Salvation South

During this pledge week, GPB has been asking our listeners, “Who has the best biscuits in Georgia?” Hundreds of you have put your answers on social media, but we haven’t seen anything close to a general agreement on the answer. That fact does not surprise Salvation South editor Chuck Reece.

Salvation South Deluxe sits down with Beth Ann Fennelly—poet, novelist, and inventor of the “micro‑memoir”—to talk about her latest book, ‘The Irish Goodbye: Micro-Memoirs.’ In a conversation that ranges from Alzheimer’s and caregiving to hyperrealistic nude portraits of folks in Oxford, Mississippi, Fennelly explains why she’s done “Photoshopping” her life and how telling the smallest stories can open us up to all the feels.

This is the time of year in Georgia when, after every rain, the puddles left behind are yellow, thanks to an abundance of pine pollen. Some people sneeze at the pollen, some people curse at the pollen, and some people find a great deal of humor in it. Salvation South magazine editor Chuck Reece is one of the latter.

A city‑hall slush fund, a dissenting vote, and a rainy weekend in Tallahassee accidentally created Word of South, the South’s most unlikely laboratory for music and literature. In this episode of Salvation South Deluxe, Chuck Reece walks Cascades Park with co‑founder Mark Mustian, hears BJ Barham of American Aquarium and novelist Kristen Arnett blow up old ideas about who counts as Southern, relives Muscle Shoals legend Donnie Fritts’s last hurrah in a packed nightclub, and joins Tommy Prine as he reflects on his father John Prine’s legacy and what it means to be a Southerner now.

Last week, Salvation South editor Chuck Reece delivered a lecture at Mercer University’s Center for Southern Studies in Macon. The next morning, he had breakfast at the H&H, a restaurant that’s been feeding Maconites for nearly seventy years. A restaurant that has stories of its own to tell about the South.

As a young, fiery pastor in a crater town in Kentucky, Abe Partridge thought he had finally found the rock to build his life on. Then his faith collapsed, and his ministry went with it. In this in‑depth conversation, Abe joins host Chuck Reece and writer Tad Bartlett to explore dark years, snake‑handling churches, punk rock mosh pits, and how songs and paintings became a quieter kind of prayer.

What is the biggest party in the South? Some say it happens every year in Jacksonville, Florida, learning up to the annual Georgia/Florida football game. But really, the biggest party in the South—and maybe the biggest, longest party in the world—is Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Salvation South magazine editor Chuck Reece is here with some Mardi Gras history that might surprise you.

This past weekend’s widespread storms, which dumped tons of snow and ice on states from New Mexico to New England, proved deadly for some and paralyzing for thousands of communities, including every Southern state save Florida. Salvation South magazine editor Chuck Reece has a few words about the difference between experiencing the white stuff as an adult and as a child.

Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers sits on the Salvation South porch to remember Muscle Shoals, Gregory Dean “The Living Bubba” Smalley, Jason Isbell’s “Outfit,” The Definitive Decoration Day, and a fiery Colbert reunion.

The official song of the state of Georgia—Hoagy Carmichael’s “Georgia on My Mind”—came into the public domain on January first, ninety-five years after the song was written. Salvation South editor Chuck Reece is here with a little history of the song—and what happened forty-six years ago, when its official state song status became law.

As the year comes to a close, we bring you this special episode of Salvation South, where we take a look back on our most popular commentaries aired by GPB Radio in 2025. (Part 2 of 2)

Southern noir meets 1980s Atlanta. In this Salvation South Deluxe episode, Southern crime-fiction stars S.A. Cosby and Ace Atkins dig into "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" Atkins’s Cold War thriller about Gen X kids, Russian spies, and suburban Atlanta in 1985. They talk Southern noir, Cold War paranoia, VHS-era pop culture, and why telling the real, diverse South on the page still matters.

A week ago, the world mourned the passing Steve Cropper, a key figure in Southern soul music. Cropper was the guitar player in Booker T. & the MG’s, who were the house band at the legendary Stax Recording Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. He wrote and played songs for the likes of Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, and Georgia’s own Otis Redding. Salvation South editor Chuck Reece has a remembrance.

As the year comes to a close, we bring you this special episode of Salvation South, where we take a look back on our most popular commentaries aired by GPB Radio in 2025. (Part 1 of 2)

Tomorrow, families all over Georgia will gather to celebrate Thanksgiving. At most of those tables, someone will say grace over the meal. There are probably as many ways to bless the food on a Southern table as there are Southerners waiting to eat it. We asked Salvation South editor Chuck Reece for his thoughts on table blessings.

Discover how Muscle Shoals, Alabama, became the unlikely birthplace of legendary music by Aretha, the Stones, and more.

When the Atlanta hip-hop superstars OutKast were inducted into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame, it was more than a celebration of the immense talent of Antwan “Big Boi” Patton and André “3000” Benjamin. Salvation South editor Chuck Reece believes it was a jubilee for the city of Atlanta—and a Southern musical revolution that spread around the entire world.

Get to know a new crop of Southern musicians who are taking their deeply rooted cultural influences into new territory in the 21st Century, defying all expectations of genre and subject matter. Featuring: Amythyst Kiah, B.J. Barham, Chris Casey and Tommy Prine.

Hurricane season is here in the Southeast, and won’t be over until the end of November. Salvation South magazine recently published a story by a woman in Macon who, as a hurricane roared up from Florida years ago, told people on social media her doors were open to evacuees. We all love the idea of “Southern hospitality” when it comes to our friends. But complete strangers? Chuck is here with some thoughts.

Cultures all over the world have ceremonies to honor loved ones who have passed away. Sometimes they are celebrations. Sometimes, they are solemn remembrances. And always, everywhere, stories are told. In the South, a tradition called Decoration Day persists as fiercely as the memories of the people whose lessons shaped our lives. Salvation South editor Chuck Reece has some memories of his own.