TrueSouth drives the rolling back roads of southern Kentucky, to gnaw pork shoulder steaks cooked over hickory fires and eat burgers fried in shallow oil. We introduce viewers to a cultural microclimate that straddles the Kentucky-Tennessee line, where old traditions thrive and grown men gather in the Monroe County Marble Club Super Dome to play serious games of great skill that are compelling to watch and complex to score.

TrueSouth drives the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, to dig for ramps along a creek bed and stoke the fires in a smokehouse by the highway. Allan Benton, proprietor of Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams in Madisonville, Tenn., cures and hickory smokes bacon and ham that have earned their place on the kitchen tables of working folks across the South, and on restaurant menus across the nation. If you know artisan Southern goods, you know the scent that perfumes the air when his pork hits a cast iron skillet. But there's a bigger story to tell here. Our crew goes home with Allan to get to know his wife Sharon and their children and grandchildren. We learn to bake biscuits with Sharon (and yes, we include her recipe). And to stir up a good gravy. More important, gathered in their kitchen, we get to witness the love and hard work that binds a man and a woman to their family, and their community.

TrueSouth lands in Jackson, Miss., to witness the drive and hustle and belief that a creative class of risk takers and change makers now brings to bear in this capital city. The Jackson we celebrate faces down problems, including a summer crisis that left the city without safe water for six weeks, but those problems do not define this city. Instead, we celebrate the work of artists and musicians and chefs whose commitment to excellence make Jackson a magnet for Mississippians who regard creativity as an engine for progress.

TrueSouth rides shotgun with Tommy Tomlinson, author of The Elephant in the Room, as he returns to Brunswick and St. Simons Island, Ga., where he grew up. Tommy joins the TrueSouth crew to walk the beach, play pinball, take in a baseball game, and reacquaint himself with the foods of his youth. Those foods represent family and pleasure for Tommy. Because he's fighting to control his weight, they also represent a kind of peril.

TrueSouth zigs and zags across the region, from Kentucky to Tennessee, from Mississippi to Alabama to Georgia. To make TrueSouth, the crew plans in the winter and films in the spring. All year long, though, they scout, in search of great restaurants and great stories, because there’s always something new, and there’s always something old that’s new to them. TrueSouth invites viewers to join the scout trip as the crew feasts across the belly of the South, plotting for seasons six and seven while filming season five. On the bus, they make U-turns and wrong turns and crank Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors. Curiosity called them to exit 17 on I-20 in the piney woods of Alabama, near the town of Livingston, where an Indian restaurant in a long-haul truck stop shares an off-ramp with a steakhouse that bakes perfect caramel cakes.