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.
Cas has played everywhere from top notch venues like the Fillmore (w/ Marc Broussard) and Freight and Salvage to major festivals like SXSW and Midwest Music Summit... along w/ every dive bar and coffee house w/in a couple days drive of the Bay Area. Cas constantly toured the West Coast, from 2003-2008, and has just taken his 1st break from the stage, since he was in high school. He'll come out swinging, this winter, with new gigs booked and more recording in the works.
Cas has released 2 critically acclaimed studio albums, first 2004's surprise myspace hit/demo-turned album, "Giving it Back," and his crowning studio achievement to date, 2007's "Roads." Cas described "Roads," as his first chance to "really get the sound I've had kicking around in my head into one of my recordings, at long last. Imagine having been a serious chef, since you were 16 (when Lucas formed his first band, with two high school friends), but never getting to cook a full meal, just appetizers. Pretty much all the tunes on "Roads" had been kicking around my head for years, and finally hearing them, the way they were meant to sound, was one of the most enriching experiences in my life... let alone watching the many layers of the album take shape, over 10-months."
"Working with so many great musicians like Adam (Rossi, co-producer, keyboards, B3, vocals, programming (LUCE), Kevin (White, bass (Chuck Prophet, LUCE, Papa Mali), Steve (Inglis, formerly of Grateful Dead drummer, Bill Kruetezmann's "House of Spirits" band), and Erik (Jekabson, trumpeter from John Mayer's band)).... I was a kid in a candy store." I think it sounds like we're having fun, on the album, and we were. I wish I could make a record like that, in an environment like that, every day, for the rest of my life.... but that would be very, very expensive, on a musician's alleged salary."
Cas is beginning pre-production for his new, self-produced EP, "Back Blue." This new collection of tunes, due for release in 2010, features Cas' return to his delta blues roots. "Back Blue" features all solo acoustic tracks, including several slide guitar tunes. Whatever your tastes, the kid can play guitar. "Giving it Back" was stripped down, but "Back Blue" is just Cas and the acoustic guitar, all live takes (no overdubs or major edits), features some jaw-dropping chops... fingerpicking, slide guitar, and flat-picking. Cas put it this way, "when I got serious about acoustic blues, it was all I wanted to play. I hit a plateau, especially with slide guitar, in my early 20's, and it started to feel more like a musical card-trick than something I really connected with. Having taken a few years' step away, I've picked it back up, and it's like getting to hang out with my best friend from when I was a kid, every day, and we're best friends again.... hence the name of the disc, if you hadn't figured that out already, in which case you may want to think harder."
"I enjoy making big-beat, roots/rock/pop albums, whatever you call what I do or what we did on "Roads,"... but I really enjoy just pickin' and grinnin' too. Slide guitar was a big part of what got me serious about being a guitarist, and it's great to have reconnected with it, on a very core/visceral level. I'm having a lot of fun, just sitting around, playing the blues, and I hadn't, for a couple years. Honestly, I thought I was off it, for good, and that is very much not the case, which is a nice surprise."
Cas said that all he hopes for is an "open-earned listen," from every person that gets exposed to his music, in a recent interview with the Eureka Times Standard. "I think, too often, especially in the states, as opposed to Europe, people get introduced to a new band or artist, and, rather than just listening to what's going on, they try figure out what it sounds like, in relation to the bands they listen to and/or whatever's the new, hot thing. I've always been a just a huge fan of so many bands and artists, from across so many genres... I can talk jazz or obscure delta blues with you for hours, but I'll always a soft spot for for a well-crafted, hooky, rock/pop/soul tune."
"I've corresponded, on MySpace, Facebook, and through caslucas.com with fans who are all over the spectrum, including Hip-Hop heads, hardcore jam-band-only folks, people who listen only to old, acoustic blues and jazz... and of course, a lot of fans of bands like DMB, Ben Harper, John Mayer, Jack Johnson and all the successful, major label bands, in 'my sub-genre.' I'm a grown man now, and I might never be a rock star, and I'm ok with that. There's a lot of middle ground there, so, after all these years of gigging and promoting, that's really all I want, the open-eared listen. It's from the heart. I hope people dig it, especially "Roads," which we really put a lot of work into and is a really fun disc, in my opinion... which is incredibly, inappropriately biased, of course."
Having achieved a lot, at least on the indie scale, Cas says, "I really still get excited, every time I hear from a new fan or sell a couple CD's online than usual. I'm just glad to be putting my music out in the world. It's my life's work and stuff, and I'm serious about and deeply love the craft of song-writing and, first and foremost, playing the guitar... If playing the guitar wasn't so _____ fun, I'm sure my entire life would be different. I'm glad it is that fun. Whatever happens with future CD's, tours, and brushes with industry success, I know I'll always get to play the guitar everyday and sing my songs, and that's enough."
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. He's not afraid to "go there," whether it's an upbeat love song or something darker, but the songs maintain a pop sensibility that has been embraced by listeners from all over the traditional radio formats and "genres."
Having put those darker years in his rear-view over 5 years ago, Cas has come through through it all with a renewed sense of creative and personal focus, a rediscovered love for the blues, his sense of humor firmly intact, and a backlog of over 150 original songs. He's no one-trick pony, and he's still a young man. "I'm in no hurry to conquer the world," says Cas. If I can just get my band out on the road and make a living at this, that will always be enough for me. It's just what I do, and I know I'll never stop, even if I'm just some old guy playing blues in a coffee house. I haven't worked a job for some years, and that will always be cool. I know I tried/am trying my best, and it is a really competitive, tough business. I'll just keep trying, and hopefully, the ball will move up field."
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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