They play a guitar-oriented, melodic, jangle-pop style of rock music with introspective lyrics that often reflect the history or culture of the American South.

[2] This initial four-person line-up was quickly supplemented by the addition of George Huntley on second guitar, keyboards, and vocals.

Around the same time, former Johnny Quest drummer Peele Wimberley replaced Schultz, finalizing the "classic" line-up of the band.

An early version of "Darker Days", recorded by the band's initial four-piece lineup, appeared on the North Carolina indie compilation More Mondo in 1984.

A re-recorded version of "Darker Days" provided the title track to the band's debut album, which was produced by fellow North Carolinian Don Dixon.

After touring heavily behind Darker Days, the Connells re-entered the studio in 1986 with producer Mitch Easter to record their second album, Boylan Heights.

Mike Connell's songwriting on Boylan Heights would provide most of the foundation for the band's live show sound for the remainder of their career.

During this period, both Connell and Huntley began to move away from their twelve-string Rickenbackers towards six-string Fender and Gibson guitars, leading to a heavier, less folky sound, although elements of the band's patented jangle were still audible on "Hey Wow", the lead single from Fun and Games, the 1989 follow-up album.

Fun and Games also saw Huntley's role as a songwriter grow; after contributing one song each to Darker Days and Boylan Heights, Huntley wrote or co-wrote five tracks on Fun and Games, with the anthemic "Sal" quickly becoming one of the most popular songs in the band's live set.

This album saw the band stretch their sound and playing further, as on Connell's debut as a lead vocalist, the plaintive ballad "Waiting My Turn", which featured Kate St. John on cor anglais, but also saw the reworking of two songs that dated back to the Darker Days era, "Too Gone" and "Take a Bow".

Though the lead single, "Slackjawed", was another college radio hit in America, the band was initially disappointed with the album's reception and considered breaking up.

However, the follow-up single, "'74–'75", another Celtic-influenced ballad, took off in Europe shortly thereafter and became a top-20 hit across the continent, including in the United Kingdom where it peaked at No.

"'74–'75" won numerous European music awards in the mid-1990s, leading to greater financial and radio success than the band had known to that point.

However, while European music fans made Ring a platinum record outside the United States, such high level success in America still remained elusive.

1996's Weird Food and Devastation expanded the band's sound in new directions, but failed to build on the momentum established by its predecessor.

The album also debuted the songwriting efforts of drummer Wimberley with the track “Any”, who also landed an outtake, “Bitter Pill”, on the soundtrack of the film Scream.

Produced by Jim Scott, Still Life marked a departure from the harder sound of Weird Food and Devastation with an overall softer feeling reminiscent of Counting Crows and Teenage Fanclub.

After the release of Old School Dropouts, George Huntley left the band to spend more time with his family and begin a career in real estate.

Meanwhile, Peele Wimberley briefly played with another band called Parklife, and then moved to Los Angeles to pursue interests in Hollywood and in electronic music.

David, who lost his first wife to cancer, remarried and has a career in landscape painting and art shows, and brother Mike is practicing law in Raleigh.

On September 24, 2021, the first new studio album in 20 years called Steadman's Wake was released on CD, vinyl and all digital formats.

Another, more idiosyncratic, influence was the British progressive rock band Jethro Tull, whose song "Living in the Past" was covered by the Connells on 1995's New Boy EP.

In 1996, George Huntley released a solo record of additional material that he had written over the years he spent with The Connells, titled Brain Junk.

Brain Junk featured Huntley's honesty and the trademark jangly guitar work which was evident on early Connells recordings.

Peele Wimberley played drums with various artists after his stint with The Connells including Parklife, Taylor Roberts, and Milagro Saints.

After moving to Los Angeles Wimberley played keys and percussion in Lamps with John Crooke and David Burris, formerly of Jolene, Chris Phillips of Squirrel Nut Zippers, and Vicki Peterson of The Bangles.

During his first few years in Los Angeles he wrote and cowrote incidental music for the show Last Comic Standing and for special products such as the DVD releases of the films Yes Man and Observe and Report.