Al Casey (rock & roll guitarist)
| Al Casey | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Alvin Wayne Casey |
| Born |
October 26, 1936 Long Beach, California, United States |
| Died | September 17, 2006 (aged 69) Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | Guitar |
| Associated acts | |
Alvin Wayne "Al" Casey (October 26, 1936 – September 17, 2006) was an American guitarist. He was mainly noted for his work as a session musician, but also released his own records and scored three Billboard Hot 100 hits in the United States. His contribution to the rockabilly genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.
Casey began working at the age of six as a steel guitar player. He began a longstanding association with Lee Hazlewood while living in Phoenix, Arizona. His guitar is prominent on Sanford Clark's hit 1956 version of Hazlewood's song "The Fool", featuring a lick borrowed from the song "Smokestack Lightning", and on many other recordings by Clark. He was also part of the backup for Duane Eddy's recordings, playing bass, piano, and rhythm guitar. Casey wrote one of Eddy's earliest hits, "Ramrod" (1958), as well as co-writing another Eddy hit, "Forty Miles of Bad Road" (1959).
Casey began working with his own ensemble, the Al Casey Combo, in the early 1960s. With this group he scored three instrumental hits: "Cookin" (U.S. #92, 1962), "Jivin' Around" (U.S. #71, 1962), and "Surfin' Hootenanny" (U.S. #48, 1963), recorded with Hazlewood. The Surfin' Hootenanny album featured Al mimicking the styles of Dick Dale, the Ventures, and Duane Eddy. Drummer Hal Blaine and organist Leon Russell played on many of these recordings; the backup vocal group, named as the K-C-Ettes, were in fact the Blossoms. The small independent label he recorded for, Stacy Records, folded in 1964.
Later he was a featured guitarist on the "Exotic Guitars" series of albums on the Ranwood Records label.
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