“We’re gonna go to a Cracker Barrel on this trip whether you like it or not!”

Some stats on the tour thus far (all figures are approximate)…

890 – Number of miles Geoff has driven Uncle P

12 – Number of guitar strings Nick has broken, and number of shirts he has sweat through

44 – Number of hugs Josh has given

23 – Number of times Jessie has offered everyone “girly” deodorant

1 – Number of times I have smashed Aron’s fingers in Uncle P’s door

37 – Number of songs Adam has turned into accordion ballads

19 – Number of female hearts Jeremy has fluttered

Saturday found us in Fairhope, Alabama.  Star & Micey played an afternoon set at The Windmill Market, an open-air artisan and farmer’s market, and then made their way to the Fly Creek Café.  They lit up the place with a firecracker performance, with an especially noteworthy appearance by The White Chocolate Drops, which is the Aron Shiers nickname-inspired moniker for the round robin soul revue that has begun to take place after the initial Star & Micey show. It’s always a crowd-pleaser.

After leaving our mark on Alabama, we made it over to the Sunshine State on Sunday. In Pensacola, Florida the band rocked the patio of the Mellow Mushroom.  A few of Jeremy’s boyhood compadres that live in the area came to support him, and one of them, Marty, even sang a few songs with him.  Witnessing the reunion was great.  After the show, we made the trek back to Steve’s place for some general tomfoolery.  Some outstanding pool games were invented.

Today, Monday, is our day off, so we’re all enjoying some much needed and deserved R & R. Right now, Josh, Geoff, Nick, and Aron are lounging in and around the pool, and Jessie just went to join them, while Adam is off fishing with Jeep, Steve’s firstborn son.  Tonight we’ve got plans (and a permit) for a super swirly beach bonfire.

That’s all for now. We’ll be in Ocean Springs Tuesday and Wednesday, and then off to Louisiana.  A quick note on the live streaming: we know the audio has been less than desirable, but by tomorrow’s show, we’ll have a MUCH better microphone so tune in to actually hear us!

Until then.

-Connor

"I was born for this."

First things first. Let’s get acquainted.

You know Josh, Geoff, and Nick…but do you know…

…Jeremy Stanfill
– Jack-of-all-trades, ultra-cool opening act and tour drummer for Star & Micey.

…Jessie Munson
– The tour’s only member without a Y chromosome – she’s the cute, unassuming violin player in the background.

…Adam Woodard
– Wordly, energy-filled accordion virtuoso that’s gotta be dragged out of the venue because he’s playing “Wheels on the Bus” or “The Final Countdown” to an enamored bunch.

…Aron Shiers
– Calm, cool, and collected tech-genie and talented songwriter. He’s in charge of changing Nick’s guitar strings after every other song.

Alright, so Day One of this Gulf Coast extravaganza was a rousing success. The van ride in Uncle P proved hot, entertaining, enriching, raunchy, and anecdote-filled. Similar was the case in Bay St. Louis and the Mockingbird Café. The folks here treat us as family. I stepped out of Uncle P, walked in to the Mockingbird, and was greeted by a slew of people that made me feel as if I had been a regular there all my life. The guys put on a fantastic show to an exceptional crowd on a beautiful outdoor space. Everyone here is so carefree, hospitable, selfless, and genuine – one in particular: Steve Dewitt. I cannot sing this man’s praises enough. He has been kind enough to provide a homebase for us. By that, I mean comfortable beds for everyone, hot showers, cold drinks, outstanding food (including fresh, hand-rolled sushi and delicious made-to-order omelets), a glorious swimming pool (complete with waterslide), and a wonderful, warm, homelike atmosphere. A thousand thanks to him and his family.

Today, we’re going to see what kind of swirltastic hijinks we can conjure up in Fairhope, Alabama. As I type, we’re en route to the Windmill Market for a day show, and tonight we’re headed to the Fly Creek Café! Check out the live streams of both!

More soon.

-Connor

Introducing Connor's Star & Micey Gulf Coast Tour Blog & Live Streaming via USTREAM!

Hey Star & Micey fans! Connor here.

As you may or may not know, the band is currently getting geared up for their string of dates on the Gulf Coast.  Tonight, they’re having a free, donation-driven kick-off show at Café Eclectic at 7pm, so be sure to stop by!  As their semi-glorified roadie/intern, I’ll be joining them on tour and lending them a hand with a few things of which you might want to be aware. They are as follows:

-This blog! Check back here frequently for updates from the road.  These could include photos, videos, or just my general musings on the Baressi crew.

-Live Concert Streaming! At every venue that has internet access, I will be streaming each Star & Micey show LIVE. So be sure to tune in at this link – http://www.ustream.tv/user/starandmiceylive – to watch the guys live! Specific times and broadcast links can be found here, on facebook, and on twitter.

It’s just like you’ll be in that crammed van with us, right? Until tonight, and the next post, swirl on…

-Connor

New Prospects on the Horizon…

PARTAY!!!!!!!!!! News from the underground base of Star & Micey. First off, we would like to thank everyone in our beautiful city for supporting us and being a part of our growth. Our live shows have gotten stronger, better, and much more fun thanks to all of you. We hope that it continues to grow, and we hope to bring it on the road soon. We are gearing up for our summer/fall tours as we speak. We are trying to put together something different and new for these upcoming dates, in town and abroad. We will have our cohort/partner in crime/best friend, Jeremy Stanfill coming on the road with us in July, and he will be opening our shows, and playing drums with us as well. We also hope to have some other special guests coming along for the ride as well. We are also gearing up to go back into the studio to record some more songs, so we can release them as singles(hopefully on 45s). We also have a European tour we will start getting in the works for next spring/summer. Please keep checking back with us frequently for new tour dates, local shows, blogs, and new music/videos. We will also have new shirts+stickers coming soon so be sure to get them while we have them. Until next time, swirl on…

-Geoff

Free Download of Cold Hard Truth (Live with Jeremy Stanfill) and Hotel Memphis Video performance (click here to view)

Here’s a free download of a new song called Cold Hard Truth that was written on the road with Jeremy Stanfill and recorded live to tape at Nick Redmond’s house.  And if you missed the video, check it out below.  It was done by The Commercial Appeal for their Hotel Memphis series.

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer.swf/track=135739358/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/

A Week Of Recording In Strange and Beautiful Places, Followed By Many Stories…

Josh at Fort Morgan

Well we just got back a few days ago from a pilgrimage we set out on to record new songs/demos. With us was our producer/engineer Curry Weber (AKA Tommy Baressi), and our longtime friend and videographer Ryan Munson, and a new friend Kelly Tippett, who was also our film and camera guy the entire time. Our first stop was the Princess Theatre in Columbus, MS, where we were to play the very same night. This grand old theatre had a huge room with a big sound. We recorded everything to an old Tascam 388 8 track tape machine, AKA Leroy Jones. We recorded in Bathrooms and n other cooky places at this theatre. We would like to thank Brian, the owner of the Princess for giving us the opportunity for recording and playing in a real cool place. After staying in Ryan and Katherine’s awesome big new house, meeting a real southern bell of a woman, and having awkward moments at the YMCA, it was time to make our descent down to Gulf Shores. Uncle P was pulling 6 people, along with a trailer full of everything we owned as we plowed through the remnants of the horrible rain storm that plagued most of our home state. We made it to the Gulf House, a utopian getaway that the Weber family owns on the lagoon/ocean. It was like an oasis to be at this great place. The next few days were filled with recording more songs with all the doors and windows open, jumping off the pier into the lagoon, relaxing in hammocks, making crazy videos, and recoding every minute of the experience on film. Luckily where we were at the oil spill in the gulf never made it to us thank god. But the best part of the trip was to come when we did some on site recording in Fort Morgan, an old Civil War fort and WW2 fort. We recorded in the same place where the video of Josh Cosby and Jeremy Stanfill sang Jeremy’s song “Seasons.” What was to ensue was an experience one could only get if they were actually there. Infinite reverb and a scary, yet a humbling and amazing vibe that I can’t describe. We ran an extension cord from a DC to Ac power inverter that was hooked up to Uncle P, who was parked 150-200 feet away. All of it was captured on film. Well it was starting to become apparent that we would have to leave this dream world and come back to reality, so as a final salute to our stay in Gulf Shores, everyone swam out to the sandbar and enjoyed the beach sun. Even Kelly, our camera guy, swam out there with a camera to get pictures! Anything for the shot. As we made our ascent back up to Columbus/Memphis, we had a blow out on the side of Hwy 45. Unfortunately it was our spare, since our other tire went flat a few days prior. As we were stranded, we made more crazy videos and jumped around like mad men until Triple A picked up the van. Unfortunately we had to leave the trailer behind, due to extra money and only an X amount of people could go with the tow truck. Needless to say, even after having to abandon the trailer on the side of the highway overnight and going through even more madness, we got the tire fixed, went and got our trailer back, and bee lined it back home. So there you have it. There will be video up soon hopefully. We have recorded I think over 15 hours of video footage, so there will be plenty to see believe me. Thanks for reading this long rant. It was an incredible experience, and we wish we could do what we did, and play shows during the same time, ALL THE TIME! So keep checking out the website, so we can keep you updated on everything we do. Thanks again and until next time, swirl on…

Uncle P, Take Me To The Bay…

This past weekend was one for the record books. We hopped in Uncle P, our 89 GMC Rally Van, and headed to the Gulf Coast friday with Jeremy Stanfill. What was to ensue was a weekend we would never forget. On the drive down, everyone participated in the creation of a new song that took the Bay by storm. As we made our way into our home away from home, Bay Saint Louis, MS, we were greeted with open arms from our dear friends Brian and Miku. Eating the famed Mockingburgers while drinking Lazy Magnolia beer as the rain is falling doesn’t get any better. The Mockingbird Cafe was full of great people friday night as us and jeremy played our hearts out. It was great seeing Miku, Brian, ET, Melody, Bones, Alicein, and all of our other great friends down in the bay. Our great friend Miku made sure everything was taken care of for us down there and for that we love her dearly. Saturday, oh Saturday. Our next show was postponed until Sunday, so we spent the day/night with our great friend Steve DeWitt and his lovely wife Erin at their incredible home in Pass Christian. Upon our arrival, a contingency of dogs came to greet us, along with great company. Homemade sushi, “Gumbalaya”, all kinds of shrimp, and a crawfish boil. Steve’s hospitality didn’t stop there. Great people, stories, hiking trails, drinks, you name it. They really took care of us. Now I won’t go into too much detail, but I will say that Nick, Jeremy, and some others took an old VW camper bus to Munich, Germany, while we were there, I woke up missing my jeans not having a clue where they went, lots of dancing and swimming contests, and waking up in places you don’t remember going to. If you want to know the rest of the story, find us and ask us. Sunday consisted of playing the 2nd Annual Spring Fling at the Coast Episcopal School in Long Beach. We played out in the beautiful weather while tons of kids threw plastic eggs filled with confetti at us. If it wasn’t for sunglasses, I would have a nice shiner or two. Thanks to Aubrey and Horton for being there and making fun of certain situations to keep us on our toes. Well afterwards we recharged at Steve’s with a swim and good company and made our way back up to Memphis. We all had a blast and made a huge impact on a lot of people down there. Jeremy Stanfill, Josh, Nick, and I went all out and I am proud of all of us. We took the Bay by storm. There are pictures and video coming soon. Check out the van that the guys took to Munich though. It’s pretty rad. Well we enjoyed ourselves and made new fans down there. We plan on coming back the end of next month so get ready Bay Saint Louis! Until then, stay with us cause we have new recorded material coming soon along with more tour dates. Until then, swirl on everybody! -Geoff

I Take The Devil…

Hello all you wonderful people out there. Just wanted to give you a heads up on what’s been going on around the Star & Micey camp. Well we took SXSW by storm, and are now gearing up for other endeavors. We have been in the studio with John Hampton and Curry Weber recording new songs. It has been going very well. We should hopefully have something by the summer time for you all. We are still opening for Big Star at The Levitt Shell in Memphis, which is a great honor. We also would like to thank the Thacker Mountain Radio Show for having us a few weeks ago, and the Memphis Grammy Association. We head to Nashville to play the Bluebird Cafe soon which also will be amazing. We are also heading to the Gulf for a week to record demos with Curry Weber and bring our friend and videographer Ryan Munson to do some filming for us. We will be back out on the road this summer in our new digs, Uncle P, a 1989 V8 monster that should stay away from school zones. We had to unfortunately retire Velma. She had a good run. We would like thank all of you for sticking with us, and we love all of you. Please come and see us when and if you can. Until then, swirl on…

Here we are a swirlin…

Hello all good people. We have news from the Star & Micey camp. We have been staying a little under the radar lately to get our bearings straight and so forth. A little recap if you will- we started off the year on tour with Jeremy Stanfill, our close friend and fellow Memphian, and took the gulf coast by storm. We laughed, got into trouble, and made friends for life. Recently we unfortunately had to cancel our February tour due to financial and vehicle problems. We are really sorry to all of you who were looking forward to seeing us. At the moment we have been gearing up for SXSW and are really excited about it. We plan to play our hearts out to whoever will listen. We are also opening for Big Star at the Levitt Shell in Memphis! This is an incredible opportunity for us and an absolute honor. We are also gearing up to get back into the studio soon. We will have more music, pictures, and videos soon. We will also start working on the next tour as well. Thanks to everyone who has been hanging on and waiting. We love all of you and keep swirlin….

"Seasons" by Jeremy Stanfill w/ Josh Cosby VIDEO