North Little Rock-based Bourbon & Boots, the online retailer featuring Southern artisan merchandise, has entered into an agreement to purchase Tales From The South, a radio show and media company featuring Southern storytelling. Terms of the private transaction were not disclosed.
Founded by Paula Martin Morell, Tales from the South showcases writers reading their own true stories during a live weekly show. The tagline of the production has been “True Stories Told by the Southerners Who Lived Them.” The show is distributed through national public radio, satellite and Internet streaming radio, podcasts, web stream, and RSS Feeds. Martin Morell will remain with Bourbon & Boots as executive producer of the digitally distributed content.
“I couldn’t be more pleased that my labor of love will be transitioned into a company with big plans for the export of the Southern lifestyle,” said Martin Morell. “I am excited to see Tales from the South expanded across all the major Southern Cities and the opportunity for Southern Writers to have a broader platform to share their unique and personal stories.”
According to a press release concerning the announcement, Bourbon and Boots said it will move production of the radio show from Central Arkansas to traveling locations throughout historical and interesting cities across all of the southern states in its footprint.
“The vision for Bourbon & Boots since our acquisition 5 months ago was to transform it from a small peer-to-peer artisan market place to a national lifestyle brand, capitalizing on the international infatuation of the southern lifestyle,” said Rod Ford, founder and managing partner of XCelerate Capital and chairman of Bourbon & Boots.
“Our formula is an organic offering of southern inspired content and authentic southern commerce. We’ve spent the past 5 months building world class branded southern merchandise and a scalable commerce business, reaching an audience of over 18 million per month. The addition of truly authentic curated southern lifestyle content, originating from the storytellers from the most historic cities from the south is the next piece of our puzzle towards creating an internationally significant lifestyle brand,” he said.
