Casey Driessen

American bluegrass fiddler and singer

Casey Christopher Driessen (born December 6, 1978, in Owatonna, Minnesota, United States) is an American bluegrass fiddler and singer. He plays acoustic and electric five-string violins. THe five-string violin has an additional low C string not found on the standard violin.

He is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music, where he studied with Matt Glaser, and an alumnus of Homewood-Flossmoor High School in Flossmoor, Ill.

He has performed with Béla Fleck, Abigail Washburn, Steve Earle, Tim O'Brien, Darrell Scott, Jim Lauderdale, Lee Ann Womack, Mark Schatz, John Doyle, and Chris Thile. He has recorded with Darol Anger, John Mayer, Jerry Douglas, Jamey Haddad, and Blue Merle. He has also recorded on the soundtrack for the Johnny Cash film Walk the Line. He has toured with The Duhks, replacing Tania Elizabeth.

In November 2006 Driessen toured China and Tibet with the Sparrow Quartet (which also includes Béla Fleck, Abigail Washburn, and cellist Ben Sollee). He also has his own band, the Colorfools, which includes Matt Mangano on bass and Tom "Tommy G" Giampietro on drums.

His first solo recording, 3D, was released in May 2006 on Sugar Hill Records.^[1][1] In 2007, the track Jerusalem Ridge received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Country Instrumental Performance. With fiddler Darol Anger and Rushad Eggleston, he has released an instructional DVD entitled Chops & Grooves: Rhythmic Explorations for Bowed Instruments.[2]

He contributed to Crooked Still's CD Shaken By A Low Sound (2006), and Taarka's The Martian Picture Soundtrack. Most recently, he released his second solo recording, "Oog" (2009) on Red Shoes Records.^[2]

He has attended the Mark O'Connor fiddle camp as a teacher.

He lives in Valencia, Spain, where he is the director of the Contemporary Performance (Production Concentration) master's degree program at Berklee's campus in Valencia.

References

^ Cole, Katherine (5 September 2007). "Casey Driessen Shows Many Styles on Debut Album, '3D'". VOA News. Voice of America. Archived from the original on 16 January 2009. Retrieved 2 January 2009.
^ "Maintenance".