The Southerner is a local person - to a degree unknown in other sections of the United States. The Southerner always thinks of himself as being from somewhere, as belonging to some spot of earth.

To me the South is unexplainable. All I can say is that there's a sweetness here, a Southern sweetness - that makes sweet music. If I had to tell somebody who had never been to the South what it was, I'd just have to tell him that it's music from the heart, from the pulse - from the innermost feeling. That's my soul, that's how I sing. And that's the South.