Sean of the South

Expand

Sean Dietrich is an author, musician, and stand-up storyteller. He began playing piano in church at age nine. By age fteen, he was playing with adult bands in establishments his foot-washing Baptist mother would have preferred he avoided. A multi-instrumentalist, he started playing mandolin when he was seven, guitar at age eight, and threw away all hopes of a musical career by taking up accordion at age nine.

Having lived through enough heartache, joy, embarrassment, love, and renewal for several lifetimes, Sean condenses our human failures and triumphs into stories that make the Southern heart resound.

His wildly popular blog and musical podcast, “Sean of the South,” is suited for anyone with red clay on their car and sand in their shoes. His work has appeared in Newsweek, Reader’s Digest, Southern Living, Garden and Gun, and he has authored fteen books.

His one-man shows have earned him a cult-like following in the southeastern United States and among closeted accordion players worldwide. Sean is a master storyteller in the tradition of Will Rogers, Mark Twain, and Lewis Grizzard. His brutally candid, laugh-out-loud, and sometimes painful tales remind us that we are not alone in our human experience.

Taking lessons learned from his hardscrabble childhood, this middle-school dropout and former construction worker/ice-cream dipper has earned a following for his painfully honest writing, songs, humorous observations, and blue-collar love of life. His tales of covered-dish suppers, camp meeting sing-alongs, funerals gone awry, and hounds that have crossed the Rainbow Bridge have audiences drying their eyes one minute and slapping their knees the next.

His latest book, “You Are My Sunshine”, published by Zondervan Books, is a true tale of a how two novice cyclists, a husband-and-wife duo who share the last name of “Dietrich”, tackled a 350-mile trail and not only lived to tell about it, but emerged more resilient and in love than ever.

Sean Dietrich, and his wife, Jamie, along with dogs Thelma Lou, Otis Campbell, and Marigold the Blind Wonder Dog are new residents of Birmingham, Alabama, but cannot shake the Florida panhandle out of their system.