The first video featured Casey trying out instruments, trying to make his choice. In this second part, we see the winner (America’s Next Top Fiddle!), and enjoy a brief interview with Silakowski.

Casey was tapped to play fiddle on Béla Fleck’s Throw Down Your Heart tour earlier this year, along with a number of the African musicians who were featured in the film and CD of the same name.

While on the road with the show, Casey captured a great many images with his camera, with the best of them displayed on his web site.

Casey agreed to let us show a few of the photos here, but a trip to his site will let you see them all.

Casey Driessen takes us along as he and Luke Bulla journey to Scottsburg, IN and the shop of noted violinmaker John Silakowski to check out some new 5-string fiddles.

Watch and listen as he tries to narrow it down – which one will he choose?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Casey Driessen has created a looped, all-fiddle version of Billie Jean as a Michael Jackson tribute.  Watching him stack the loops and then play the melody shows how well Casey has mastered the technology – as well as his instrument.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The promotion, which he is calling a Full Spectrum Music Giveaway, is to celebrate today’s (5/12) release of Driessen’s new CD, Oog. If you win, you’ll not only get autographed copies of his two solo projects (Oog and 3D), Casey will also send you free copies of 20 other CDs on which he has played.

To enter, simply visit the contest page on Casey’s web site, and leave a comment. Entries will be accepted until midnight on May 20, so don’t be late!

Casey explains it all below (double click to play).

He has toured as a solo artist and band leader, as well as a sideman. He is a member of Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet and is touring now with Darrell Scott.

Driessen’s latest CD, Oog, is scheduled for release on May 12. It offers a wealth of beautiful and fascinating music, but isn’t much help in pinning him down or boxing his sound into any neat classification. Casey handles fiddle and vocal chores, with help from Darrell Scott on guitar and pedal guitar, Viktor Krauss on bass, Brian Siskind on lap steel and synth, and Matt Chamberlain on percussion.

For a glimpse into Driessen’s musical personality, he created this video fiddle quiz for our readers…

Casey also agreed to let us include samples of a couple other tracks from the CD, which we offer here, along with his comments from the liner notes.

Uncontinental Breakfast  -  Listen now:   

While teaching at Mark O’Connor’s Strings Conference I had a life changing musical experience‚Ķand those don’t come along often. One of the other instructors was Dr. M. Manjunath, a South Indian violinist. He played a solo concert, cross legged, on top of a table, improvising nonstop for 30 minutes. He took me on a ride that was one of the most beautiful and amazing performances I’ve ever witnessed, playing in ways I had not imagined possible. The next day I took a lesson with him. Soon afterwards while on the road, hungry and stuck in a hotel room one morning, I wrote this melody. Thank you Dr. M. Manjunath.

This next one may be my favorite on the CD. It’s a quirky, rocking version of O, Death, rendered here as Conversation With Death. I’ll bet I have played this track a dozen times over the past two days.

No… it’s not a grassy cut either, but don’t get your knickers in a twist. If electric instruments and drums will ruin your day, just give this one a miss.

Conversation With Death  -  Listen now:   

We all have our notions of life beyond life and whether or not there is one at all. What we seem to agree on is that time is precious, time is short, and time is unpredictable. I used to take a few more chances with my life, feeling the invincibility of my youth. I wouldn’t say my life is any less exciting, I just choose my battles a bit more wisely. It’s funny how life experience and love will change your perspectives. I believe we are all connected, not just people, but all living things. I don’t believe that there is one true way for everyone ‚Äì geography, culture, and environment just won’t let me. My ideal afterlife is that you go wherever and experience whatever you believed in your lifetime‚Ķ.it seems only fair. These lyrics are passed down to us from Doc Boggs.

Craig Havighurst of String Theory Media created a video about the making of the CD last year when Driessen et al were in studio. It offers a nice overview of the project, in the form of a lengthy interview with Casey, with live studio footage interspersed.

Long Story, recently released on Patuxent Music, features 10 original instrumental compositions performed by a group of stellar progressive string musicians. Jordan recorded his first solo project, No Place Better, in 2005 and was part of a trio album (Corbett/Chrisman/Tice) in 2007 with banjoist Wes Corbett and hammered dulcimer player Simon Chrisman.

This new solo release shows not only an obvious grasp of acoustic guitar technique, but a fresh compositional voice as well. It is not presented as a “guitar album” – with track-after-track of fiddle-tuney flatpicking – nor does it incorporate the odd vocal number with an eye towards radio play. In fact, the CD is more of a statement about Jordan’s original music than it is his guitar playing, and it is the tunes that shine, both for their clever melodies, and as improvisational vehicles for Tice and his fellow pickers.

The opening melodies are as likely to be presented by the dobro, fiddle or banjo as the guitar, which Tice had in mind when he created the tunes for this album.

“I did write many of the melodies with other instruments in mind. One thing that ties most of the music I love together is that the elements that make up the music are veiled behind the flow of the music. My goal was to make a record with a bluegrass band that accomplishes this rather than to highlight the guitar and ignore the abundance of textures and sounds the bluegrass band is capable of producing.”

Jordan’s tunes range from a fiery fiddle tune form (Sofia) to jazzy, new acoustic ballads (Chincoteague), and even an orchestrated, scored piece (The Colony).

Sofia really jumped out at me on first hearing, and it hasn’t diminished a bit upon multiple listenings.

Listen now:   

“Sofia was written a few years ago pretty quickly. Id say it’s the most straight forward on the record in that its just a tune that we play and improvise on with minimal arrangement. I named it after Sofia, Bulgaria after a visit there last summer. I just liked the simple and pretty sound of ’sofia’ and figured it fit.”

Another tune that aptly demonstrates the character of this CD is The Salad Days, which opens with a cross-picked guitar melody which is soon picked up by the resonator guitar.

Listen now:   

Jordan is finishing his education in music composition at Towson University in Maryland, where he attends on a full scholarship. He has obviously taken this training to heart, as Long Story strikes me as a very musical album, and Tice’s writing for the other musicians is spot-on from start to finish.

Speaking of the other musicians…

Noam Pikelny has finally earned the notoriety he has long deserved for his work with Chris Thile and Punch Brothers. He shines here, as he does whenever he straps on his banjo. On fiddle, Casey Driessen is called on to cover a wide variety of style, which he does with his typical aplomb, and Mark Schatz provides note-perfect bass throughout. Andy Hall is on resonator guitar, and not only states themes and improvises, but also covers much of the rhythmic ground that a mandolin normally would in this sort of ensemble.

Jordan’s mom, Susan Tice, is a fine fiddler and plays on one tune (Song For Leslie), and the sole cut with mandolin features Marc MacGlashan, a fellow Marylander who Jordan claims as one of his favorite mandolinists.

You can hear several other tracks on Jordan’s MySpace page, and samples for all 10 tunes in iTunes.

Great stuff!

The magazine’s Brian Braiker caught up with Abby and fellow quartet members B?©la Fleck, Casey Driessen and Ben Sollee at a live performance in New York’s Battery Park, where she shared how she came to a career in music after studying Chinese in college.

But somewhere along the way, Washburn, who also sang in college, picked up a banjo for largely the same reason she decided to learn Chinese‚Äîit was hard. She mastered the old-timey clawhammer style well enough that, by the time she was considering a career in international law, a trip to Nashville turned into a much longer stay. There she cut a demo consisting of the first two songs she’d written, one in English, the other‚Äîbecause, hell, why not?‚Äîin Mandarin. Eventually, the allure of woodshedding in Tennessee trumped the corporate path waiting abroad. “Am I going to use my skills to represent Anheuser-Busch and Payless Shoes?” companies she had consulted for, “or am I going to have something to say?” she asks. She handed her demo to banjo virtuoso B?©la Fleck at a party, who listened on the drive home. He says he became so absorbed that he got pulled over for speeding. “She wasn’t doing anything fancy,” he tells NEWSWEEK. “There was just something pure and beautiful about what she did.”

You can read the full piece at Newsweek.com, where they also have an exclusive video of the Quartet performing Captain, a piece from their current CD, Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet (audio samples on iTunes).

HT: Katy Daley at WAMU’s Bluegrass Country

The group is composed of Abby on clawhammer banjo and vocals, Bela Fleck on 3 finger banjo, Casey Driessen on fiddle and Ben Sollee on cello.

They are the sole guests on this program, and perform for the full hour amidst discussions with host Michael Johnathon about their new self-titled CD, from which they draw selections for the show.

See the full show online at the Woodsongs site.

Three years after the release of her debut album, Song of the Traveling Daughter, this new self titled (after the band) sophomore recording hits the streets on May 20, 2008. The entire band, including Fleck, had a hand in the composition and arrangement of the record. Fleck produced the recording for Nettwerk Records. Washburn comments that this record was an effort to

…intentionally create art that is more than what I ever thought I was capable of. These musicians allowed me to dream big, and they had the chops to execute it all, and then some.

Featuring 13 songs, the CD stylistically spans the bridge between traditional American folk/bluegrass tunes such as Banjo Pickin’ Girl, to traditional Chinese folk songs such as Taiyang chulai (We’re Happy Under the Sun), to a number of originals written by the band for this project. The arrangements bear the marks of both American and Chinese tradition with a certain cinematic quality and even some classical sounding moments. Part of the uniqueness of the sound comes from the composition of the band itself. The quartet features two banjos, a cello and a fiddle. That combination of instrumentation, along with the diversity of musical backgrounds the four players bring to the table results in a sound that is all their own. And the results speak for themselves.

The foursome begins a North American tour Friday night with a show in Boulder, CO. This is the first of over 100 performances planned in support of the new CD. The tour includes some high-profile performances at Bonnaroo, Merlefest, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

For a complete listing of tour dates, be sure to visit them online at AbigailWashburn.com.

Audio tracks and tours dates are available on Abigail’s MySpace page as well.

The Quartet includes Washburn and Fleck on banjos along with Casey Driessen on fiddle and Ben Sollee on cello. They have a CD released in 2006 on Nettwerk and they toured extensively in Asia in support. Abby speaks Chinese fluently, and worked as a translator for many years.

WDVX  is broadcast in the Knoxville market at 102.9 FM – and via live streaming online.

The folks at ukbluegrass.com posted yesterday with links to three video clips on YouTube from a performance of theirs in Scotland. They were shot with two cameras, and offer a nice look at these fine musicians up close in a loose, jam-like setting.

The songs from this show (at the Polish Club, Kirkcaldy, Fife) are Sally In The Garden, Aint’ Gonna Work Tomorrow and Foggy Mountain Rock.

There is one other clip from this tour on YouTube, shot at the Ex-Servicemans Club, Helsby in England. This one has the boys playing a rip-roarin’ version of Groundspeed – which also includes a couple of choice quips from the guys at the start.

The interview is quite readable and contains a lot of background historical information about the camp. They also talk about the goals they have for the camp this year and in the future. And in describing the camp’s atmosphere, they bring up one of my favorite things about this music, the accessibility of the players.

The instructors for this year’s camp are some of the best players bluegrass music has to offer including, Janet Beazley, Noam Pikelny, Casey Driessen, Rob Ickes, John Lowell, Chris Stuart, and others.

"The event is up there with any other camp," says John, "but it’s uniquely British in the social aspect and the humour." Most of the tutors get stuck in to the socialising without difficulty, mingling in the bar and taking part in the sessions. "I love seeing the kids jamming with the tutors," says John.

What a great opportunity for these youngsters.

If you missed the last interview UKBluegrass.com posted you might want to check it out as well. It’s a good interview with current IBMA Board Chairman, Greg Cahill. You’ll find that interview here.

Casey created a slide show of photos he took while in China, and it can be viewed on the Sugar Hill Records web site. The photos are not so much of the musicians, but more in the travelogue vein.

There is a video from the tour available as well on YouTube.

The song, Nature Of The Beast from his debut CD release, No Apologies, received a nomination in the Best Country Instrumental Performance category.

“I can’t really even put into words what an extreme honor it is to be recognized with a Grammy Nomination!! It’s incredible! To be nominated right alongside some of my musical heroes in the Instrumental Performance of the Year category, is the most flattering honor I could ever imagine! I thought that “Nature of the Beast’ definitely had a certain mood that really hit home with me, but I certainly wasn’t ready for this!! Thanks to everyone who has supported me and my efforts on ‘No Apologies’ in the past year!!”

The other nominees in this category include Casy Driessen (Jerusalem Ridge from 3D), Tommy Emmanuel (Gameshow Rag/Cannonball Rag from The Mystery), Bryan Sutton & Doc Watson (Whiskey Before Breakfast from Not Too Far From The Tree) and Chris Thile (The Eleventh Reel from How To Grow A Woman From The Ground).

Congratulations and best of luck to all the nominees for Best Country Instrumental Performance. The Awards will be announced in Los Angeles, CA on February 11, 2007.

There is a fascinating video up on YouTube that shows the Sparrow Quartet jamming with members of Hanggai, a Mongolian folk band, on the roof of a building in Beijing. The clip opens with the assembled musicians playing what I presume is a traditional Chinese melody, and progresses to Bela showing them the traditional fiddle tune, Sourwood Mountain.

Interviews with the musicians are conducted in their native languages, with English subtitles provided on the YouTube video, and Chinese subtitles on this version of the video on tudou.com.

The part that I found fascinating is the common musical ground the musicians found despite the cultural gulf between their backgrounds. Washburn, who has studied in China and speaks the language well, is essential to making this musical bridge work. Both she and Bela discuss the reactions to their music in China in the course of this clip.

The video is also available on the Danwei.TV site, which has some additional links about this tour, which now seems to be concluded.

Washburn, who plays banjo with Uncle Earl and studied in China, has been active for several years in musical collaborations with a Sino-American synthesis. She has been touring in Asia with Sparrow Quartet off and on since late October, a tour that runs another month.

It’s worth a visit to the site to check out the show poster, with it’s 1940s vintage show poster vibe, in a mix of Chinese and English.

On May 9, Casey’s first solo project, 3D, is set to be released on Sugar Hill. Not much news on either Casey’s or Sugar Hill’s site, but the material seems to include some original compositions as well as tunes that especially appeal to Driessen. Guest artists include Viktor Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Tim O”Brien, B?©la Fleck, Darrell Scott and Jamey Haddad.