Paint Me a Birmingham

"Paint Me a Birmingham" is a song written by Buck Moore and Gary Duffy. It was concurrently released by American country music artists Ken Mellons and Tracy Lawrence, whose versions entered the country charts within one week of each other. Lawrence's was the more successful of the two, reaching #4 in May 2004 and becoming his first Top 5 country hit since "Lessons Learned" in April 2000.^[1]

"Paint Me a Birmingham"
Single by Tracy Lawrence
from the album Strong
Released	October 13, 2003
Genre	Country
Length	3:47
Label	DreamWorks Nashville 14205
Songwriters	Buck Moore Gary Duffy
Producer	James Stroud
Tracy Lawrence singles chronology
"What a Memory" (2002) "Paint Me a Birmingham" (2003) "It's All How You Look at It" (2004)

Content

The narrator/singer describes an encounter with an artist who is painting ocean scenes. The singer asks the painter to paint a picture of the life the man had planned, or imagined, before losing the woman he loved. Specifically, he describes the house, a Birmingham-style house,^[2] and a scene where he and his love are together again. The song is in the key of G-flat major, modulating up to A-flat major at the last chorus, with a vocal range from A♭3 to D♭5.^[3]

Music video

The music video was filmed live in concert.

Chart positions

Ken Mellons

Chart (2003)	Peak position
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[4]	54

Tracy Lawrence

Chart (2003–2004)	Peak position
Canada Country (Radio & Records)[5]	10
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[6]	4
US Billboard Hot 100[7]	42

Year-end charts

Chart (2004)	Position
US Country Songs (Billboard)[8]	28

Parodies

On his 2004 album Bipolar and Proud, country music parodist and comedian Cledus T. Judd parodied the song as "Bake Me a Country Ham". Judd's parody reached #58 on the country music charts.