Common Grounds: Music by Lee Bains

Lee Bains is a songwriter from Birmingham, Alabama, who, with his band The Glory Fires, has released four studio albums of what Rolling Stone calls “Southern gospel punk” since 2012. His most recent album, Old-Time Folks, released by Don Giovanni Records in 2022, explored stories of People’s movements in the Deep South to acclaim from the likes of Rolling Stone, Uncut, Mojo, Washington Post, NPR, Oxford American, and Bitter Southerner. In addition to playing shows around the U.S. and Europe, Lee has published poetry in The New Yorker and lent his music to support striking coal miners, immigrants’ rights groups, abortion funds, and anti-racism organizations. He has performed and spoken at Emory University, the University of Mississippi, Tulane University, and The Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden). He lives in Atlanta, where he works between tours as a handyman.