Star & Micey

According to Josh Cosby, frontman of Star & Micey, Star was (or perhaps still is) a homeless man in Memphis who sang a song to Cosby about his (Star's) fiancée, Micey. The Memphis-based group -- made up of Cosby, Nick Redmond, Geoff Smith, Jessie Munson, Jeremy Stanfill, and Adam Woodard -- makes winsome, feel-good, old-timey-tinged pop tunes that owe as much to sea shanty-spouting indie acts like the Decemberists as they do to straight-up bluegrass bands like Freakwater and Nickel Creek. Star & Micey have their roots in the friendship between bassist Smith and frontman Cosby. The two Nashville, Tennessee-based musicians became good friends when they were barely teenagers, and began working on songs together when they were in high school. Star & Micey were born when Cosby passed a demo CD-R along to Redmond, a sound engineer at Nashville's Ardent Records. The demo led to Redmond joining the fledgling band, and, to top it off, it led to a record deal at Ardent. Their self-titled debut full-length was released in the fall of 2009, and the trio followed it up with a wide-ranging tour of the United States. Upon their return to Memphis, Star & Micey brought three new members into the fold: drummer Stanfill, accordionist Woodard, and violinist Munson. The band released two singles, "12 Days of Memphis" and "Crazy Jean," in 2010; the following year saw the release of their third single, "Back to the Night." Two years later, Star & Micey released the EP I Can't Wait on Ardent. Early in 2016, the group returned with the full-length Get 'Em Next Time, which appeared on Single Lock Records. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine