Central Park Performance June 2013

We’re excited to bring the show back to New York for a FREE performance in Central Park on Sunday, June 30th! Guest vocalists for the NYC show will include Sharon Van Etten, Richard Lloyd, Kurt Vile, Marshall Crenshaw, Pete Yorn, Reeve Carney (Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark), Jonathan Donahue (Mercury Rev), The Uptown Horns and Becky Stark (Lavender Diamond). The core band will once again feature Mike Mills (R.E.M.) on bass; Mitch Easter (Lets Active) and Chris Stamey (The dB’s) and Ken Stringfellow (The Posies, Big Star) on guitar…

Big Star Third in Chicago!

We will be performing at the Vic Theater in Chicago on June 28, 2013! Guest vocalist and musicians for the NYC show will include Ken Vandermark, Sally Timms (The Mekons), Ed Roeser (Urge Overkill), Tim Rutili (Califone), Gary Louris (the Jayhawks), and Josh Caterer (Smoking Popes) backed by our core band of Mike Mills (R.E.M.) on bass; Mitch Easter (Lets Active) and Chris Stamey (The dB’s) and Ken Stringfellow (The Posies, Big Star), Jody Stephens (Big Star)…

Chris Stamey Interview with Uncut

Chris Stamey recently talked to David Cavanagh at Uncut Magazine in the UK about Alex Chilton. Click through for 20 questions!

Big Star Third is going to London!

On May 28, we’re taking the show to the Barbican Theater in London! In addition to the core band, our guest singers will be: Jon Auer, Brendan Benson, Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub), Skylar Gudasz, Brett Harris, Django Haskins, Robyn Hitchcock, Ira Kaplan (Yo La Tengo), Sondre Lerche, Ken Stringfellow, Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip), Sharon Van Etten. They will be joining the usual suspects: Charles Cleaver, Mitch Easter, Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Chris Stamey, Jody Stephens, AND Ray Davies plans on attending the performance! Tickets can be found at the Barbican website. Click through for more info!

Big Star at South By Southwest

Last week, we brought “Sister Lovers” to the Paramount Theater in Austin for SXSW. It was a grand night that also featured a showing of the new Big Star documentary Nothing Can Hurt Me: The Big Star Story. The players included Jody Stephens, Mike Mills, Mitch Easter, Chris Stamey, Charles Cleaver, Jeff Crawford, Django Haskins, Matt McMichaels, and Brett Harris as well as local Austin artists the Tosca String Quartet. Some of the vocalists who helped pay tribute were Jon

Austin, TX Show March 15th

There’s been too much going on to keep up with the blog for a bit! So here’s the scoop: We’re performing Sister Lovers in Austin on the evening of March 15, as part of the SXSW Music Festival. It’s going to be at the beautiful Paramount Theater and will be preceded by the world premiere of “Nothing Can Hurt Me: The Big Star Story,” a full-length documentary about the band. See the trailer below and visit the film’s website. Check

New York City Show, March 26

In Brief: The next performance of Big Star’s Third/Sister Lovers will be on Saturday, March 26, at Mason Hall in NYC. The NC core group from the Cat’s Cradle show, complete with the rhythm section of Jody Stephens, Mike Mills, Will Rigby, Charles Cleaver, Chris Stamey and Mitch Easter and the expanded, 20-piece Lost in the Trees Orchestra, will be joined by Tift Merritt, Matthew Sweet, Norman Blake (Teenage Fan Club), Ira Kaplan (Yo La Tengo), The Rosebuds, Fan Modine

Introductory Remarks

[Chris Stamey, remarks before a Feb. 15 interview with John Fry and Jody Stephens at Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill] I grew up in the sixties, when amateur, or “ham,” radio was popular, along with its subset of CB, or “citizen band, radio, and I got caught up in the fad. Most of the time we’d talk to local fellow radio buffs, but late at night all alone we could spin the dials and listen in on otherworldly conversations, perhaps from

Preparing for Playmakers on February 15

I usually enjoy rehearsals more than actual concerts in point of fact, but it would be hard to enjoy anything more than we did the two nights at Cat’s Cradle in Dec. last. However, there was a quality to our rehearsals with just the “orchestration” (strings, winds, brass, piano, acoustic guitars), before Jody got to town, that was very moving at times. In a recording, you can combine the acoustic sound of quiet strings and loud drums, no problem: you

Encore Chapel Hill Performance February 15th at Historic Playmakers

The next performance of Big Star’s Third/Sister Lovers will be on Tuesday, February 15th, 2011 at Historic Playmakers Theatre on the UNC Campus. This special performance will feature members of Lost in Trees, Old Ceremony, Birds & Arrows, The dBs, NC Symphony, Mayflies USA, the Tomahawks and guests Brett Harris, Sidney Dixon & Greg Humphreys Tickets are $15 ($8 for students advance/$10 day of show). Tickets are on sale now at the Memorial Hall website or by calling the box office, (919) 843-3333.

This special encore performance will be preceded that afternoon at 2:30 with a talk, “The Search for Blind Lemon: Jim Dickinson’s Legacy,” that explores the lasting legacy of Jim Dickinson, the producer of Big Star’s Sister/Lovers album as well as a seminal figure in the Memphis music scene. More information and a full schedule are below.