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)