Ken Mellons Speaks on 'Birmingham:
Ken was kind enough to get on the phone with me to discuss his single,and the competition with Tracy:
Mike: How did the song "Paint Me A Birmingham" come to your attention, and what made you decide to record it?
Ken: Well, I first heard "Paint Me A Birmingham" about a year, year and a half ago. Buck Moore, one of the co-writers of the song had played it for John (my publicist) who played it for me, and I told him I thought it was a hit. But at the time I wasn't cutting any music, so we just kind of forgot about the song. Apparently Tracy Lawrence had recorded it for Warner Brothers for an album he was going to do for them. But they dropped him from the label and the song was kind of just laying there. So, Buck Moore pitched us the song again back in July when we were in the studio cutting our new album, so that's when we recorded the song and how it came about. I guess, since we had put the record out Dreamworks had signed Tracy and bought the album he had done for Warner Brothers and decided to release the song too.
Mike: How did Vince Gill get involved with the project?
Ken: I had played in several softball and basketball tournaments with Vince down through the years, and one year we sang together and I thought it sounded pretty good. So in another tournament two or three years ago I asked him 'Would you be interested in coming in and singing with me on one of my records?' He said ' I would love to Ken, because you sing right.' Well, that made me feel good and after we cut the album there were two songs that I thought Vince would sound great on. One of them was "Paint Me A Birmingham." and the other one is a song on the album called "Love is a Bridge" which Rebecca Lynn Howard and Vince came in and sang with me on, and that's kind of how he got involved with the project, and when he was in the studio he heard 'Birmingham' and thought it was a really great song, so he did that one with me too.
Mike: You sing the song with such passion, which begs the question: What are you thinking when you sing that final broken line?
Ken: Well, I just went through a divorce almost a year ago, and I have a three-year-old little boy, and we had been married for seven years, so that song really makes me reflect back on going through the pain of the divorce. This whole album is full of songs that I can really relate to, because as anyone knows who's been through a divorce (especially with children involved) it's pretty rough. So there's definitely more emotion in the vocals, because it's been a more emotional time for me than I had known in the past.
When you're in there, and your singing those lyrics - You're feeling it! I guess that's the best way for me to describe my performance not only on "Paint Me A Birmingham," but also the other ballads on the album.
Mike: Sounds like it should make for a great album then!
Ken: Thank you. We feel like this is the best work I've ever done. We've been making records since 1990, and we're all really excited about this album, and think it's full of great songs. I had the pleasure of co-writing many of the songs, and got to co-produce the album, so I'm really proud of this album.
Mike: The song tells a very vivid story. Is there going to be a video for it?
Ken: We'd love to do a video for the song. I think we're at the point now that since there are two versions of the song out, we'll probably wait and see where it goes on the charts and at radio, and if it starts showing signs of going high on the charts, then sure, I guess we would do a video for it.
