- Mike Connell (musician)
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Michael "Mike" Collier Connell is the leader of The Connells[1] an American band, from Raleigh, North Carolina. They play a guitar-oriented melodic power pop type of rock music with introspective lyrics that reflect themes and history of the American South.
Contents
Origins
Mike and his identical twin, John, were born on March 15, 1959. In 1984, Mike Connell formed the band that bears the surname of himself and his younger brother David, born on May 27, 1961.
History
The Connell brothers moved around in their early years, as their father was in medical school and getting a degree in cancer research at Duke University. Mike was born in Georgia, and David was born in the Raleigh area, while their dad was working under a family practice physican. Later, the family ended up back in Macon, Georgia, where Mike Connell and his twin brother, John, graduated high school from First Presbyterian Day School in 1977. David, two years younger, graduated later from a different school in North Carolina.
In 1978, while attending Mercer University in Macon, GA, Mike Connell met fellow students Clark Eason and Wade Stooksberry (also a 1977 First Presbyterian Day School graduate). According to Stooksberry in an interview on March 6, 2008, in 1979, Eason, Connell, Stooksberry and Sammy Deet (drums) started playing publicly in a band called Clark Eason and the Greaseguns at nightclubs and parties in Macon. Connell and Eason were on guitar, and Eason and Stooksberry shared vocals. They wore suits and skinny ties tucked into their dress shirts, as was the style at the time. They mostly performed 50's music and Beatles songs. After a year, Mike Connell transferred to college in North Carolina. Tripp Crumbley took over Connell's guitar roll in the band. Connell then occasionally made guest appearances with Clark Eason and the Greaseguns while visiting his father in Macon. Clark Eason and the Greaseguns disbanded in 1980. The Connells and Stooksberry continue to keep in touch to this date.
Mike Connell graduated from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill with a bachelors degree in 1981, and received his Juris Doctor (Law) degree also from UNC Chapel Hill in 1985. He was admitted to the North Carolina Bar in 1986. Mike now practices law (as does his twin brother, John) at a firm in North Carolina, specializing in workers' compensation law.
The Connell family moved to Raleigh, where their mother was from, just in time for David to go to Broughton High School for his senior year, and graduate in 1979. Then David went at least one year to Mercer University, where they had family connections.
The Connells
The Connells began to come together as a group in the Spring of 1984. Mike was in his second year of law school and his brother David in his last semester of college, both at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The brothers, David playing bass and Mike guitar, rented a practice space and began working up several of Mike's songs with a friend, John Schultz playing drums. John was a junior at UNC and was from Raleigh, where the Connell brothers' home base now was located. The band tried a few singers that Spring before settling on Doug MacMillan, a childhood friend of Schultz's and a swimmer at East Carolina University.
References
- ^ Ankeny, Jason. "Biography: The Connells". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p3952/biography. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
External links
Categories:- 1959 births
- Living people
- American rock musicians
- Duke University alumni
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