, especially the genre we know as Americana.
What is Americana music?
It's a lot of things. Its roots are found in the blues that originated from the Mississippi Delta, and country music that made its way from the hills of Appalachia to Nashville.
It's from the early rock n roll sounds created by Sam Phillips and Elvis in Memphis. And what about the jazz riffs from Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Americana combines folk songs of the great depression with the sounds made famous by Rick Hall and The Swampers in Muscle Shoals.
And let's not forget about the soulful gospel sounds created in Black churches that dot the southern landscape.
Whatever it is, Americana music sounds great.
As for people, where do we begin? There's singer/songwriters, playwrights, actors, musicians, athletes, chefs, business people, and tons of other exciting people from all walks of life. Some are household names you'll easily recognize, others you probably never heard of. Many were born in the South, while others are transplants. Some even reside in other regions or across the oceans, yet all have left a footprint in the South.
And the places. The larger cities of Atlanta, Nashville, Birmingham, New Orleans, Charlotte, and Charleston certainly give us plenty to talk about. And let's not forget the smaller towns and communities such as Clarksdale, Oxford, and Natchez, Mississippi, Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Fayetteville, Arkansas, quaint towns in the bluegrass lands of Kentucky, small communities in the low country of the Carolinas, or in the hill country of Virginia. There are so many places that impact Americana.
Most of our episodes will be recorded in a small community in Middle Tennessee called Leiper's Fork. Over the past twenty years, this magical community not only is home to some exciting locals but also to some of the top Americana and recording artists such as Chris Stapleton, Sheryl Crow, Wynonna Judd, Carrie Underwood, Vince Neil, J.T. Hodges, Will Hoge, Layla Tucker, and countless others.
Where is Leiper's Fork?
Leiper's Fork is located about 10 miles southwest of Franklin, TN, which is about twenty miles south of Nashville. It's one of the places where the Americana Music Triangle was conceived, and if you haven't yet visited, it's a place you'll want to experience soon.
We'll also hit the road and record episodes all over the South where ever we can find engaging music, people and places.
The first episode of Southern Americana podcast is an interview with Country/Americana recording artist, Emily Elgin, who recently released her first EP, This Woman.
I invite you to tag along on this journey of Southern Americana. It's going to be a fun ride.