Biscuits & Jam

Hector Garate is the owner and pitmaster behind the acclaimed Charleston, South Carolina, restaurant Palmira Barbecue. Born in Puerto Rico, he grew up with a deep love for his culture and his family’s cooking. During his teenage years, he moved with them to North Carolina and New York before settling in the Lowcountry. In 2024, after years of experimenting with different barb...

Karen Fairchild was born to Southern parents in Gary, Indiana, but whether she was living in the Midwest or the South, that Southern influence was always there. She eventually made her way to Birmingham, Alabama, where she attended Samford University and met her future bandmate, Kimberly Schlapman, through the school’s choir program. In the late ’90s, she was reunited with Sc...

Dolly Parton was last on the show back in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, and we talked on the phone about her Christmas traditions, her childhood in East Tennessee, and her incredible work getting millions of kids to read through the Imagination Library. This time I got to sit down with her in person at her studio outside of Nashville, and she hasn’t slowed down one bit...

Lauren Alaina was born in Rossville, Georgia, where she discovered her love of music at a very early age. In 2011, she was introduced to millions of viewers on American Idol, where she finished as the runner-up. Later that year, she released her debut album, Wildflower, which helped establish her as one of country music’s brightest young stars. Plenty more s...

Maggie Rose was born and raised in Potomac, Maryland, where she grew up eating blue crabs, attending Catholic school, and singing solos in front of her church’s congregation. A self-described black sheep of the family, she headed to Clemson University in South Carolina before leaving school early to move to Nashville for a career in music. But it was her family’s support that...