THE NEW Deep South

Home to dazzling landscapes, unforgettable food and legendary music cities, the Deep South occupies a special place in the popular imagination. But in reality, it’s a region in flux — ever-evolving, innovating and reckoning with its past to serve up the best of Southern hospitality. We journey through Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina — a region bounded by diverse geography but full of surprises

- DAVID FARLEY, ZOEY GOTO, ELLEN HIMMELFARB, EMMA JOHN & JOE SILLS

Vibrant, generous and bursting with flavour: what’s true of the Deep South’s cuisine, from creamy cheese grits to piquant gumbo, is true of the region itself. Despite one of the most distinct identities in the US, it remains a melting pot of influences from Europe and Africa, the Caribbean and South America — one that’s birthed entirely new cultural forms across the centuries, from Creole architecture to rock ’n’ roll.

There are stereotypes, of course — some are even true. Southern hospitality is no fiction; just count the number of folk who greet you in the street. This is still the nation’s musical homeland, too. Jazz, blues and rock trace their roots to its throbbing bars and wooden porches; Muscle Shoals remains America’s Abbey Road; Cajun festivals roll on long into warm, starlit nights.

In the past few years, the Deep South has shrugged off some of its more lugubrious character. Embracing an urban energy in its thriving cities, making a name as an adventure playground — for mountain-trekking, river-canoeing and swamp safaris. But a drive across its changing landscapes is still a languorous one. The bluehazed Appalachian Mountains complete their southern thrust in Georgia, ending abruptly in Atlanta’s vast metropolitan sprawl. The sun-baked countryside and historic small towns of Alabama cede to the flat, black marshes of the Mississippi Delta. Teeming subtropical forests and pristine white sand beaches meet on Louisiana’s coast.