Southern Storytellers

"Southern Storytellers" celebrates Southern identity through the eyes of contemporary creators of literature, music, film and television, including authors Jesmyn Ward, Michael Twitty, Angie Thomas and David Joy; poets Jericho Brown and Natasha Trethewey; songwriters Jason Isbell, Lyle Lovett, Tarriona "Tank" Ball, Adia Victoria, Amanda Shires and Justin Moore; songwriter/screenwriter/actor Billy Bob Thornton and songwriter/actress Mary Steenburgen; and screenwriters Qui Nguyen and Michael Waldron.

We're highlighting the music, literary, and film creators featured in the show. Read more about the musicians below.

Music

Learn more about the musicians featured in "Southern Storytellers" and explore the inspiration behind their work. Plus, check out the "Southern Storytellers" Spotify playlist, which includes cast members' work, songs from the artists who influenced them, and more Southern artists.

Southern Storytellers Spotify Playlist

Jason Isbell

Grammy Award-Winning Singer/Songwriter

Song: "Strawberry Woman"

Jason Isbell has established himself as one of the most respected and celebrated songwriters of his generation. The North Alabama native possesses an incredible penchant for identifying and articulating some of the deepest, yet simplest, human emotions, and turning them into beautiful poetry through song. Isbell sings of the everyday human condition with thoughtful, heartfelt, and sometimes brutal honesty. Isbell broke through in 2013 with the release of "Southeastern." His next two albums, "Something More Than Free" (2015) and "The Nashville Sound" (2017), won Grammy Awards for Best Americana Album and Best American Roots Song. Isbell's song "Maybe It's Time" was featured in the 2019 reboot of "A Star Is Born."

Isbell’s 2020 full-length, "Reunions," is a critically acclaimed collection of 10 songs that showcases an artist at the height of his powers and a band fully charged with creativity and confidence. The creation of the album and the period around it is the subject of a new documentary from Sam Jones, "Running With Our Eyes Closed." It was released on April 7, 2023, via the HBO Music Box series.

Isbell and his band the 400 Unit released their most recent album on June 9, 2023. "Weathervanes" was produced by Isbell. The record is a collection of grown-up songs: Songs about adult love, about change, about the danger of nostalgia and the interrogation of myths, about cruelty and regret and redemption. Some will make you cry alone in your car and others will make you sing along with thousands of strangers in a big summer pavilion, united in the great miracle of being alive.

Isbell will also appear in the upcoming Martin Scorsese film, "Killers of the Flower Moon." The movie premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival in May 2023, with a wide release to follow in October of 2023.

Tarriona “Tank” Ball

Grammy-Nominated Singer/Songwriter

Song: "Stolen Fruit"

Acclaimed band Tank and The Bangas unveil their new song, "DM Pretty." Written as an original piece from vocalist Tarriona "Tank" Ball’s poetry collection, the song is meant to be empowering. "DM Pretty" is currently trending on TikTok, peaking at #8 in the U.S. and #67 globally.

Most recently, the band’s third studio album, "Red Balloon," received a nomination for Best Progressive R&B Album at the 2023 Grammy Awards. This milestone follows the band’s Best New Artist nomination in 2020.

"Red Balloon" was released in May on Verve Records to widespread critical praise. Predominantly produced by Tank and the Bangas, the 16-track album includes contributions from Big Freedia, Alex Isley, Masego, Lalah Hathaway, Jacob Collier, Questlove, Trombone Shorty, Jamison Ross, The Ton3s, Georgia Anne Muldrow and Wayne Brady. The latest work has evolved and pushes the band to a new level, shedding light on their unique observations and songwriting reflecting on the ills of America, while also celebrating the beauty of Black life.

New Orleans-based Tank and the Bangas rose to prominence in 2017 following their unanimous NPR Music Tiny Desk Contest victory. In 2019, the band released their major label debut, "Green Balloon," on Verve Forecast to widespread critical praise.

Throughout their career, the group has performed on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," "Austin City Limits" and "The Today Show." Tank and The Bangas have toured non-stop, selling out venues both stateside and abroad including festival appearances at Coachella, Glastonbury, Bonnaroo and the Newport Jazz Festival.

Tank and The Bangas are Tarriona "Tank" Ball (lead vocals), Albert Allenback (alto saxophone, flute), Joshua Johnson (drums) and Norman Spence (keys).

Lyle Lovett

Grammy Award-Winning Singer/Songwriter

Song: "You’ve Got a Friend in Me"

When Lyle Lovett introduces his band — and he always introduces his band, "Large" or small — he makes a point to cite the place each artist calls home.

Home — both a physical space and a metaphorical concept that includes people, space, and time — plays formidably into Lovett’s new album "12th of June." His first new recording in a decade tells the stories of specific people in specific places and some operating on a different plane. And while he’s sung about cowboys and creeps, bird snarfing preachers and the guy who reads a newspaper over your shoulder, a sense of place is as important as the people who populate his songs.

"My songs are rarely fiction," he says. "That’s how I approach my work. My songs are from my life. I am the character in these songs. I get to spend my life for the most part doing a job where I get to be myself."

That has been a guiding principle for Lovett even before he announced his arrival with Lyle Lovett more than 35 years ago. Having studied journalism in college, he sharply draws his who and where. A sense of home and place have proven the base of operations for him to imagine a set of characters to operate. Lovett's discography isn’t like a Robert Altman film. It’s like an Altman filmography, a collection of true fictions, akin to the happenings in the Yoknapatawpha of Faulkner or the Dublin of Joyce. 

So it is that the title track of Lovett's new album is informed by parenthood and place. It is also about death. Because life is so uncertain. 

"12th of June" is also full of little spirals as it nudges forward. The song is a cosmic aberration: past, present, and future rustle together. While being laid to rest, a father considers the wonder that is his family – immediate family, distant family, family present and family passed. If that sounds heavy, the harmonies on the chorus float like apparitions. 

The family reserve is vast.

To some, pondering death in the face of new life could be a grim or counterintuitive pursuit. But with Lovett life, like music and like water, is both linear and cyclical and always new.

When he sings "by the branch at San Jacinto, play for me a happy tune," he’s knowingly referencing a body of water close to his home in the Houston, Texas, area. As Lovett tells it when introducing the song, a little creek in San Jacinto County runs along an old family cemetery where the living and the dead still commune at least once a year for a family gathering with covered dishes and cross-generational connection.

"12th of June" is an instant classic from a lifelong student of songwriting. 

The attributes that drew listeners decades ago are all present on Lovett’s 12th album. He says it’s "a collection that touches on everything I’ve done over these years."

Lovett and his Large Band stretch their legs with the album’s first notes with "Cookin’ at the Continental," a composition jazz great Horace Silver recorded when Lovett was just two years old, a nod to the music heard in his household growing up. Like a paper boat set loose in the San Jacinto, "12th of June" — the album — cuts a smooth and distinctive path, bobbing through life and death and food, contemplation, and humor – signatures that have informed Lovett's songbook since he started writing songs in his native Klein, Texas, and in College Station, where he attended Texas A&M in the 1970s. He learned from writers who appreciated character, setting, economy of language. They did it all with ample melody, too.

On paper these musical pieces could seem ill-suited together, but Lovett has always been a knowing tailor, able to stitch together music styles that only felt disparate because radio formats told us they were different. On this album, a Nat King Cole standard nestles naturally with a Lovett original about pants.

Maybe his is a strange mix, but not really when one sifts the soil and observes his roots. Consider a moment his mother, who traveled 30 miles south from their home in Klein to her job in Houston, only to return at day’s end to pick up her son and then return to the city again for guitar lessons. Houston can be as unforgiving as it is inspiring, a labyrinth of freeways and bayous with energy industry money and storied fine art institutions. It’s home to an epic annual rodeo and the artificial heart. Lovett's music, like the city, is matter of fact about the contradictions people place upon it. "This album reflects the music I grew up around," he says. "My music is like me: I live on land that belonged to my grandfather. I live next door to my mother. I think the music reflects where I’m from and who I am."

After Willie Nelson left Nashville as an ugly duckling only to find his inner swan in Austin, Houston offered something different than the state’s oft-trumpeted "live music capital of the world." Houston was a proving ground for a generation of songwriters like Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Nanci Griffith, Eric Taylor, and pulled in other writers too square for Nashville’s peg holes, like the playfully poetic Steven Fromholz and the soulful Willie Alan Ramsey. A little club called Anderson Fair showed little interest in those who could mimic songs written by others. There, songwriters had to show up armed as though they were crashing a wedding. Find a way to tell ageless stories in a new way: That was the task, that was the test. Lovett's bona fides are long past the approval stage. He impressed in that songwriter’s haven 40 years ago and has continued to do so since the release of "Lyle Lovett" in 1986, an album assured in its sound and vibe. 

To this songbook Lovett adds "12th of June." "Gee, Baby, Ain’t I Good to You" and "Straighten Up and Fly Right" will be familiar to fans, and both feature longtime featured vocalist Francine Reed. "Are We Dancing" cuts a classic figure like those old pop standards but is a new original.

The title of "Pig Meat Man" certainly hints at something a little lewd, befitting the blues and its tradition of double entendre. Alas, sometimes a sausage is just a sausage. "It’s about pork -- bacon and pork," Lovett says. "Because I think bacon is that good. Bacon deserved its own song."

But whether Lovett is singing about love or singing for a laugh, he always pulls listeners back home. Listen to "The Mocking Ones," which is informed by longing years after certain friendships evaporate. And that title track: Its chorus has lingered for those who have seen Lovett live recently. Some may see a glum view of parenthood, framed through a funeral song. But in reality, it’s a tribute to parents before and children to come. 

"To my father and my mother," he sings, "And all our fathers long before/There are those who’ll walk above us/who’ll remember that we were/they will remember that we were."

Justin Moore

Academy of Country Music Award-Winning Singer/Songwriter

Songs: "Grandpa," "Small Town USA"

Justin Moore's never been one to follow the pack. A multi-platinum, chart-topping country star who left Nashville behind for the simple pleasures of small-town life, Moore's built his remarkable career playing by his own rules, eschewing trends and spotlight-chasing in favor of an honest, old-school approach. It makes perfect sense, then, that he’d call his captivating new album "Stray Dog." Mature and nuanced, the collection showcases Moore at his most self-assured, tapping into the raw energy of his live show as he delivers poignant stories of desire and commitment, heartbreak and regret, joy and celebration. Sure, there’s plenty of good time anthems here, but "Stray Dog" is ultimately a powerful work of reflection from an artist who’s grown to understand himself on a deeper level than ever before, one who’s willing to engage in the hard work that comes with building not just a career, but a life of meaning and purpose.

Born and raised in Poyen, AR, Moore landed his first country #1 with "Small Town USA," the breakout single off his 2009 self-titled debut. The record went platinum, as did its 2011 follow-up, "Outlaws Like Me," which yielded yet another #1 single. In the decade that followed, Moore would go on to establish himself as one of modern country music’s most reliable artists, landing nine more #1’s, taking home the New Artist of the Year trophy at the ACM Awards, racking up more than a billion streams, and performing everywhere from "Jimmy Kimmel Live to The Today Show."

Thao Nguyen

Barcelona Video Art Award-Winning Singer/Songwriter

Songs: "Temple"

Indie folk singer/songwriter Thao Nguyen crafts delicate but memorable songs tinged with country and blues, and her rich voice and thoughtful lyrics draw comparisons to Fiona Apple and Cat Power. She began writing and playing songs when she was 12. When she was in high school, she worked at her mother's laundromat and played guitar when she wasn't helping customers. She moved on to playing local shows while attending Virginia's College of William & Mary. There, she met bassist Adam Thompson and drummer Willis Thompson, who became the core of her band, the Get Down Stay Down.

In 2006, Nguyen released her debut album, "Like the Linen," on the Trust Me imprint and played a few Washington, D.C., and New York City dates. She also sent a copy of "Like the Linen" to Laura Veirs, who liked it so much that she not only had Nguyen open for one of her dates at the Mercury Lounge, but also took her on a European tour and introduced her to Slim Moon, Veirs' former manager and owner of Kill Rock Stars, as well as producer Tucker Martine. Nguyen made her debut on the label by contributing a song to the 2007 compilation "The Sound the Hare Heard"; the Martine-produced "We Brave Bee Stings and All" arrived in early 2008. In 2011, Nguyen teamed up with her friend Mirah for the collaborative album "Thao & Mirah." An album with The Get Down Stay Down materialized in 2013 in the form of the community minded "We the Common."

Amanda Shires

Grammy Award-Winning Singer/Songwriter

Songs: "Mineral Wells"

A truly singular creative force, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Amanda Shires has made an extraordinary career out of restlessly pursuing her deepest instincts and passions. Since getting her start playing fiddle with the legendary Texas Playboys at the young age of 15, the West Texas native has brought her nuanced songwriting and boundless originality to a series of critically acclaimed solo albums, collaborated with the likes of John Prine and Justin Townes Earle, and earned the 2017 Emerging Artist of the Year prize from the Americana Music Association (AMA). Also a member of Jason Isbell’s 400 Unit, Amanda is the founder of The Highwomen - a supergroup she performs in alongside Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris, and Brandi Carlile. Shires approaches every undertaking with equal parts precision of craft and unbridled humanity.

Amanda has received unanimous praise for her latest album "Take It Like a Man." Written and recorded during lockdown, "Take It Like a Man" is a fearless song cycle of ruthlessly candid tunes documenting Amanda's life as a woman, a wife (of Jason Isbell) and mother during a tumultuous time.  Produced by Lawrence Rothman (Angel Olsen, Girl in Red), featuring Isbell on guitar and guest vocals by Maren Morris and Brittney Spencer, the album is filled with revealing and autobiographical songs.  

The New York Times called it "electrifying" adding it "ought to make this wildly underrated country-music Zelig into a household name." The LA Times noted, "She’s become a coveted presence at the intersection of nervy artistry and activism, folk and country acclaim, rock attitude and Nashville influence." The music was also featured on many "Best of 2022" lists including NPR, The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Stereogum, BrooklynVegan and more. Her national U.S. tour in support of the album brought raves from the likes of Variety who included her show at LA’s famed Troubadour in their "50 Best Concerts of 2022" round-up. Her electrifying national TV performances include stops at "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," "The Late Late Show with James Corden," "Ellen," and multiple appearances on "CBS Mornings."

Kicking off 2023, Record Store Day has announced Amanda Shires and Jason Isbell will be their 2023 Record Store Day Ambassadors. Shires has more releases planned around Record Store Day and later this year.

Growing up in Lubbock, Shires first discovered her expressive musicality at the age of ten, when she learned to play a fiddle that her father purchased at a nearby pawn shop. Within the next few years, she’d begun taking lessons from Frankie McWhorter of the Texas Playboys, a turn of events that soon led to her joining the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame-inducted group. Naming Leonard Cohen among her most enduring inspirations, Shires also started developing her distinct songwriting voice, and at the encouragement of outlaw-country hero Billy Joe Shaver — a fellow Texas native who invited Shires out on tour in her early days — she relocated to Nashville.  Her solo albums include 2009’s "West Cross Timbers" and "Sew Your Heart with Wires" (a collaboration with alt-country artist Rod Picott). In 2011 she returned with "Carrying Lightning" and lent her lush vocal harmonies and intricate fiddle work to her husband Jason Isbell’s third album "Here We Rest."

2013’s "Down Fell the Doves" landed on Billboard’s Americana/Folk Albums chart, spotlighting the highly sophisticated lyrical chops she homed in part by earning her master’s degree in creative writing from Sewanee: University of the South. As her following flourished, Shires joined forces with multi-Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb for the making "My Piece of Land," a 2016 effort that paved the way for her AMA prize.

Over the next few years, Shires achieved a great number of triumphs, including contributing to John Prine’s final studio album "The Tree of Forgiveness" and winning a Grammy Award for Best Americana Album for Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s "The Nashville Sound" (a chart-topping 2017 release whose hit single "If We Were Vampires" won the Grammy for Best American Roots Song).

She reunited with Cobb for 2018’s "To The Sunset," a wildly unpredictable body of work. Just a year later, she founded The Highwomen, with the shared intention of creating a more inclusive and equitable space in the country world. With the arrival of their 2019 self-titled debut, the band hit #1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart.

Along with scoring a Billboard 200 top 10 hit with The 400 Unit’s "Reunions" (a 2020 release that graced over a dozen best-of-the-year lists), Shires made waves with her standalone single "The Problem," a powerfully empathetic song about a woman’s right to choose, a cause that she remains steadfastly and articulately outspoken about.

In 2021, Amanda released the free-spirited yet emotionally raw holiday album "For Christmas," which also garnered rave reviews, and displayed her penchant for creating the kind of unsparingly honest music that ultimately gives rise to connection and compassion.

Mary Steenburgen

Singer/Songwriter/Academy Award-Winning Actress

Songs: "When I Hear Trains," "I Choose You"

Mary Steenburgen is an Academy Award and Golden Globe winning actress best known for her work in the films "Melvin and Howard," "What’s Eating Gilbert Grape," "Stepbrothers," and "Book Club" and television shows "Justified," "Orange is the New Black," "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "The Last Man on Earth."

Steenburgen starred in Focus Features "Book Club 2: The Next Chapter" opposite Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, and Candice Bergen. Steenburgen also starred for two seasons as Maggie Clarke in NBC’s musical television sensation "Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist" and Roku’s original film "Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas."

Mary is a songwriter for Universal Music Publishing Group and was recently shortlisted for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for a song she co-wrote, "Glasgow (No Place Like Home)," featured in the film Wild Rose. "Glasgow" received the Critics' Choice Award and the Hollywood Critics Association Award for Best Original Song.

Billy Bob Thornton

Musician/Songwriter/Academy Award-Winning Screenwriter/Actor

Influenced by: Johnny Cash

Song: "The Poor House"

Academy Award-winning writer, actor, director and musician, Billy Bob Thornton has an extensive and impressive career in motion pictures, television, and theater.  Charismatic and uniquely talented, Thornton has established himself as one of the most sought-after actors/filmmakers of his generation.

Currently celebrating a high-water mark in his career, Thornton was most recently seen starring in the fourth and final season of the Amazon series "Goliath," for which his performance received rave reviews and garnered him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Drama and has completed production on the Netflix action-thriller "The Gray Man," directed by the Russo Brothers.

His recent projects have included the critically acclaimed FX Network limited television series "Fargo," for which he received Golden Globe and Broadcast Television Critics Awards for Best Actor in a miniseries or Movie, and Emmy and SAG Award nominations in the same category; a reprisal of his iconic and Golden Globe nominated performance in the 2003 box-office hit "Bad Santa," in "Bad Santa 2"; the Warner Bros.’ political themed drama "Our Brand Is Crisis,'' opposite Sandra Bullock; "The Judge" opposite Robert Downey, Jr. and Robert Duvall; and starred in the ensemble drama "Jayne Mansfield’s Car," an original script co-written by Thornton and longtime collaborator Tom Epperson for which he once again stepped behind the camera to direct. The film also starred Robert Duvall, John Hurt and Kevin Bacon.

He was also seen in the ensemble drama "Parkland," for Playtone Pictures, in which he co-starred with Paul Giamatti and Marcia Gay Harden; the drama "London Fields," based on the Martin Amis novel; the action thriller "Faster," co-starring Dwayne Johnson; the film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ best-selling novel "The Informers"; the Polish Brothers’ dark comedy "Manure;" Paramount Pictures’ "Eagle Eye;" the Newline Cinema comedy "Mr. Woodcock;" Warner Bros. Pictures’ "The Astronaut Farmer," directed by the Polish Brothers; "School For Scoundrels;" the re-make of the "The Bad News Bears" for Paramount Pictures; and "Friday Night Lights" for Universal Pictures; and directed "The King of Luck," a documentary about country music legend and longtime friend Willie Nelson. 

In 2003 he garnered a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for his role in the critically acclaimed box-office hit "Bad Santa," and in 2004 he received rave reviews for his portrayal of legendary frontiersman Davy Crockett in Touchstone Pictures’ "The Alamo."

Showing the versatility of his acting abilities, in 2001 Thornton starred in the caper comedy "Bandits" for director Barry Levinson and co-starring Bruce Willis and Cate Blanchett; the noir "The Man Who Wasn’t There" for the Coen Brothers; and the heart wrenching drama "Monster’s Ball," in which he co-starred with Halle Berry, Peter Boyle and Heath Ledger.

Each of the three performances garnered Thornton unprecedented critical acclaim and resulted in him being named Best Actor of 2001 by the National Board of Review, Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor in a Drama for "The Man Who Wasn’t There" and Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for "Bandits," and an American Film Institute Award nomination for Best Actor for "The Man Who Wasn’t There."

Thornton’s 1996 release of the critically acclaimed and phenomenally popular feature film "Sling Blade," which he starred in and directed from an original script he wrote, firmly secured his status as a preeminent filmmaker. For his efforts, he was honored with both an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. The film, produced by The Shooting Gallery and released by Miramax, also starred Robert Duvall, JT Walsh, Dwight Yoakum, and John Ritter.

Prior to "Sling Blade," Thornton already had an extensive motion picture credit list.  He wrote and starred in the thrilling character drama "One False Move," which brought him immediate critical praise. Thornton’s powerful script (co-written with Tom Epperson) was enhanced by his intense performance as a hunted criminal. The film, directed by Carl Franklin, was an unheralded sleeper success.

In addition, Thornton has been featured in such films as "The Winner," for director Alex Cox, Paramount Pictures’ "Indecent Proposal" directed by Adrian Lyne, "Deadman," for director Jim Jarmusch for Miramax, and in "Tombstone," directed by George Cosmatos for Buena Vista Pictures.

Thornton has also appeared in the films "On Deadly Ground," "Bound By Honor," "For The Boys" and "The Stars Fell on Henrietta."

As a writer, Thornton has worked on numerous projects for United Artists, Miramax, Universal Studios, Warner Bros., Touchstone Pictures, Island Pictures, David Geffen Productions and HBO. He also scripted "A Family Thing," a highly regarded feature film that starred Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones for United Artists.

Thornton co-starred in the blockbuster action-adventure film "Armageddon" with Bruce Willis for producer Jerry Bruckheimer and he has also co-starred opposite Sean Penn and Nick Nolte in "U-Turn," directed by Oliver Stone and in "Primary Colors" opposite John Travolta and Emma Thompson for director Mike Nichols.  He also starred in the dark comedy "Pushing Tin" opposite John Cusack.

Thornton received an Academy Award nomination and Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his celebrated work in the tightly woven drama "A Simple Plan" for director Sam Raimi, as well as a Best Supporting Actor award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and a Best Supporting Actor nomination from the screen actors Guild.

For his second and third directorial outings, Thornton chose the comedy "Daddy And Them," which he again wrote and starred in, and the best-selling Cormac McCarthy novel, the epic "All The Pretty Horses," starring Matt Damon, Penelope Cruz, and Henry Thomas.

Thornton also co-wrote "The Gift," starring Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi and Hillary Swank. Thornton’s other film credits include the comedy "Waking Up In Reno," co-starring Charlize Theron, Patrick Swayze and Natascha Richardson for Miramax Films, the drama "Levity," in which he co-starred with Morgan Freeman, Holly Hunter, and Kirsten Dunst, "Intolerable Cruelty" co-starring George Clooney and Catherine Zeta Jones, and "Love Actually," with Hugh Grant, Laura Linney and Liam Neeson.

Adia Victoria

Americana Music Awards-Nominated Singer/Songwriter

Influenced by: Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, Toni Morrison, Ruth Lambert, Jacques Lacan, William Faulkner

Songs: "Magnolia Blues," "South For The Winter"

Southern blues rocker, Adia Victoria is a daughter of the South, a born and bred South Carolinian who now makes her home outside of Nashville, Tennessee. It is no surprise, then, that stories of the South find their way into her music, into the lyrics she pens and the chords she plays. It has been the case through her first two albums — 2016’s "Beyond the Bloodhounds" and 2019’s "Silences" — and it remained so for her third full-length effort, "A Southern Gothic" — released in fall of 2021. Working with her creative partner, Mason Hickman to write and produce the 14 tracks on her latest album, the project saw further collaborations with Executive Producer T-Bone Burnett, along with Jason Isbell, Margo Price, and more. On the album Adia continues her journey through the conflicts of the American South and the troubling resonance of its past. In 2021, SONOS launched "Call & Response," a weekly podcast hosted by Adia, where she's interviewed notable talents such as Brandi Carlile, Brittany Howard, and Tressie McMillan Cottom, amongst many others. 

"A Southern Gothic" landed on numerous year-end lists including Rolling Stone and Good Morning America who noted, "'A Southern Gothic' sounds like something from another century, making it one of the most unusually stirring records of the year," Paste who said, "Adia Victoria doesn’t just have a way with words, she’s a storyteller. Anchored in the present yet steeped in the history and literature of an inclusive South, Victoria has a sharp eye for detail that informs the songs on 'A Southern Gothic,'" and NPR who declared "Victoria crafted stunning, heat-infused blues vignettes that brilliantly capture the painful depth of Southern racism and the frustrations and complications of being a Black woman in the south."

Boasting a Top-10 debut on the Billboard Blues Chart, the project received a nomination for Album of the Year and garnered Adia a nomination for Emerging Act of the Year from the Americana Music Association Awards. 

2023 finds Adia writing her next album, with appearances scheduled at the Cayamo Cruise, Winnipeg Folk Fest, Catbird Music Festival, Park City Song Summit and more.