SJ Ursrey looks at the camera during one of Honeychild’s rehearsals at Nuci’s Space in Athens, Georgia last Monday. Ursrey brings her musical talents beyond the stage and to her yoga students’ mats.
The air hung hot and heavy in the darkness of the yoga studio. Nearly a dozen people are laid out on their mats, soaked in sweat after an hour-long session. They took deliberate breaths to let their heart rates lower again. At first, there is no movement or sound, then there is SJ Ursrey. Armed with her ukulele, the hyperactive musician turned yogi filled the room with a quiet melody that relieved any remaining tension.
Why it’s Newsworthy: Athens has a strong heritage of music and a thriving yoga community. SJ Ursrey highlights both of those traits in her own, unique way.
SJ Ursrey plays her ukulele during a practice for Honeychild at Nuci’s Space in Athens, Georgia last Monday. Honeychild regularly plays in venues around town, adding to the artistic culture of Athens.
Originally from South Georgia, Ursrey had picked up music for the first time only a year or two before arriving at the University of Georgia in 1995 to study English.
“I didn’t have the courage to make it the forefront of my life yet,” Ursrey said about her decision to study English with only a minor in music. “I figured I might become an English professor.”
Her minor would soon play a major role in her life.
“I actually ran away with a big rock band before I graduated,” said Ursrey. “I ended up working for them for about 18 years.”
The band is none other than Athen’s-born R.E.M., which she humbly refers to as “that big band.” Ursrey’s stint with the band began while she was in college when she started babysitting for Michael Stipe’s goddaughter. Soon she met the manager for R.E.M., began babysitting his kids, and before long was touring with the band.
Seemingly never a monolith of activity, Ursrey simultaneously toured with R.E.M., as well as a band she was in, Dark Meat, through the 2000s.
“I was a touring musician the whole time also, so I would tour like half a summer with R.E.M. and the other half with one of my dirtbag bands,” said Ursrey.
Honeychild poses for a photo at Nuci’s Space in Athens, Georgia last Monday. All five members of the band are Athens locals. From left to right: Malcolm McFoy Dunn, Heli Montgomery Dunn, SJ Ursrey, Kevin Sweeney, Mark Brill.
Ursrey has been in many bands over the years, and she learned many lessons from them. After years of touring with an operation as big as R.E.M. and her experience with her own bands, she brings a different attitude to the recording studio and stage.
“She is so warm. She comes prepared every day and that is very refreshing,” said Heli Montgomery Dunn, the backup vocals and keyboardist for Honeychild, Ursrey’s current band.
Ursrey wears many hats for Honeychild as the lead singer, ukulele player and also a music writer. She described the music Honeychild makes as being “dream-pop”, a style she would rarely listen to even though she is the one usually making the music.
Honeychild practices at Nuci’s Space in Athens, Georgia last Monday.
Growing up, Ursrey listened mainly to the radio as her source of exposure to music.
“We were raised pretty poorly so I was a radio girl,” Ursrey said. “I really liked Madonna… (I liked) bands with mixed harmonies or bands with one front.”
Even though music would envelop much of her life, Ursrey had not planned on being a musician, yet knew exactly what she wanted to be when she grew up.
“I remember when I was really little knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. And here’s what it is, inspiring… I remember it so clearly.”
Around the same time R.E.M. stopped touring, Ursrey began having intense anxiety attacks, usually around dusk. So she made a plan to go to yoga at that time every day, and it worked.
Soon Ursrey wanted to fulfill her childhood dream of inspiration by sharing yoga with more people, which she achieved by becoming a licensed yoga instructor in 2011, according to her page on Five Points Yoga’s website.
SJ Uresy reaches for her ukulele as her students lay out for the final savasana pose last Thursday. This is part of a free event hosted by the Georgia Museum of Art called Yoga in the Galleries.
“Yoga became my lifeline,” said Ursrey. “The physical part of yoga is secondary to the spiritual part. Because I have been blessed with anxiety, I can understand trauma and I am able to share the things that have worked for me in a space where people are naturally vulnerable. Everything comes out on the mat. We see ourselves there.”
After her first experience with yoga, Ally Huizer, a freshman public relations student at UGA from Suwanee, Georgia, said, “I liked the playing of the instrument and the singing, I thought it was really beautiful, and I felt at peace.”
Ursrey often describes yoga as being a tuning for your body. Just like the strings on a ukulele, if one is too tight then everything is out of tune, and she says that is where she finds her purpose.
“Inspiring also means to be of service, to help people understand that they don’t need to hide,” Ursrey said. She has found her own unique way to be of service and fulfill a childhood dream.