Stirratt grew up in
Mandeville,
Louisiana. He attended
Mandeville High School and the
University of Mississippi, and is a member of
Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. He played regularly around the
American South with The Hilltops, a band based in
Oxford, Mississippi which included his twin sister
Laurie Stirratt and her husband
Cary Hudson. During that time he met and befriended the band
Uncle Tupelo supporting them on tours of the East and Midwest. After the breakup of The Hilltops in 1990 Stirratt recorded a record under the name
The Gimmecaps and briefly joined The Bluerunners, a
Lafayette, Louisiana band, before joining
Uncle Tupelo in 1992 as bassist/guitarist on their last album
Anodyne. == Wilco and The Autumn Defense ==