Local Music Spotlight: Joel Madison Blount | Arts & Culture

Love. One of the most complex emotions in the human experience. We hear an assortment of takes on the subject when it comes to music. For his latest EP, I Believe in Love, Birmingham singer/songwriter Joel Madison Blount presents five different narratives on the idea of love. 

When asked to give more in-depth interpretations of the songs themselves, Blount provided the following responses: 

Track #1. “ ‘Tell Me No Lies’ is about love betrayal.”

Track #2. “ ‘Belle’ is about a girl that refuses to give in to adversity in the pursuit of what she loves most in life.”

Track #3. “I Believe in Love”: “I’ll just say that it was partly inspired by a letter written by Martin Luther King in a Birmingham jail in which he advocates for us to become extremists for love.  In our world today there is such a negative connotation associated with the word 'extremist,' but just think for a moment how we could all influence the world for good by seeking to love each other more than ourselves.”  

Track #4. “ ‘Lonesome Heart’ is for the wanderer – the person desperately trying to find the one other person that will love them or the thing that they can love in an attempt to fill the hollowness they feel.”

Track #5. “ ‘How Great Is Your Love’ is both declarative and interrogatory – thoughts about God and how hard it is to let go of temporary things in order to experience life more fully.”

Blount presents the songs with an enticing mix of blues, rock, and pop with a vocal delivery that channels Eddie Vedder and Bono. He cites a variety of influences, including both classic (U2, James Taylor, and Led Zeppelin) and modern (Mark Kozelek, Amos Lee, and Ray Lamontagne). He got plugged into the Birmingham music scene through Grey Haven Community and has since played at a variety of venues including Workplay, Bottletree, and The Dark Room. For the remainder of 2011, he will be recording and producing local talent as well as working on a new EP in the fall. 

Blount will be playing at the 2nd Birmingham Arts And Music (BAAM) Festival on Friday, August 12. He will be performing at Rogue Tavern starting at 7:30 p.m.

To connect with Blount online, visit www.joelmadisonblount.com or follow him on Twitter.