Birmingham Sunlights

The Birmingham Sunlights, a five-man, four-part harmony a cappella gospel group, was formed in 1978 by Music Director James Alex Taylor and his brothers Steve and Barry. The brothers, plumbers and pipefitters by trade, grew up in a musical family and sang in the a cappella tradition of the Church of Christ, a denomination in which no instruments are used for performing church music. The Birmingham Sunlights draw on the rich heritage of quartet-style singing of Alabama's Jefferson County region, often characterized by a fifth member doubling the tenor voice. In addition to brother James, Barry, and Steve Taylor, the group originally included Reginald Speights and Wayne Williams; by 2009 Speights had been replaced by Bill Graves. Performing as cultural ambassadors under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State, they have toured Canada, Italy, France, five African countries, the Caribbean, and Australia. In 2009 the group was a recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the highest honor in the folk and traditional arts awarded in the United States.