Southern Dictionary?

Somehow I stumbled across an English poet on the interwebs. His name is Ian McMillan. He’s from Yorkshire, a small area of England, and like many parts of the U.K. it has a unique set of words and in some cases unique grammar. It read as if he was part of a dictionary project that compiled these many words, phrases and grammar usage that are as much a part of Yorkshire as the topography itself. And it wasn’t like these “Talk like a Southerner” books which are as much factual as they are satirical, it was a serious and scholarly project.

It makes me wonder if someone has done that with the Southern United States yet. We could have general Southern words then separate others by state, region, sub-region and communities. Is this something I’m looking to take on as a serious project? Probably not. But I would be very interested in helping one along.

It could be like Wikipedia or the Urban Dictionary and could be moderated by trained/approved volunteers. The concept intrigues me. What do you think?

Who can be Southern?

Wade posted this article [http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/03/south] a while ago and I thought I’d comment on it a bit.

The article states:
“Southerners were parochial, had Southern accents, drank sweet tea for breakfast, got married 15 minutes after college graduation and named their kids Hunter and Caitlin. (She didn't mean rednecks, but the kind of educated types she was in a sorority with.)”

And while many Southerners do all of the things mentioned they also say that you have to hate Democrats, be Ultra-Christian, Conservative, hunt and own guns to be Southern. I just don’t buy it. I define myself as Southern, and not just “ethnically Southern” as the article states.

I don’t think you need another Southerner to define you as Southern like some nation looking for legitimacy. I believe if you believe you are a Southerner then you are one. I think that Southerners have an inherent D.I.Y. attitude that a lot of the geek culture has. It may mean something different, but it is there. Making their own wine. Raising their own food or trying to buy local all seem to be Southern qualities. Being nice and pleasant to be around and making others feel comfortable are also Southern qualities.

I’m in no place to argue one’s Southerness or to bestow the title on someone. If that were the case I’d revoke many a Southern I.D. card from those in what I consider uppity neighborhoods since many have bland city accents, are rude and not pleasant to be around, and have people that cut their yards or agree to be in a neighborhood that tells you whether or not you can park your cousin’s pontoon boat beside your house while his roof is repaired from the storm damage.

As many of you know, I’m not as Southern as I seem to be. I’ve never gone hunting. I prefer A/C to outdoors activities. I go swimming more often in a pool than the lake or ocean. I’ve never raised a successful garden. I don’t work well with my hands nor can I fix many things.

But do any of those things cheapen my Southernhood? I don’t think so. I could acquire new skills and learn to love the outdoors more but that doesn’t make me more Southern, does it? I think Southernhood is a state of mind. If you get to the South or grow up here and you want more than anything to get out then you aren’t a Southerner. You may be labeled that in New York but you and I both know you don’t feel like one and so you aren’t. We still love you but if you don’t want to be here we don’t want you here either.

Special thanks to Wade Kwon for this post. Without him tweeting the article I wouldn’t have made this post.

Your thoughts are always welcome in the comments.

The International Blues Challenge 2012

Sorry I've been absent but living has taken over my life a bit. Last year I switched jobs and now work extremely close to home and have significantly less stress which allowed me to play quite a bit of music. That is probably the main reason for my absence; I traded one creative outlet for another. One band I play with, The Lefty Collins Band, was entered in to the 2012 International Blues Challenge this past February in Memphis, Tennessee.  Please allow me to recap that for you.

Members of the Lefty Collins Band and 2Blu (the duo winners
from B'ham) on historic Beale Street.

In July of 2011 The Lefty Collins Band wins the Magic City Blues Society's Battle of the Blues Bands. It was Lefty's second time to win but he brought on a new bass player and and new sideman on harmonica (Me) so it was basically a new band. Our main prize was for the MCBS to sponsor our trip to the IBC's. It was an easy trip straight up the future I-22 corridor for me and we made it in about 4 hours from the extreme west side of Jefferson County, Alabama.

When we arrived on a Tuesday I was surprised at the size of historic Beale Street. Not that it was bigger than I had expected but smaller! I had a Bourbon Street sized image pictured in my minds eye. Lots of BBQ joints though and plenty of music. After we ate at one of the IBC venues, The Pig on Beale, I asked our drummer David if it was just me or did we have better BBQ in Alabama. He assured me that it was definitely not the best pork he'd had, so I knew I wasn't being a snob. The bun was so soft it didn't make it through 4 or 5 bites and the meat was ordinary but good. I guess I just expected all Memphis BBQ to blow me away.

The Orpheum Theatre from dress circle.

The next day we had a small orientation and got our venue assignment and times for Wednesday (that evening) and Thursday which are both quarter final days. We were at Wet Willie's with 2 bands from Canada and one from South Africa! All the bands were really good but only a few made it to the semi-final round on Friday and The Lefty Collins Band was one of them. The Magic City represented! Now we just had to play our best again to see who would go on to the finals at the Orpheum Theatre on Saturday.








Friday we went to lunch at Charles Vergo's Rendezvous. It was the BBQ we had waited for. I had seen it featured on the Food Network and had heard so much from others that I hoped that it lived up to the hype. So we got seated right away downstairs and they started us on complementary red beans and rice (which I hear was unusual). I opted for a small order of ribs ($14.95) which comes with beans and slaw. Let me tell you: it. was. awe. some. Totally lived up to the hype and I really can't wait to go back. If you go to Memphis and don't go to the Rendezvous you're doing yourself an injustice.

Backstage at the Orpheum.

Then it came time to play the semi-final round with other bands we'd played with all week and one new band from South Florida. The talent in that room was unbelievable, but only one band in Wet Willie's could make it through. That one band was your hometown boys, The Lefty Collins Band! The band is made up of Lefty Collins (Gadsden, AL) on lead vocals, guitar and songwriting duties; David Green (Jacksonville, AL) on drums and backing vocals; Barry Wasserman (Helena, AL) on bass and backing vocals; and yours truly Andrew Brasfield (Dora, AL) on harmonica and backing vocals. The Orpheum was amazing. It was similar to the Alabama Theatre but I'd say it's a bit more plush. We finished somewhere between 4th and 9th though we like to tell everyone we came in 4th.

Here are a few band's that I met along the way and I think you should consider buying their music or at least giving them a try.

24th Street Wailers (Toronto)
2 Blu (Birmingham)
Mikey Junior and the Stone Cold Blues Band (Northeast US)


You can also find The Lefty Collins Band on CD Baby or Amazon for physical or digital copies and iTunes, of course.

Here's a video of us in the semi-final round:

 

Special thanks to David Brunswick for the video!

What's in a (nick)Name?

So nicknames happen all over, but the South seems to have a lot of nicknames.  How many Bubbas do you know?  I've known more than a few and I actually have one of my church friends that calls me Bubber and that's not my only nickname.  Over the years I've been called:

Rabbit
Nub or Nubbie (I cut part of my thumb in a freak fruit basket assembly line accident)
Jew (Rhymes with Drew)
Drawers
Bubber
Harmonica Guy
Harmonica Man (not a nickname but a character on a Catholic Children's show.  Yes, really.)

I'm sure there are more, a few one off names that are funny for a few hours, but that is a lot for one man of 30ish years.  The best part about all of them is that they were spontaneous.  I'm not a fan of meeting someone and then saying, "I'm Patrick but everyone calls me  JB."  If everyone calls you JB introduce yourself as such.  I introduce myself as Andrew but if somebody says, "yeah, but we all call him Drew" that's fine, I just feel weird calling myself that but I will answer to it without cringing or thinking twice. For some reason I've always rejected Andy...but Andy-B (a Church youth group nickname) is somehow ok.

What's worse is when someone nicknames themselves then tells everyone that is what they want to be called. I know you've met at least one of these people. It's awkward and they always end up looking foolish.

Do you guys have any weird nicknames in your family? Let me know in the comments.

Accent Modification

I have a confession y'all...

Sometimes, around certain company...I change my accent.  Yes, I know.  It really is against everything I preach but it has been pointed out by others (namely my wife) that I do it.  I'm aware, but not really ashamed.  No matter what I do I'll always have a bit of an accent.  It shows my roots and my heritage.  Sometimes I do it because to some people in some parts of town find a drawl like mine hard to understand.  Sometimes I do it to show that the perception of people from my neck of the woods isn't always true.  Sometimes I just want to sound a little classier normal.  It's not like I'm a 14 year old girl sporting some generic/fake British accent; I'm not pretending to be someone else, just something different.  It's like putting on nice clothes before meeting important people.  

Other times when I'm around old high school friends I notice my accent is stronger.  It also seems to happen when I'm out and about and someone makes mention of my Southern heritage or talk about how they think I live in the meth capital of the greater Birmingham area.  

Do you change your accent up depending on the situation?  Has someone else pointed out that you inadvertently do it?  Let us know in the comments.

A rant about cooking and food and other slightly related things

I have talked with far too many people, women in particular, that mention their shortcomings in cooking.  And I'm not trying to be sexist saying, "they aren't cooking for their husbands and food should be on the table at 6pm sharp, and dessert better be involved."  I'm just kind of shocked by what seems to be a lack of cooking happening in homes.  I also mentioned to a friend that I was stoked about making biscuits for my wife's birthday earlier this month; her response, "You know those come in a can, right?"  I will say she wasn't from the South and may not fully understand the taste, mouth feel and satisfaction a homemade buttermilk biscuit means to a Southerner but come on!  I love cooking dang near anything and I just happen to have a great biscuit recipe that gives me a sense of accomplishment every time I pull a batch out of the oven.

Food is just too easy.  We have everything served to us as we ask for it nowadays.  Fast food, television, music, nearly everything we used to have to go out and buy that took time and effort to prepare for is now ready for us to consume, throw out or toss aside.  If my dad wanted music he had to go to a record store.  Not only that but he had to go into town for it!  If you want fried chicken KFC can have a bucket ready for you in minutes.  No need to marinate, batter or fry your own.

Am I the pot calling the kettle black?  Yes, I am but I also make a conscious effort to do more cooking from scratch and learn the way things were done.  I'm the kind of guy that watches food shows and wants to attempt cooking it rather than watching it for the food porn others do.  You don't have to wish you could make that from scratch, you can!  The recipes are on the internet waiting for you to dive in a tackle them!

Friday Fun - The Cleverly's

I guess I stumbled upon these guys on a Neatorama post a while ago.   I thought they would be one trick ponys and not have anything more to offer . . . boy was I wrong!  They are really talented bluegrass players that do modern covers.  And not just like Hayseed Dixie that I've talked about before, they'll  do hip hop, 80's, Motown, dang near anything.  I won't go into their backstory but you can go to their website at TheCleverlys.com and click about to watch the video of their backstory.  I suspect they are studio musicians that wanted to do something between sessions or when times got lean and came up with their schtick.  My Facebook friends will vouch that I have spammed their News Feed with videos from these folks.

I couldn't decide which to post so here's Billionaire followed by I Gotta Feeling.  For more check out their YouTube channel.




Word on the street is they're supposed to be available for show dates soon so check out your local music establishment to see if they're performing near you!

Lemme know how you like 'em, or if there's new music I need to discover out there in the comments!

Southern Word of the Week - Ignernt

Lacking knowledge. Pronounced IG-nernt
(adj.) Some folks is just plain ignernt.

My daddy always used to say, "Everybody's ignernt about something."  Of course he didn't pronounce it that way, but I think I'm embracing more of my Southern roots than he did.  I sound extremely Southern when around my high school/grammer school friends.  What was I talking about?  Oh yeah, ignernce.

There are many people in the South that are ignorant about many things.  But do you wanna know how to clean and butcher a deer?  That same person you thought was ignernt, will be able to not only how to properly clean that deer, but probably be able to tell you the why's and what for's too.

My (Eastern Euorpean) South

It seems I was working harder on this My South post than I had to.  This was from the very first OkraCola.com post:

My paternal grandfather's family came over from England before this country was founded. He married a lady who was born in India to a very posh British family. So I'm only half Southern by blood. My maternal great-grandparents (all 4) came over from Slovakia in the past 100 or so years so I grew up on fried okra from her backyard as well as pirogies.  So I'm only 1/4 southern by having family down here for a long time depending on how you count it, but my Slovak grandparents adapted quickly to southern living and ideals so I consider myself 100% southern! 

That was eaiser than I thought; but wait, there's more!

Brookside, Alabama is not known to everyone as an Eastern European treasure trove of delicacies and traditions, but that’s what I think of when I go there.  My Great-Grandparents immigrated from what is now the Republic of Slovakia and raised 10 kids in Wylam, Alabama.  My maternal Grandmother married another son of another Slovak immagrant family and they settled in the small town of Brookside.  It is such a small town that when there was still a Catholic Church there my Mom and her whole wedding party got ready at my Grandparents house and walked to the wedding. 

I would always go to my grandmother's house (My grandfather died before I was born) where she would fix fried okra from her garden, make meatloaf and banana pudding, fix me chocolate milk and bake tradtional favorites from the old country.  Most of them involved cheese, potatoes and onion; plentiful and relatively cheap staples.  Pagachi, halushki, pirogies, real food.  Every Christmas she would pack a paper grocery sack full of baked goods and remind us that if we left hungry it was our own fault.

Pagachi is everyone's favorite.  (Here's a recipe that looks close.  Scroll down 2/3rds) It is a yeast bread dough filled with a potato and cheese mixture (sharp cheddar) then rolled flat and round like a pizza, and brushed with oil that had been cooking with onions.  She would always make a special batch for my Uncle Joe because he liked dill baked in his.  To this day pagachi is still part the traditional dinner in our family after Christmas Eve Mass.  We go to my mom's and eat ham and pagachi sandwiches.  Once I made a huge mistake by saying I didn't like the pagachi that was served at a cousin's wedding.  It was too thin and nothing like my grandmothers.  My mom's first cousin heard me say it and said, "don't let Momma (my Great-Aunt) hear you say that."  Oops.

My Paternal Grandmother was born in colonial India to a physician, so it was a whole different vibe.  She never really cooked.  We call it the Allan gene.  People say, "what is the Allan gene?"  Well, it took 6 Indian servants to run the Allan household of 4, so the Allan gene is laziness.  If you visit this blog with any frequency you can attest to the presence of this gene.  My love of sweet tea obviously didn't come from that side of the family.

Eating Christmas Pudding with brandy butter and having Christmas crackers were also normal and expected during the holidays in our house in Walker County, Alabama.  Not only that but also weekly calls from my father's first cousin in Edinburough and yearly visits from him with the cool and tasty stuff we couldn't get.  Now we can get most of it from World Market and Whole Foods.


Thanks again to Wade and Rachel to their contributions and let me know if you have a uniquely Southern raisin'!  drew [at] okra cola (dot) com

Sorry y'all!

Hey everybody!  I really appreciate you all supporting the blog this year and I apologize for not keeping it up that much since around March.  I've been busy at work, with playing music in smokey bars and dealing with my Mom being diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.  Her last chemo treatment for her first round is today so prayers would be appreciated. 

I'm going to at least try to do one post per week and your comments and suggestions are most welcome.  I'm down for guest posters too, just pitch an idea to drew [at] okracola [dot] com or on Twitter @OkraCola.

I'll have a new word of the week up shortly!

Thanks again for your patience and prayers.

The R Word

Redneck.  We've all heard the term and we all know what it means or at least says about the person it's directed at: Un-wealthy person of European blood.  Now it is true that it is a truly hateful word, two people of equal socioeconomic status can be in an argument and redneck will slip out of one or the others mouths and then a full on fight can take place.

Some of us call ourselves or others (that are present) rednecks in jest, but we all know its just being funny. But if others aren't present it is usually meant to portray a poor person or family.  It's not nice, but it does happen.

The term came from poor farmers and field workers that spent long hours outside for a low wage and had their necks burnt by the sun.  It's a shame that folks trying to earn an honest living got branded, but good or bad I guess thats how the human animal works.

Jeff Foxworthy is amazing on how he took a joke, the redneck or at least a characture of the redneck, and has made his whole career out of it.  It's a pretty funny bit, but it has run its course.  Same with the emails with the redneck weddings, etc.  They may be funny, but really wasn't Jersey Shore just the same type people yankees make fun of but instead of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia, etc. it was in New Jersey?!

Ideas, statements, reactions about this term?  Tell us about them in the comments.

P.S. - I used one instance of the Confederate Flag because that's what a lot of people think rednecks wear. Most are used to the Naval Jack which is a rectangle, but this is one of the battle flags and was square.

Southern Style Sweet Stuff

Looking at a bottle of Arizona Southern Style Sweet Tea it made me remember that we do like things sweeter in the South.  I even remember a rumor that Coke and Pepsi were made sweeter down here because that's how we like things. 

I add about cup and a half of sugar to one gallon of tea, my wife's family cooks green beans with sugar and sweet potato casserole might as well be a dessert.  Think about this though, if you even mention or kid about putting sugar in your grits you almost automatically get labeled a yankee.  I admit I don't like sweet grits, but do like a sweet cornbread and the same alligations follow.  Why do we like everything else sweet, yet look down on folks that like sweet grits or cornbread?

Talk amongst yourselves in the comments, and please be sweet to each other.

Okra Cola iPhone App

Okra Cola now has an iPhone App!  I worked with a company called MotherApp and now my blog is an iPhone App!  This is a huge step for Okra Cola and I believe 2010 will be the year many more things happen.


When you get a chance please download the app and see what you think and if you have time leave an honest review of the app.  Part of it form and part function.  The app is out of my hands which should be one level of it, but the content and design is all mine which should be the other level.


I want to thank all y'all for reading and subscribing and please let me know what I can do to make this blog better for you.  If you are interested in doing a guest post or just want to pitch an idea for a post please email me drew [at] okracola [dot] com.


I look forward to hearing from you and can't wait to post some more!


I'm sorry to say this but MotherApp has decided to discontinue these types of apps. If you still have the app it will work but if you don't have the app you'll probably never have it. Sorry but thanks to you who already have it!

Just for fun

After posting Hayseed Dixie's version, I decided that the Muppet version was too good not to post.



No Southern content but fits into the whatever I feel fit to post category.

All about Y'all

From Wikipedia: "Y'all, archaically spelled "You-all'", is a contraction of the phrase "you all", and is pronounced as one syllable. It is used as a plural second-person pronoun."

Some folks in different parts of the country say you guys, some say you all, we say y'all.  Many people spell it ya'll.  In fact that's the way I spelled it until about 2000 until being told I had been spelling incorrectly for 20 years by my creative writing teacher.  Since I tend to think language is always evolving then I can give a slight pass to this spelling since ya can be a colloquially shortened form of you.

However there is a billboard company in town that has a billboard up that says, "Hey Ya'll" on it, which I think is tacky since they are a pretty large business and much of that business is to spell things correctly. 

If you are watching a movie or reading a book and they use y'all when only referring to one person that is an incorrect usage.  If I ask y'all to come over to one or more people I'm probably asking you and your wife to come have dinner.  If I say "all y'all need to come over" then I'm probably talking about all of us and friends we have in common to come over for an event. 

Y'all got any more to add?  Post them in the comments.

Okra Cola

A few people (mostly friends because hardly anyone knows about this blog) have asked why the name Okra Cola.  I thought it was a unique name but where I got it was listening to a morning show in the '80's (I was a young 'un) The Magic Morning Zoo on Magic 96.5 FM in Birmingham.  They often did fake commercials in skits and one of them was for Okra Cola. The name was about all I can remember.


[EDIT/ADDITION]
Looks like the name came from an SNL skit with Steve Martin.  Either way I like the name, and I was young when I heard it so cut me some slack. [END EDIT/ADDITION]

It just kind of popped in my mind when I signed up on Blogger. If you think about it okra is a very southern food; fried, pickled, boiled (yuck) and there is a very famous cola based in Atlanta. 

So there ya go, Okra Cola: Southern living, language, libations, food, music and anything else I see fit to post was born. I hope y'all enjoy.

Welcome!

Welcome to Okra Cola! A blog about Southern living, language, libations, food, music and anything else I see fit to post. I grew up in the deep south and I love just about everything southern. I welcome you and invite you to offer comments and suggestions.

A bit about me:
My paternal grandfather's family came over from England before this country was founded. He married a lady who was born in India to a very posh British family. So I'm only half Southern by blood. My maternal great-grandparents (all 4) came over from Slovakia in the past 100 or so years so I grew up on fried okra from her backyard as well as pirogies.  So I'm only 1/4 southern by having family down here for a long time depending on how you count it, but my Slovak grandparents adapted quickly to southern living and ideals so I consider myself 100% southern!

That's my south, my version of the way my family lives and has lived in rural Alabama. I think everybody has a version of it down here. Nobody was raised the same, but many aspects are similar. A lot of people have their ideas of the south and some of them disdain it, even folks who grew up here. I always say I'm glad people propagate the myth to keep those who don't want to be here out!