Casey Driessen ain't your typical bluegrass fiddler. Born in Chicago and now living in Nashville, he is Berklee-educated and unafraid of pushing and even breaking boundaries. Now while I'm no real expert on bluegrass or fiddle music, but what Driessen does (even to me) doesn't sound typical.
The music on his solo debut 3D (he's served as a sideman for many, including Steve Earle) is born from old-time campfire bluegrass music and infused with non-traditional elements from jazz, funk, rock, and world music to create something new and magical. Electonic drum programming, Celtic flavors, lap steel guitar, and even furious drumming populate the ground beneath Driessen's (sometimes) explosively multi-tracked fiddles. Heck, even Bela Fleck makes a guest appearance on the record.
Yet for all the sonic experimentation and deep rhythmic grooves that might put off bluegrass purists, it is Driessen's sense of melody that really captured me. Whether on his own compositions or during his reinventions of standards, Driessen's sense of wide-eyed adventure is always progressive and memorable. Sometimes joyous and uplifting and sometimes dreamlike and haunting, his always melodic fiddle playing is like nothing I've ever heard.
3D is a bold and powerful statement from a musician that is doing what all the great innovators do and finding a voice that's all his own. Casey Driessen's debut 3D is out now on the (as I'm beginning to learn) fantastic Durham, NC label Sugar Hill Records.
MP3 | Casey Driessen - Sally In The Garden 3D
MP3 | Casey Driessen - Snowflake Reel/Dance Gone/Cheyenne 3D
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