In Search of a Song: Casey Driessen Part 1

CASEY DRIESSEN PART 1:  BROADCAST  10 / 15 / 2011
IN SEARCH OF A SONG originates in BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA and is sponsored by: THE BLUEBIRD NIGHTCLUB,  AIRTIME RECORDING STUDIO,  and VISIT BLOOMINGTON.COM
Casey Christopher Driessen (born December 6, 1978 Owatonna, Minnesota, United States) is an American bluegrass fiddler and singer. He plays acoustic and electric five-string violins, each of which has an additional low C string.
He is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music, where he studied with Matt Glaser.
He has performed with Béla Fleck, Abigail Washburn, Steve Earle, Tim O'Brien, Darrell Scott, Jim Lauderdale, Lee Ann Womack, Mark Schatz, John Doyle, and Chris Thile. He has recorded with Darol Anger, John Mayer, Jerry Douglas, Jamey Haddad, and Blue Merle. He has also recorded on the soundtrack for the Johnny Cash film Walk the Line. He has toured with The Duhks, replacing Tania Elizabeth.
In November 2006 Driessen toured China and Tibet with the Sparrow Quartet (which also includes Béla Fleck, Abigail Washburn, and cellist Ben Sollee). He also has his own band, the Colorfools, which includes Matt Mangano on bass and Tom "Tommy G" Giampietro on drums.
He lives in Nashville, Tennessee. His first solo recording, 3D, was released in May 2006 on Sugar Hill Records.  In 2007, the track Jerusalem Ridge received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Country Instrumental Performance. With fiddler Darol Anger and Rushad Eggleston, he has released an instructional DVD entitled Chops & Grooves: Rhythmic Explorations for Bowed Instruments.
He contributed to Crooked Still's CD Shaken By A Low Sound (2006), and Taarka's The Martian Picture Soundtrack. Most recently, he released his second solo recording, "Oog" (2009) on Red Shoes Records
He has attended the Mark O'Connor fiddle camp as a teacher.

Topics discussed include: Early Interests in music, going through the Suzuki program for Violin, writing songs now on his own instead of playing other peoples music,,being inspired by Bela Fleck and Brian Sutton in their Trio, finding his own voice in writing new music, re-arranging old songs in new ways, Finding chord progressions that work with the melody and sometimes changing keys, going to Berklee College of Music, and inspirations by Matt Glaser (String dept. chairperson), what makes a good song, welling a story through music, writing "Gap Tooth", talks about writing his untitled song that he's about to play,  non-musical influences, such as books, artwork, experiences on the road, etc. phtography that he likes to do. composition in a photo, and in music, being open for spontaneous things to happen.

Musical selections include: Old Timey Dance Party, Country Blues, Flexible Helix, Gap Tooth (live at Telluride and contrasting from his CD with his band), The Hunt for the Quail Egg, A Fuller Wine.


For more information, visit: IN SEARCH OF A SONG