Casey Black - ProfilesArchive

About Me

More than ever, singer songwriters are not 'from' somewhere, but 'hail' from somewhere. Additionally, an increasing number of songwriters claim that once they hail from somewhere they "never look back." This is alarming since looking back is required for many important day to day activities such as driving, finding out what that noise was, and running away from Satan. I propose that perhaps there is a connection between hailing and never looking back, and that songwriters could regain their flexibility if they would start 'being' from somewhere instead. What's also fascinating about singer songwriters is that many of them claim that they started singing in the womb, or that they always knew that they would be an artist. Maybe I'm just jealous, but when I was in my mom's womb I didn't understand that I was even a person, and when I was little I wanted to be a cheetah named Ricky. I didn't start thinking about music until I was in 6th grade. I was singing a Wilson Phillips song one day after baseball practice and I thought, "Gee. When I sing, I no longer experience the painful disconnection from the Universe imposed upon me by my human consciousness. It's almost as if art is a way of reconnecting, of obliterating consciousness for just long enough to suspend the feeling that I am not just some putrid onlooker, but a piece of the story. Art is therefore made possible by the very thing it seeks to destroy. That's ironic." That's what I would think about while taking my cup off and watching Full House. Indeed, the more I learn about songwriters the more I believe that I am not a songwriter, even though I do in fact write songs. Like, sometimes I will say something and a songwriter will say, "Hey. Now that would make a great song." And I think to myself, "Was is not good enough the way I said it? Do I really need to add music to it?" Or someone will say, "It's okay that your girlfriend dumped you, because you can write about it. That's what songwriters do." And I say, "I guess, but I really don't think that's why she dumped me." Maybe I am not a songwriter. I mean, these are my songs, and I hope you like them. But maybe I am something else. A cheetah perhaps? Yes, maybe I am a cheetah. And maybe it's not the cruel separation from the Universe that plagues me, but the pain of being a cheetah. Because a cheetah never wins?

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 7/23/2004
Band Website: caseyblack.com
Band Members: Aaron Sterling - drums (www.aaronsterling.com), Kris Pooley - keys (www.smalltimemusic.com), Beth Balmer - accordian, keys, vocals (www.fieldingland.com), Joe Ayoub - upright bass (www.joeayoub.com), Bob Hartry- aux guitars
Influences: Matthew Ryan, Steve Earle, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, Paul Simon, Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen, Milan Kundera, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Emerson, VS Ramachandran, Bill Bryson, Brian Greene, Albert Einstein, my friends, coffee, movies about little things, my sister's dancing, walking
Sounds Like: Springsteen, Jackson Browne
Record Label: Nonexistent Records
Type of Label: None

My Blog

The Moon and the Sun

The Moon and the SunCasey Black One night in Cancun, when he was 8 years old, Ben walked onto the back patio of a restaurant and saw the most beautiful moon. Bulbous and orange, it floated on the ...
Posted by Casey Black on Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:13:00 PST

The Gay Marriage Debate

I would like to invite any of my friends, digital or personal, to explain to me how it is American to ban gay marriage. In light of Massachusetts possibly putting the decision to reverse its law to vo...
Posted by Casey Black on Thu, 04 Jan 2007 06:56:00 PST

Read This Review of My Action

http://www.lataco.com/taco/casey-black-live-room-5-lounge-mi d-city
Posted by Casey Black on Fri, 01 Dec 2006 10:45:00 PST

Shawn Colvin

Last night I met Shawn Colvin outside of my show. She was just standing there smoking a cigarette. I thought maybe I should brag about that. Indeed, she is my favorite lyricist: and she should be your...
Posted by Casey Black on Thu, 13 Jul 2006 10:08:00 PST

Let's All Be Ourselves and Change

I still get a little knot in my stomach when I think about the nickname John Kerry got slapped with in the '04 election: flip-flopper. Surely there were many people wondering, just like me, "Who are t...
Posted by Casey Black on Sun, 16 Apr 2006 06:46:00 PST

The Thing That Changes Everything

I was walking on the sidewalk listening to a song. All the reading I've done tells me that I never really even touched the sidewalk. But all the reading I've done also tells me that I was never separa...
Posted by Casey Black on Sat, 04 Mar 2006 07:11:00 PST

my first interwiew...

My first interview....http://img668.libsyn.com/img668/8070318b3337b4a 073dc9491ef2e0255/456fd0ff/4741/1010/SMtv37.mp3orGo to www.samanthamurphy.com and click on SMtv or direct from iTunes in the podcas...
Posted by Casey Black on Thu, 02 Mar 2006 04:56:00 PST

A Romantic Way of Looking At LA Trafiic

Los Angeles sucked me back in. After having driven two fifteen-hour days my little truck and I were vacuumed into its gravitational field, and there was no turning back. Cars whipped past my luggage-l...
Posted by Casey Black on Fri, 03 Feb 2006 12:36:00 PST

Hometowns

What is it about your hometown? Or any place really, but especially a hometown? You hear so many people say, "Yeah, I left, but it sucked me back." How can a place, something inanimate, have so much p...
Posted by Casey Black on Wed, 04 Jan 2006 09:06:00 PST

that pope

I went to NPR.org because I heard a story about how the pope is making it harder if not impossible for homosexuals to enter the priesthood. When I clicked on the story, an ad for Brokeback Mountain pl...
Posted by Casey Black on Sun, 04 Dec 2005 09:06:00 PST