![\"Sean](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Sean-of-the-South-EDIT2-100.jpg\" "\\"Art\\"")
Southern author, musician and performer Sean Dietrich on his Birmingham porch (Jacob Blankenship \/ The Bama Buzz)<\/p>\nSouthern author, musician and performer Sean Dietrich on his Birmingham porch (Jacob Blankenship \/ The Bama Buzz)<\/p>\n
You may have heard of \u201cSean of the South<\/a>,\u201d a Birmingham-based, Southern-fried musician, storyteller, podcaster and unintentional social media star who\u2019s amassed nearly 300,000 devoted followers across the globe.<\/p>\n But if you ask him\u2014and by him we mean Sean Dietrich, the man behind the handle\u2014he\u2019ll tell you:<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m an author, a multi-instrumentalist, a biscuit connoisseur\u2026and a fool.\u201d<\/p>\n Sean Dietrich, aka Sean of the South<\/p>\n As this \u201cfool\u201d is getting ready to hit the road to promote his 18th published book, \u201cOver Yonder,\u201d we sat a spell on his Avondale front porch, talking about mutual friends that have become family\u2014Birmingham is a delightfully small town, it keeps reminding me\u2014what inspired his work and where you can find him when he\u2019s off the road and off the porch.<\/p>\n Why Birmingham feels like home<\/p>\n When Sean\u2019s not touring around the country, reading essays and excerpts from his written words, he\u2019s finding modern wisdom in the old songs he performs, inspirations in new written work and, he says, still figuring out who he is. And falling more in love with his adopted hometown of Birmingham.<\/p>\n Four years ago, Sean and his wife Jamie made a big decision:\u00a0They packed up their belongings and moved to Birmingham<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe had friends and family here we had been coming to visit for a long time. And with each trip, we decided that we\u2019d really like to live here.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been the best part of my life. Birmingham feels like a small town, unlike any of the other big cities that I\u2019ve visited. It\u2019s those 99 neighborhoods that join together, and each neighborhood is individual, and everybody knows everybody at the grocery store.<\/p>\n It feels like a big small town, and I just love that.\u201d<\/p>\n Sean Dietrich, aka Sean of the South<\/p>\n Readers will find nods to Birmingham in his latest novel, but it\u2019s the South as its own entity that plays a heavier hand in setting the scene for Sean\u2019s written and musical work. As he says, \u201cit\u2019s where I am and what I know.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut, more importantly, it\u2019s a culture that\u2019s being threatened by modernization, and I feel it\u2019s important to preserve the folkways of our ancestors\u2014and when I say ancestors, I don\u2019t mean distant kin that we can\u2019t remember, like in a photograph.<\/p>\n I mean the people who raised us, the people who are still in our lives and those who came from another era with traditions that it\u2019s our turn to pass on.<\/p>\n So through writing, I try to make a positive commentary on those things, but also encourage others to embrace them, propagate the traditions and share them with others\u2014not just Southerners, with everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n Sean Dietrich, aka Sean of the South<\/p>\n The journey to \u201cOver Yonder\u201d<\/p>\n Now, about that new book\u2026\u201dOver Yonder\u201d might, on first glance, fall into that beloved category of \u201cSouthern-Gothic road trip for redemption,\u201d but there\u2019s humor and heart woven throughout. Moments where Sean taps into his own complicated past to find the light. At the center is family, or at least how Sean defines it.<\/p>\n \u201cMy book primarily deals with \u2018found\u2019 family, which is a concept I love. I love the idea that not everybody who\u2019s biologically related to you is necessarily your deepest family connection, but the people that you find along the way, your friends, become this chosen family.<\/p>\n Everybody in my life who I\u2019ve found along the way has ended up filling the void of a human connection, even more so than family.<\/p>\n And so, my book\u2014all my books, really\u2014but this book in particular, focuses on found family, and I wanted to write a love letter to that.\u201d<\/p>\n Sean Dietrich, aka Sean of the South<\/p>\n But lest you forget why Sean has found so much connection with strangers via the internet, he\u2019s really funny, too.<\/p>\n \u201cMy attempt at telling any story that could be hard to tell is to tell it with humor so that people can take that attitude into their own daily life. And when they\u2019re going through anything, good or bad, that they can find the humor in it. Because if you can\u2019t laugh, you might as well be dead.<\/p>\n Truly in my life and in my writing, I try to bring warmth but also a light sense of humor to everything that we go through, and that I go through. Otherwise, what are we doing?\u201d<\/p>\n Sean Dietrich, aka Sean of the South<\/p>\n Where will the road lead Sean next?<\/p>\n Sean has a busy few months ahead. As soon as he was done chatting with us, he was packing up to head out and share his stories and excerpts from his new book. His next Birmingham appearance isn\u2019t for a bit (see below), but here\u2019s where you can find him \u201cOver Yonder\u201d around the state in the meantime:<\/p>\n Greenville, Ala:\u00a0Thursday, October 9 at the Ritz Theatre |\u00a0More info<\/a><\/p>\n Alexander City, Ala: Friday, October 10 at the Betty Carol Graham Technology Center with Three on a String |\u00a0More info<\/a><\/p>\n Fort Payne, Ala:\u00a0Saturday, November 15 at the Fort Payne Opera House |\u00a0More info<\/a><\/p>\n Enterprise, Ala:\u00a0Friday, December 5 at Jimmy H. Baker Center for the Arts |\u00a0More info<\/a><\/p>\n Opelika, Ala:\u00a0Sunday, December 7,\u00a0details TBD\u00a0|\u00a0More info<\/a><\/p>\n Columbiana, AL:\u00a0Sunday, December 14, SOLD OUT |\u00a0More info<\/a><\/p>\n Birmingham, AL:\u00a0Tuesday, December 16 at the Virginia Samford Theatre |\u00a0More info<\/a><\/p>\n When Sean gets back from this journey, you\u2019ll likely find him in the same place you\u2019d find Woody, the main character in \u201cOver Yonder\u201d\u2014a brewery.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Woody Barker were in Birmingham, he would probably be at a brewery, which is why I moved to Avondale\u2026because I can\u2019t step out of my front door without falling into a brewery. Which is wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n When I asked Sean if he had a favorite spot for suds, he elected to plead the fifth.<\/p>\n \u201cSomeone might shoot me. I like them all, and I\u2019ve never met a beer I don\u2019t like!\u201d<\/p>\n Sean Dietrich, aka Sean of the South<\/p>\n Find Sean of the South\u00a0on his website<\/a>,\u00a0his Instagram<\/a>\u00a0and his books wherever your favorite authors\u2019 work is sold\u00a0(here are a few local shops<\/a>\u00a0we\u2019re partial to).<\/p>\n \t\t![\"Sean](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Picture1.jpg\" "\\"Art\\"")
Sean Dietrich\u2019s new novel, \u201cOver Yonder,\u201d is out October 6. (Jacob Blankenship \/ The Bama Buzz)<\/p>\n![\"Sean](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Sean-of-the-South-109.jpg\" "\\"Art\\"")
Sean Dietrich shows off his 18th published novel.(Jacob Blankenship \/ The Bama Buzz)<\/p>\n![\"Author](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Sean-of-the-South-102.jpg\" "\\"Art\\"")
Birmingham feels like home to \u201cSean of the South\u201d author Sean Dietrich (Jacob Blankenship \/ The Bama Buzz)<\/p>\n