Season six begins in a bathhouse in Hot Springs, Ark., an odd and endearing resort town tucked in the Ouachita Mountains, west of Little Rock. Mobsters once caroused here. Major league teams traveled here for spring training. Hot Springs began as a spa. Scalding hot water, pushing up through those mountains, still draws pilgrims.

TrueSouth travels The Black Belt of Alabama, southwest of Tuscaloosa, to eat barbecue and witness what art makes possible. Visiting York, Gainesville, and Gee's Bend, we eat pig tails and pork ribs with pitmasters who bridge the gap between craft and art.

In search of Old Florida, walk the ice boxes at Kyle's Seafood to survey the catch and eat smoked mullet on the bed of a pickup; drink beer and talk about home at a beach bar with local author C.H. Hooks; and line up for a table at O'Steen's Restaurant to dunk fried shrimp in a datil pepper sauce that burns bright like a beach sunset.

TrueSouth drives into Dublin, Ga., a postcard small town off the interstate between Savannah and Macon, with a courthouse square hot dog joint, a seven-decade-old soul food café, and a big story to tell about what it takes to face down the toughest of foes.

Host and writer John T Edge teaches a class on "Writing Place" for the Department of Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Mississippi. To students, he says things like: Pretend your head is a camera. Capture the scenes that add up to the story. Our crew works to stay in scene, to let our viewers see and hear the South and its people, so that we can all better know the story of our region. This time out, we captured 13 scenes from our never-ending road trip.

Season 7 kicks off in Oklahoma City, exploring the oil and cattle work that puts money in pockets and ribeyes on tables. Cattlemen's Steakhouse, open since 1910, sits hard by the Oklahoma National Stockyards. Junior's Supper Club, owned by the Shumsky family, does business at the bottom of mid-rise, where the light is always low and every hour is happy hour.

Rudy Cisneros still looms large on the east side of Austin, TX, a city within this rapidly-changing city. At Cisco's, open since 1950, the migas and huevos rancheros are good as ever. Also on the east side, we track Kareem El-Ghayesh of KG BBQ, a new arrival from Cairo, Egypt, who has learned to two-step and introduced Texas to pomegranate-speckled ribs.

Western Tennessee is one of the cradles of American barbecue culture. Less than 20 miles separate two of the best old-guard joints in the South, BE Scott's BBQ in Lexington and Ramey's BBQ in Parsons. Here, the team witnesses how the Parker and Ramey families, working hard to do right by their inheritances, depend on each other to cook whole hogs over hickory coals.

In Little Rock, AR, Jordan Narvaez introduces the crew to his people and places. They begin at El Super Pollo, the chicken al carbon tent he runs with his brother, set in front of their western wear store. Traveling southwestern Little Rock in Jordan's pickup, they drink micheladas, eat enchiladas in the style of San Luis Potosi, and slurp homemade watermelon ice cream.

Jasper, AL, was, for the longest time, a coal mining town. Father-and-son stories from the Johnson and Evans families help the crew see what has changed and what has remained. Two restaurants serve as the lodestars: At Brown's Deli and Package Store they bake biscuits and sells half-pints. Across town at Bayou Fresh Seafood, Zhu Jianjun and his crew serve spicy tuna rolls and fried pickles.

The team then went on to follow author George Singleton through the Upstate region of South Carolina, walking the aisles at a flea market in Pickens, eating chili dogs at Holmes Hot Dogs in Spartanburg and Saxon's Hot Dogs in Abbeville. George writes short stories for a living. He reminds them that TrueSouth shows are short stories about home, married to music and pictures.

The behind-the-scenes episode returns. Among the highlights: A rolling cocktail party, staffed by Jesse Edge, son of host John T Edge, who joined the crew this season as a production assistant. And an indulgent dinner of oysters on the half shell and royales with cheese at a new restaurant set behind an old train station, Elsie's Daughter in Chattanooga, TN.