North Carolina
THE BAKER'S BIBLE

When it comes to bread making, if there’s anyone who knows how to separate the wheat from the chaff, it’s Peter Reinhart, a four-time James Beard award winner, baking instructor at Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, and the man behind the perfect pizza crust at Charlotte’s Pie Town restaurant. He readily admits that the title of his new book—Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day: Fast and Easy Recipes for World-Class Breads—seems like an oxymoron. But by marrying new methods and ideas with classic artisan techniques, Reinhart makes good on the name, whether it’s an airy French baguette, soft cheese bread with beer, or his “best biscuits ever,” not counting your grandmother’s, of course.

South Carolina
LOWCOUNTRY ON EXHIBIT

A Kentucky native, artist John Folsom became entranced with the gnarled live oaks and salt marshes of the Lowcountry while photographing Palmetto Bluff, near Beaufort, South Carolina. He describes the experience as akin to stepping into a gothic novel. “It’s nature having its own theater,” he says. The region’s natural beauty soon drew him to Edisto Island, then Cumberland Island, Georgia, resulting in a series of photographic images, Lure of the Lowcountry, on display at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston beginning January 22. In a tradition dating back to the nineteenth century, Folsom hand-colors each photograph, layering oil paint and wax to create stunning mixed-media landscapes, and for this exhibit, the images will be paired with other historical Lowcountry landscapes from the museum’s own collection. gibbesmuseum.org

Tennessee
BLUES BATTLE

Since the days of W. C. Handy a hundred years ago, folks have been singing the blues on Memphis’s famed Beale Street. And it’s still the place to hear the best of a whole new generation of musicians during the International Blues Challenge (January 20–23), the largest gathering of blues performers in the world. Hosted by the nonprofit Blues Foundation, the contest draws about two hundred acts, most of them winners of regional competitions, who fill the clubs along Beale as they vie for a spot in the finals at the Orpheum Theatre. Think of it as a preview of tomorrow’s blues legends. blues.org/ibc

Texas
A VERY BIG BREAKFAST

The chow wagon rolls into San Antonio the last Friday in January, and you’d best get there early to get your fill. On January 29 at 5:00 a.m., the folks at the annual Cowboy Breakfast start slinging free biscuits and gravy, chorizo and egg tacos, tamales, and plenty of coffee. Cooking begins the night before, with hundreds of volunteers frying eggs and warming tortillas over pool-table-size griddles. The breakfast is the unofficial kickoff to the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo and last year served over forty thousand free meals. And though the food usually runs out by 9:00 a.m., many of those stuffed cowboys simply mosey on over to a new venue for what may be the earliest after party anywhere. thecowboybreakfast.com

Virginia
GET ROCKED

That decidedly fishy smell coming from the area of Virginia Beach in early January can mean only one thing: striper fishermen. Lots of them, in fact, as anglers up and down the East Coast converge for the Mid-Atlantic Rockfish Shootout (January 7–9), which boasts the largest purse of any rockfish tournament in the country. Some 350 teams take part, competing in both live and artificial bait categories for their piece of the $200,000-plus payout. The top three catches are weighed in at the end of each day, with the largest fish usually pushing sixty pounds. Thankfully, all that fine eating doesn’t go to waste. Over the years, the tournament has provided thousands of meals for the Southeastern Food Bank of Virginia. Fish on! midatlanticrockfishshootout.com

West Virginia
REMEMBERING

Though legendary country singer Hank Williams only lived to the age of twenty-nine, few musicians have been as influential or left behind a songbook with so many classic tunes. And on January 9, just after the anniversary of Williams’s death, singer-songwriters John Lilly, Rob McNurlin, and others devote a night to his memory during the Hank Williams Tribute at the Clay Center in Charleston. The concert celebrates Williams’s well-known and more obscure work, from “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” to the religious recitations of his alter ego, Luke the Drifter. Lilly, an accomplished artist in his own right and a yodeler like Williams, also performs some original compositions, including “Blue Highway,” which won the Hankfest songwriting contest in 2005 for songs done in Williams’s iconic style. theclaycenter.org

Barbados
ISLAND JAM

Not that you really need an excuse to spend a week lounging in Barbados this winter, but an island-wide jazz festival January 11–17 offers some additional enticement beyond the usual tropical R&R. During the Barbados Jazz Festival, the island nation explodes with local and international musicians, encompassing a range of styles. This year’s lineup includes the great Smokey Robinson, along with Cuban-born pianist Elio Villafranca and saxophonist Joe Lovano, to name a few. Explore the island at daily concerts staged at such venues as the three-hundred-year-old Sunbury Plantation House in St. Phillip and the Heritage Park Rum Factory. After all, what’s better than cool jazz by the warm light of a Caribbean sunset? barbadosjazzfestival.com