Even though “Birmingham painting” sounds like a beautiful piece of art or a style of painting, it has nothing to do with the visual arts. This phrase is about the song “Paint Me a Birmingham,” which was released in 2004 by two different country music artists. The line “paint me a Birmingham” tells a touching story about a man’s love that will never end.
The Story Behind the Song
When you listen to “Paint Me a Birmingham,” you’ll hear a story that sounds like one of the author’s own experiences. Gary Duffy lost someone he loved when she died in a car accident when he was a teen. As he walked along the beach, he saw a painter painting the view. Duffy pulled out an old picture of him and his girlfriend and asked the painter to make a bigger version of it so he could remember their young love.
The painting that came out of it showed Duffy and his girlfriend sitting on his porch. Country Daily said that his family lived in a Birmingham-style house.
Why the Song Means What It Does
As people listen to the song, the narrator tells them a story that starts with him walking on the beach. He meets an artist and watches as the artist gives life to the waves. The narrator asks the artist if he only paints ocean scenes. The artist tells him that for $20, he can paint anything he wants. “Could you paint me a picture of Birmingham?” asks the narrator.
This is the first time a painting by Birmingham is mentioned in the song. The narrator then tells the artist what he had planned to do with his love and asks the artist to “paint me back into her arms again.” The song is about getting back together with a lost love, if only for a short time.
What is a painting from Birmingham?
It would be easy to think that a Birmingham is a style of painting or a painting of the Alabama city with the same name. It is just what the singer calls the painting he wants in the song. He’s already seen how good the artist is at making the ocean look real.
He wants his dream of a small house with a porch that goes all the way around and a swing in the front yard for his lost love to come true. Considering Duffy’s history, “painting a Birmingham” probably refers to the Birmingham-style home in his painting, which is what he wanted to live in with his love.
What the song talks about
In “Paint Me a Birmingham,” the narrator tells the artist what he wants to do and describes the picture he has in his mind. He sees a small house on the edge of town that has a large porch that goes all the way around it. He wants his love to be sitting on a swing in the front yard, wearing a cotton dress, when it’s warm in the spring. The words show how the artist knows the truth: “He looked at me with eyes that knew.”
Who recorded the song and when
In 2004, two different artists made their own recordings of “Paint Me a Birmingham.” It was on Ken Mellons’ Sweet album, and the song got to number 54 on the charts. Wide Open Country said that fans liked how Mellons’ version showed how he felt about the song. The song was one of the tracks on Tracy Lawrence’s 2004 album Strong. It got to number 4 on the Hot Country Songs chart on Billboard.
Newer Versions and Parodies
Kane Brown sang the song in 2016. The version was shorter than the original, and both Brown and another performer played guitar. You can find it on YouTube. Cledus T. Judd made a parody of the song “Bake Me a Country Ham” in 2005, and it got to #58 on the Billboard charts.
