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The Sun Ra Arkestra performing in London in 2010. Photo by Andy Newcombe. .

Top 10 Iconic Singers from Birmingham, Alabama

The State of Alabama has a rich history in country, bluegrass and old-time music. The influence of Mississippi Delta blues to the west and the ancient sounds of Appalachian Folk Music to the north blend with native Jazz sounds to form a brand of country music with a unique Alabama flavor.

Alabama has played a central role in the development of both blues and country music. Appalachian folk music, fiddle music, gospel, spirituals, and polka have had local scenes in parts of Alabama. Here are the Top 10 Iconic Singers from Birmingham, Alabama.

1. Wayne Perkins

Wayne is an American rock and R&B guitarist, singer, songwriter and session musician. According to a 2017 feature about him on the Alabama website AL.com, he is “arguably the greatest guitarist Alabama ever produced.”

Perkins may be best known for his work with The Rolling Stones, who almost brought him into the band. However, he has contributed his skills to a long roster of high-profile artists, including Bob Marley and Joni Mitchell.

2. Nat King Cole

Nat King Cole, Paramount Theater, New York. Photo by William P. Gottlieb. .

Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, songwriter, and actor. Cole’s music career began after he dropped out of school at the age of 15, and continued for the remainder of his life.

He found great popular success and recorded over 100 songs that became hits on the pop charts. His trio was the model for small jazz ensembles that followed. Cole learned to play the organ from his mother, Perlina Coles, the church organist.

His first performance was “Yes! We Have No Bananas” at the age of four. He began formal lessons at 12, learning jazz, gospel, and classical music on piano. He owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres.

3. Emmylou Harris

Emmylou Harris is American singer and songwriter who ranged effortlessly among folk, pop, rock, and country-and-western styles, added old-time sensibilities to popular music and sophistication to country music, and established herself as 鈥渢he queen of country rock.鈥�

After being discovered while singing folk songs in a club, Harris added her satin-smooth country-inflected soprano to former Flying Burrito Brother Gram Parsons鈥檚 two solo albums (1973鈥�74), landmarks in country rock. After Parsons鈥檚 death, Harris carried his vision forward.

4. Early James

James grew up in Troy, Alabama, where he realized he could seek a career as a musician at age six. This happened after he watched a local musician play covers at a family function. He began playing the guitar at age sixteen when he was gifted one for Christmas.

His friend was the frontman for the local band Fire Mountain and told him that he could begin opening for them if he started performing original songs. At the age of 21, James moved to Birmingham, Alabama to pursue music professionally.

It was here that he met Adrian Marmolejo and formed their band, Early James and the Latest. James began to cultivate a sound containing elements of blues, folk, rock, and classic country. Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys discovered James while the songwriter was working in Birmingham. Auerbach liked James’ unique style and asked to produce his debut album.

5. Odetta

Two legends of the folk music world, Odetta and Liam Clancy enchant at Junction Festival in Clonmel. Photo by Junction Festival. .

Odetta Holmes commonly known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, lyricist, and a civil and human rights activist. She was often referred to as “The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement”. Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals.

An important figure in the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, she influenced many of the key figures of the folk-revival of that time, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mavis Staples, and Janis Joplin.

In 2011 Time magazine included her recording of “Take This Hammer” on its list of the 100 Greatest Popular Songs, stating that “Rosa Parks was her No. 1 fan, and Martin Luther King Jr. called her the queen of American folk music.”

6. Erskine Hawkins

Erskine Ramsay Hawkins was an American trumpeter and big band leader from Birmingham, Alabama, dubbed “The 20th Century Gabriel”. He is best remembered for composing the jazz standard “Tuxedo Junction” (1939) with saxophonist and arranger Bill Johnson.

The song became a hit during World War II, rising to No. 7 nationally (version by the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra) and to No. 1 nationally (version by the Glenn Miller Orchestra). Vocalists who were featured with Erskine’s orchestra include Ida James, Delores Brown, and Della Reese. Hawkins was named after Alabama industrialist Erskine Ramsay.

7. Patterson Hood

Photo by Joe Mabel. .

Patterson David Hood is an American singer-songwriter and co-founder of the band Drive-By Truckers. While attending college in 1985, he formed the band Adam’s House Cat with his friend Mike Cooley, and the group won Musician Magazine’s Best Unsigned Band competition three years later.

After Adam’s House Cat split up, Hood and Cooley continued to work together. They eventually formed the Drive-By Truckers in 1996, following a mutual relocation to Athens, Georgia. Drawing equal influence from country and rock & roll, the Drive-By Truckers released their first album, Gangstabilly, in 1998.

8. Sun Ra

Le Sony’r Ra better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, “cosmic” philosophy, prolific output, and theatrical performances. For much of his career, Ra led “The Arkestra”, an ensemble with an ever-changing name and flexible line-up.

Claiming to be an alien from Saturn on a mission to preach peace, he developed a mythical persona and an idiosyncratic credo that made him a pioneer of Afrofuturism. Throughout his life he denied ties to his prior identity saying, “Any name that I use other than Ra is a pseudonym.”

9. Jimmy Hall

Photo by Lisa Gansky. .

Hall was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and reared in Mobile, Alabama. He first gained notoriety in 1970 as the lead vocalist, saxophonist and harmonica player for Wet Willie. The band鈥檚 R&B-infused rock and roll style propelled its biggest hit, 鈥淜eep On Smilin鈥�,鈥� into the Top 10 on the Billboard singles chart in 1974.

Wet Willie released five albums with Capricorn Records before moving to the Epic label in 1977, where its singles 鈥淪treet Corner Serenade鈥� and 鈥淲eekend鈥� charted in the Top. In 1985, he sang lead vocals on Jeff Beck’s album Flash and was nominated for a Grammy Award for the performance.

10. Chuck Leavell

Charles Alfred Leavell is an American musician. A member of the Allman Brothers Band throughout their commercial zenith in the 1970s, he subsequently became a founding member of the band Sea Level.

He has served as the principal touring keyboardist and musical director of The Rolling Stones since 1982. As a session musician, Leavell has performed on every Rolling Stones studio album released since 1983 with the exception of Bridges to Babylon (1997). He has also toured and recorded with Eric Clapton, George Harrison, David Gilmour, Gov’t Mule and John Mayer.