What is the Birmingham sound?
James Taylor: The Birmingham sound… well, that one’s hard. The Birmingham Sunlights have a sound that’s been influenced by the city of Birmingham, so to speak, but it’s more like Jefferson County. Jefferson County has its own style and its own sound. It’s a little bit smoother than ours. Our sound is a mixture of, like, Jefferson County and Memphis, Tennessee, if you will, and some of the older groups. You know, there’s influence of just about all of them incorporated into The Birmingham Sunlights. NEA: You got together, what year was it, as The Sunlights? James Taylor: It was 1978, wasn’t it? Barry Taylor: Yes. NEA: And what was it like when you first started singing together? Barry Taylor: Well, it was powerful but taking into consideration that three of the Sunlights are brothers and we’ve been singin’ together all of our lives or listenin’ to each other sing and we just always felt that we had somethin’ quite special because we had a sound, even at a young age, that we didn’t hear
