The seventh season of Emmy Award-winning TrueSouth Presented by YellaWood heads to the upstate region of South Carolina for Episode 6 on Monday, Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. ET. The crew drives from Anderson to Greenwood, Abbeville to Spartanburg, to eat chili-slaw dogs and shop flea markets for treasures. The team is guided by the great short story writer, George Singleton, who says flea markets and hotdog joints are ideal places to talk to strangers, eavesdrop conversations and imagine stories.

The series revolves around two food stories told from one place, which TrueSouth sets in conversation to make larger points about Southern beliefs and identities.

All episodes of TrueSouth are available on demand on SEC Network+ and ESPN+ immediately upon airing.

TrueSouth Episode Hub

Episode Summary
Singleton grew up in Greenwood, S.C. and now lives on the outskirts of Spartanburg with his partner Glenda Guion, a ceramicist. They make their living as artists, working in side-by-side backyard sheds, accompanied by their dog, Cleo.

Two restaurants anchor this story. Both serve chili-slaw dogs, born of the days when cotton mills were the primary employers here. Singleton’s stories, which are sometimes sad and always funny, focus on what happened after the mills closed and people had to figure out new jobs and new ways to feed their families. Both spots make their own chili and slaw and serve dogs that are worth detours:

• Holmes Hot Dogs – On the edge of Spartanburg, S.C., Holmes Hot Dogs is owned by Kyle “Cowboy” Childers.
• Saxon’s Hot Dogs – Set in a gravel lot in Abbeville, S.C., Saxon’s Hot Dogs is run by Sue Beasley.

Michell Wolfe is our lead musician for this episode. We learned about him from a viewer named Scott Taylor, who told us that Wolfe, who works as a carpenter in Greenville, S.C., is “an everyman musician” whose songs are “very raw and very real.” He was right. From musicians to restaurants, TrueSouth thanks viewers for suggestions that become integral to the stories we tell.

TrueSouth Episode Poster
Jason Craft, another collaborator from the Upstate, illustrated and designed this week’s poster. We print up less than 50 for each episode as mementos for the restaurants we visit, the friends we make. All posters from past episodes are now viewable on the SEC Network’s new TrueSouth website. You will also find a searchable list there of the towns we’ve visited and the restaurants we’ve loved.

Season Summary
Season seven began August 27 in Oklahoma City, OK, exploring the oil and cattle work that puts money in pockets and ribeyes on tables. To understand Austin, Tex, we focused on the east side of town, eating Tex-Mex migas and Tex-Egyptian ribs with pomegranate. Beginning in Lexington, TN, we explored the Whole Hog Triangle of that state to eat middlin meat doused with vinegar sauce. In Little Rock, AR, we followed Jordan Narvaez, who owns four businesses there, including El Super Pollo, where his crew cooks whole chickens over charcoal. A trip to Jasper, Ala, gave us the opportunity to explore the legacies of coal mining and the importance of father-son bonds.

Advance press screeners of TrueSouth: Season Seven, Episode Six are available upon request: [email protected]. 

About TrueSouth
TrueSouth is an Emmy Award-winning limited series on Southern food and culture, airing biweekly on SEC Network. Four-time James Beard Award winner John T. Edge writes and hosts the show, which is executive produced by two-time New York Times best-selling author, ESPN senior writer Wright Thompson, and produced by Bluefoot Entertainment.

The series, now in its seventh season, revolves around two food stories told from one place, which TrueSouth sets in conversation to make larger points about Southern beliefs and identities. This season’s featured places are Oklahoma City, Austin, Texas, Lexington & Parsons, Tenn., Spartanburg & Abbeville, S.C., Jasper, Ala., Little Rock, Ark., and a special behind-the-scenes finale to finish out season 7. Seasons 1-6 of TrueSouth are available in their entirety on ESPN+.

Music plays an integral role in TrueSouth’s storytelling via on-screen performances and on-screen credits. The TrueSouth playlist on Spotify shares the full soundtrack and score of every season of TrueSouth.  

About SEC Network
The Southeastern Conference and ESPN launched SEC Network on August 14, 2014. The network televises hundreds of games across the SEC’s 21 sports annually. Programming includes in-depth analysis and storytelling in studio shows such as SEC Nation, Marty & McGee, Out Of Pocket, Read & React and Rally Cap, daily news and information with The Paul Finebaum Show and SEC Now, original content such as the Emmy Award-winning TrueSouth, SEC Storied and SEC Inside, and more. Hundreds of additional live events are available for streaming exclusively on SEC Network’s digital companion, SEC Network+, via the ESPN App and SECNetwork.com. Follow SEC Network on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Twitter/X.