As you probably noticed an uncharacteristically lack of activity on the 2020 “Performance Schedule” page of my website, the recent Covid-19 pandemic has seriously impacted (clamped!) my LIVE music gigs (as it has too for EVERY other musician). Fortunately though, throughout this whole ‘shelter in place’ time-period, I have been able to stay musically busy in other ways—with several recording session projects, which has sparked me to remain musically active, interested, & motivated…
Dave Casale is a very talented singer / songwriter & guitarist, & an all-around really great guy! I got to know Dave more while he was releasing his 1st album called “Terms of the Surrender” back in 2018. Like most of the artists I get to work with, Dave has a very ‘retro’ sound—easily recognizable as having been heavily influenced by such artists as Elvis Costello, the Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, etc. He has a very down-to-earth & comedic personality. He often reminds me of someone like say Drew Carey (even beyond maybe the slight facial expression resemblances)—he’s very likeable, and his humble personality & quirky sense-of-humor really translates well into the clever observations he makes within the lyric lines of his songs.
As Dave rolled right away into working on his 2nd album (which he titled “Burning the Masterpiece”), he approached me about possibly adding some horns onto 1 of the tunes. I was happy to oblige him, and so “Let the Drinking Begin” happened. If you can imagine the commoner’s ultimate anthem for raising a glass and making a ‘toast to the good life’, this is that song! For it, my horn lines consist basically of 2 trumpets & a flugelhorn. Dave was so pleased with the outcome, that he threw me another tune: “West Texas”—which is likely my favorite of the 3 songs that I wound up working on for him on this album. To me it has a very ‘Tex/Mex-meets-Chuck Berry’ kind of feel—very similar to the typical sound of bands like ‘Los Lobos’: definitely ‘old time’ rock-n-roll, but with some accordion, cajon rhythms, & mariachi style horn lines thrown in to the mix. For that tune, I again played several trumpets & this time, also a trombone..
For the final ‘horn tune’ of the album—“All of My Tears”—Dave was looking for more of a “Stax Records” ‘old school’ kind of sound—on this again original composition of his. This would obviously require some saxophone input injected into my horn lines, and so I recruited the help of a longtime very talented bandmate of mine—Smithtown, Long Island based Frank Miroddi—to achieve that sound. Frank very capably added both the tenor & bari sax parts that I wrote; I again played several trumpet parts as well as a trombone on it. This song was featured ‘on the air’ of a Westchesterbased Local Artist Showcase broadcast, on 107.1FM ‘The Peak’ radio station. One of the immediate observations I had was—that right smack in the middle of EVERYONE ELSE putting out songs that were desperately trying to somehow sound ‘new’, here was Dave’s tune—comfortably & refreshingly just a ‘throw back’ to an ‘older time’—with a very big & fat sound! It was like running into an old long-lost friend again! And it just goes to show that ‘good’ music—is really timeless. ‘Stax Records’ for sure, but also maybe even some ‘Huey Lewis & the News’…
Dave is a busy man—already rolling right into working on a 3rd album!—which sonically, he tells me will likely be a bit more ‘acoustic’ in overall nature. And so I may also wind up having a credit there as well—as he requested I try to find a single (possibly muted) trumpet-line on one of his tune’s for it called “Together”. I’ve already presented him with 3 possible trumpet-line options for it…so we’ll see.
But so Dave has also introduced me to the music producer he has been working with—Grammy nominated Frank Enea—and I have since already been doing some session-work for him directly as well. Stay tuned for info to follow regarding that collaboration as well.
“Burning the Masterpiece” is available everywhere (Amazon, i-Tunes, Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, etc).
Congrats to Dave Casale on this, his sophomore release achievement!
