Tour Birmingham music history at East Lake Village Arts on Saturdays [PHOTOS]

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Art Music
Craig Legg’s Alabama Roots Music Exhibit at East Lake Village Arts (Pat Byington/Bham Now)

Interested in the historyโ€”the rootsโ€”of Alabama and Birmingham music? 

Make your way over to East Lake Village Arts (7611 1st Ave N, Birmingham, AL 35206) to see Craig Leggโ€™s โ€œAlabama Roots Musicโ€ exhibit, which is showing every Saturday until March between 11AM to 4PM.

Craig Leggโ€™s 300+ paintings

Craig Legg
Craig Legg’s Alabama Roots Music Exhibit at East Lake Village Arts (Pat Byington/Bham Now)

On each one of his 300+ paintings, Legg tells a story of music in Birmingham and the state. It may be about Hank Williamsโ€™ time here in the Magic City or a contemporary musician, like the beloved Herb Trotman. 

โ€œIt’s Alabama roots music. It’s the roots music that makes up rock and roll, old time music, blues, jazz, country and western, gospel. It gets real nuanced. So there’s sub categories within. There’s rhythm and blues, hillbilly music and all that stuff that goes into feeding rock’n’roll.โ€

~ Craig Legg
East Lake
Craig Legg’s Alabama Roots Music Exhibit at East Lake Village Arts (Pat Byington/Bham Now)

Favorite Alabama musicians

Some of Craigโ€™s favorite paintings include Daddy Stovepipe, Clarence Pinetop Smith and Ike Zimmerman, the guy who taught Robert Johnson how to play guitar.

โ€œIt’s a great story. It’s not spectacular, like we’re not Austin or Memphis or Muscle Shoals or like that. But we can be darn proud of who has come out of here and just about everybody back in the day had to leave here to make it somewhere else. So those are a lot of people on the wall.โ€

~ Craig Legg

A MUST SEE exhibit โ€” it is FREE and open to the public. If you are lucky, Craig Legg will be there to answer your questions. 

Pat Byington
Pat Byington

Longtime conservationist. Former Executive Director at the Alabama Environmental Council and Wild South. Publisher of the Bama Environmental News for more than 18 years. Career highlights include playing an active role in the creation of Alabama's Forever Wild program, Little River Canyon National Preserve, Dugger Mountain Wilderness, preservation of special places throughout the East through the Wilderness Society and the strengthening (making more stringent) the state of Alabama's cancer risk and mercury standards.

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