www.cASEYdRIESSEN.com

The Infinite Art of Casey Driessen

by Hilary West for Bluegrass Now

Nashville’s like Hollywood, like Dodge City. The name alone defines a life’s ambition. The lure is irresistible for young guns whatever they’re wielding: 6 shooter, fiddle, guitar, voice. It’s a proving ground. As one optimist sighed when assessing the years she’s spent trying to crack Music Row: “Everybody’s good.” There’s the constant hope of discovery, of getting into a band that plays beyond the tip jar. They’re on the lookout for the elite Nashville pickers who’ve played The Opry, The Ryman, and the dream festivals. They’re hunting for someone who knows someone who can get them on the big stage.

Fiddler Casey Driessen grew up in Chicago. His father Thomas had been a professional musician: banjo and pedal steel. Once he’d stopped touring the family hit the road-often-for the festivals, to jam and camp. They loved the way it brought the family together; school was missed; “a lot”. Along the way Casey did a few fiddle contests, he did not do well; he didn’t seem to get the part about playing to the judges. Casey played violin in the school orchestra, went to a few fiddle camps, took a private fiddle lesson here and there, even had a fiddle lesson with a saxophone player. Guided by his father but learning mostly from the jams and the camps, Casey was like many aspiring musicians. He listened to the music at the house: David Grisman, Buddy Emmons (pedal steel), Kenny Baker, Byron Berline; he formed bands and he jammed: “a lot”.

Casey heard the call of Nashville. He was on his way south within a week of graduating from college in 2000. He was in such a hurry he even left his wallet on top of the car. Far from arriving wide-eyed and surprised, he’d already spent a summer in Steve Earle’s bluegrass band; drafted by Tim O’Brien to play along side Darrell Scott and Dennis Crouch; mighty fine street creds for Nashville.

The jamming had made Casey nimble: “Growing up playing at festivals you’ve got to be on your toes; you don’t know what’s going to happen.” But there’s more than just fitting in. As Tim O’Brien pointed out, Casey’s “always positive and eager to tackle anything new”. Take that one lesson from Ed Petersen - the saxophone player: “He gave me stuff to work on for about three years.” Casey recalls: “It made me think differently, all the permutations of scales and chords.”

“Fearless” says Tim O’Brien. “He’s always learning new music, and that pursuit of new knowledge is a good thing to be around. He's just a sponge. We listened to some old Alan Lomax field recordings once on a driving trip. He asked if he could take it home and study it some more. One week he'll be way into Celtic tunes, the next into John Coltrane.” And once he’s heard it, Casey works it, absorbs it and adapts it to the fiddle, creating “treatments” of the music he thinks is cool.

So, rather than Casey looking for those Nashville pickers, who’ve played The Opry, The Ryman, the dream festivals, it’s like they are looking for him. It’s because Casey Driessen is one of those rare people who can both articulate and augment the dynamic vision of some of the most creative names in the music industry. Ultimately he’ll build on their legacy, transform it, and do exactly what these artists and innovators are hoping for: carry the torch forward.

Casey’s CV is a who’s who of Nashville and includes artists at the top of their form: Jim Lauderdale, John Cowan, Alison Brown, Rhonda Vincent, Mindy Smith, Lee Ann Womack, Nickel Creek…and many more. Casey didn’t land the gigs by having good luck; he earned them by having a unique blend of exceptional chops, a complete absence of musical prejudice and knowing how to fit in.”I’m in so many different situations,” comments Casey, “I have to figure out what my role is; a lot of my creative process has been manoeuvring.”

Tim O’Brien hired Casey to play his traditionally based music and observes: “As a band leader, I want somebody who's gonna go at it the way I want them to, whether I ask them or not. Casey does what I want him to with very little direction”. Meanwhile, when Béla Fleck opted to take a year off from the Flecktones to form the Béla Fleck Acoustic Trio-a totally new and intimate configuration-Béla chose Casey, commenting: “Casey has a great rough quality I really like. Although he is a very refined musician, he doesn't ever sound slick. I was looking for a way to have a small group that could turn on a dime. With Casey and Bryan Sutton, I have found the right guys.” Casting an eye to the future Béla offered: “I think he'll be on the scene contributing on a high level. Hopefully we'll still be playing together, I'll be the old guy”. When asked whether Casey could execute his vision or contribute to forming a new one Béla’s answer was a simple and eloquent: “Both”.

Cut to the fiddle tune tradition, claw-hammer and the step dancing inspired music Mark Schatz is known for, and find Casey as the fiddler on Mark’s upcoming 2005 release for Rounder Records: Steppin' in the Boiler House. Then there’s Casey’s work rocking with Blue Merle and firing up his electric fiddle, or reaching deeply into traditional Old Time with claw-hammer banjo player Abigail Washburn-she took Casey all the way to China. Down yet another wildly different avenue, one leading to something entirely new is, as Darol Anger characterizes it: “The Chop Shop: String Groove Guys”. They’re Anger, Driessen and cellist Rushad Eggleston, teaching “chopping” on their recently released, definitive string rhythm instructional video for Homespun Tapes: String Groove: Rhythm Strategies for Bowed Strings.

For Casey, the chopping came about when he decided he absolutely had to emulate a mandolin in his first band “Minor Bluegrass”. Some might wonder why he didn’t just play the mandolin, but he was twelve and he had a fiddle. His father, a significant influence and inspiration for Casey, liked him playing the fiddle, and didn’t want him to have to carry a heavy instrument like he had done when he was touring. Fiddle it was then.

As Casey grew up he played electric, jazz and rock in addition to bluegrass, then went to the prestigious Berklee College of Music, from which he graduated summa cum laude. There he met people who were playing pop, rock, funk and soul, listening to Stevie Wonder and Motown. He was hanging out with drummers and bass players, learning and working on his style. He discovered Richard Greene had a distinct approach to rhythm on the fiddle and was thrilled when he heard Darol Anger, who “really had another way of doing it that was much more developed than where I was at. Seeing him gave me other ideas.”

Clearly excited, Casey explains: “There’s no set definition of this technique yet. We’re developing a new role for the violin that has traditionally been limited to long notes or a little rhythmic chop when you’re not playing the melody. This is a much more percussive thing. It’s moving the bow in a different direction, a new technique.” Not only is the technique new, Casey’s instruments are unconventional too: “I play a 5-string fiddle. I’m certainly not the first to do it, but I think that it has shaped the way I play and is also an extension of my desire to explore new territory. I never play a normal 4-string anymore-unless it’s a low fiddle-I don’t even own a normal 4-string.”

The unusual approach caught Béla Fleck’s attention: “As a rhythmic player, he provides something very few fiddlers-if any-can contribute. I feel like I could lean on him, he is so steady. That makes me feel much more comfortable when improvising.” At the International Bluegrass Music Association World of Bluegrass in October 04 Casey gave a packed fiddle workshop a taste of the style-as well as his considerable singing talent- t could not have been better received.

Everyone was a-buzz when Casey finished his version of ”Banjo Clark”; people wanted to hear more. Casey’s been on more than twenty recordings, ranging from Béla Fleck to JABE, from April Verch to Chris Jones, Judith Edelman, Abigail Washburn, Jim Hurst and so many more, but those are where Casey fits into their art. The Wisechild CD Firstborn is a bit closer to home, as it was a band Casey put together with his great friend Luke Bulla as well as drummer Pasi Leppikangas and bassist Matt Mangano.

On Firstborn Casey had a chance to do some of his favourite things, creating textures between electric and acoustic fiddles, and designing new musical shapes with mandocaster and mandotar. There’s rhythm fiddle credited on one track, “The Beauty and The Mess” and the grooviness is definitely present no matter what he’s playing, but he’s not singing and it’s not his art and direction alone. There is no “take home” version of Casey per se, not yet.

“I could have made a fiddle record when I was younger,” observes Casey, “People have been asking for the last three years I’ve been out on the road. It’s always something I’ve wanted to do but I never felt I had something really unique to offer. Now I have something unique to offer, now I have something to say.” Stirred by the topic, he continues, speaking passionately: “Now that I’ve found some things I like and I think people should hear, I’m ready. I want a statement or a definition of personality. That’s one of the reasons I haven’t done an album yet.”

Listening to Casey talk about the possibilities for the album is exhilarating, his enthusiasm so dynamic it throws off a marvellous energy of it’s own. “There are many things you can do with recording technology.” he says, obviously delighted to be part of the 21st Century. “It can lead you to different sounds and arrangements and textures you don’t necessarily get live, that’s a fun part of the process for me. I’ve got a low fiddle that I play and a number of different mutes that change the tone of my instrument.”

Leveraging technology and his penchant for fooling with the fiddles, “There’s a dance tune by a pop artist I really like, a highly produced song with strings and keyboards and singing, drums and bass. The concept I’m working on is to recreate all those parts just using my violin instruments, like electric fiddle played through a bass amp and hitting the bridge on it to get the kick drum sound.” Diverse as ever Casey then talks about a treatment for an old Hot Rize tune he’s been working on as well as how he’d like to layer some of the traditional bluegrass tunes he grew up with.

“I’m experimenting” Casey volunteers, noting: “I’ve worked on it sitting in my fiancée’s kitchen and hotel bathrooms because they sound good, I work anywhere. I’ve even got my dog barking on tracks I might keep. You wouldn’t know it was there necessarily but it’s right in time and it’s right in tune.” Yet for all the experimentation, there is no question the end product will be a coherent work of art: focused, wildly original, fun, fresh and disciplined, like Casey.

The possibilities for the recording are endless particularly as Casey’s world and source of inspiration grows at once more vast and more familiar: the music taking him on adventures, encouraging him to expand his horizons and challenge his assumptions.

“You go to Ireland and all of a sudden the music makes sense,” comments Casey, “You can hear how Irish traditional music developed as a reflection of the environment. It’s easy to be around these people and feel comfortable; we’re immediately friends.” And Casey’s music has carried him across the language barrier, teaching a camp in Finland, and touring in Denmark. It has carried him to the Forbidden City in Beijing, to a dress shop in Shanghai where he picked out a wedding dress for his fiancée, (the February wedding is “Standing Room Only”) and well off the beaten path and onto a mud one, en route from Chengdu to Chongqing. There, determined to connect, Casey’s eventually managed to get a Red Army solider to make eye contact and even offer a faint, almost imperceptible smile.

Travel and what he learns from it has made a significant impact on Casey, to the point he wrote and posted an entertaining and comprehensive “report” of his trip to China on his website, www.caseydriessen.com. “International travel and cultural exchange is so awesome; it’s wonderful to be able to share music,” declares Casey. “There are tunes that are similar but have different accents. Not having that accent would be like denying your roots. When I’m travelling I’m participating in World Music.”

Looking ahead, Tim O’Brien, who has known Casey most of his musical life, offers this prediction: “Casey will make quite a reputation as a renegade instrumentalist, a trusty sideman, and as a practical joker. I bet he'll start growing his own band in the coming years; I can just see them come spinning down the street.” Yes, I see them too. Nashville needs the likes of Casey Driessen and no matter how brightly he shines he will never think he’s a star; he’ll be too busy exploring the new frontiers he’s discovered and created.

FROM THE AUTHOR: Casey and I met at the IBMA in Louisville, Kentucky in October 04. There is so much more to Casey than could be crammed into the feature, because he really is interested in everything. We covered many topics, even “10 million years to the subatomic”, and how to use that in one’s daily life. Anyone interested in interesting people should check out Casey’s website www.caseydriessen.com. The photography section includes a heading called “The Gang” and well, the gang is Casey, a whole bunch of him. The “news” section is essentially a diary and it’s full of fabulous stories including the China trip; something I couldn’t begin to do justice with in the article. Getting to know Casey even a little bit was a real treat. All the best to Casey and Molly as newlyweds, and ever on as they go spinning down that road.

SIDEBAR: People can spot Casey from quite a distance by his almost trademark look in the form of large, comfy and significantly red shoes. They’re from a hip-hop line called Dada. Casey’s comment is:” I think you can wear red shoes with anything, that’s my concept.”