When Cas Lucas first picked up a guitar, he quickly learned
he couldn't put it down.
"Girlfriends came and went, so did Transformers, G.I. Joe, sports, but never the guitar," says Lucas of his life-long love affair with the instrument. "The
guitar was always there. It has always been my favorite toy and oldest friend."
He received his first acoustic guitar at age six, and as Lucas grew into the instrument, he discovered the music of legends like Robert Johnson and Jimi Hendrix. It was the guitar work of these virtuosos that originally inspired him to make the instrument his own. Lucas polished his guitar skills throughout his teen years, teaching himself to play the riffs and songs of his heroes by ear from their CD's and his family's record collection.
In 1996, Lucas left his home in Central Florida and went north to study composition,
performance, production, and blues history at Hampshire College in Amherst,
Massachusetts. At Hampshire Lucas had the good fortune to study with legendary
multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef, whose influence added an entirely new element to his playing.
"Playing with Yusef showed me how broad the tonal spectrum could be within a piece of music, " says Lucas. "It made me want to go beyond the standard progressions of blues and rock. Yusef's compositions, concepts, and playing showed me that there really are no wrong notes."
Having completed his studies, Lucas relocated to San Francisco and dove into the vibrant local scene. He has consistently performed around the Bay Area and the Western USA (and select shows on the East Coast and Midwest), gaining fans everywhere. Due largely to MySpace buzz and the grass roots promotion of his loyal fans and Street Team, Lucas' worldwide following has started to grow as well, and his first national and European tours are soon to come.
Lucas' knack for creating infectious hooks and the ubiquitous pop sensibilities evoked in his guitar playing have led to frequent comparison with the likes of Jack Johnson, John Mayer, James Taylor, and Sting (a Cas Lucas fan himself, who featured Cas on his official MySpace's "top friends"). But Lucas' style is more than that - beyond the hooks and lyrics, his musicianship spans the ages, calling to mind both the passionate intensity of Robert Johnson's raw blues, and the intricate, tonal playfulness of Michael Hedges' instrumental virtuosity.
Having lived through serious adversity, including traumatic health issues, years of drug use, addiction, and dealing, and a nearly constant barrage of personal and financial struggles, the depth of Lucas' music decisively sets him apart from many of his contemporaries. Lucas brings to bear the sum of his life's experience in his writing, playing and performing.
Now over three years clean & drug free, Cas has come through these darker years with a renewed sense of creative and personal focus, his sense of humor firmly intact, and a backlog of over 150 original songs.
Cas Lucas new CD, "Roads," released in April 2007, is his first full-band recording
since his late teens. Working with local producer, Adam
Rossi (LUCE), it promises to be a CD worth hearing. PRESS:
San Francisco Chronicle
"Amid Diverse
Influences, this acoustic guitarist has found his own sound..." -Tony
Cooper
Eureka Times Standard
"Cas Lucas is on the verge of something big... Backed by a strong cast of producers and players and armed with the type of laid-back acoustic groove that has yielded hordes of fans for artists like Jack Johnson and John Mayer, Cas Lucas is poised on the edge of mainstream success.. - Joel Hartse
Sting
"Cas Lucas is a talented artist. I like what he writes, and I believe he can change peoples' lives...
New Times Weekly
"Compared to acoustic-pop artists such as John Mayer and Jack Johnson, Lucas gives his adult alternative pop/rock a blues-tinged feel that has received international critical acclaim... Lucas is a more gifted guitarist than (Jack) Johnson. He's got a casually bell-clear voice, and his breezy tunes bounce along sweetly..." - Glen Starkey
Beyond the Chron. (Bay Area Weekly)
"Songs like "Dream a Window, and 'Feel You", put him for me, squarely on the path of the great storytellers and songwriters, like Pete Seeger, and John Prine... Watching and listening to Lucas is a joy, because you get the feeling you are watching a true bluesman in the making.
-Doc E. Smith (Music Columnist and Award Winning Percussionist)
"There's an old soul in Cas Lucas' young body. What wonders where kids like this get such strong world-weary emotions coursing through their throats. On the disconsolate "Home," Lucas reveals, ""I found home at the bottom of a bottle,"" his voice lacking the raspy ache of an aging bluesman but even more troubling because it sounds like the voice of bruised innocence. Mesmerizing guitar picking throughout with Lucas spinning a web with his strings; they should call him Spider-Man for the knots and tangled structures he creates with his fingers. This ain't no simple strumming, lads; Lucas is one talented fellow, a gifted songwriter with a magician's touch on the acoustic guitar.
"Giving It Back" is independent music in its purest form, free from any trends or hip stylings."- Adam Harrington, Whisperin and Hollerin-UK
Shotgun Magazine
"Listening to Lucas swim through the delicate chords on this LP is akin to watching a flower bloom: You dont know whats happening inside the plant so you just sit there, mesmerized. I can listen to this album for endless hours, let the heavy weight of reality cascade from my shoulders and slip into the aural comforts of Feelin and Dream a Window, the opening and finest tracks on this wonderfully engaging CD." - Kyrby Raine
For more press, reviews, and artist info, visit CasLucas.com...
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