Casey James’ CMA Week Nashville Interviews

This weekend in Nashville, there was a flurry of interviews with Casey James by the country music media.  The Country Music Association (CMA) Awards show will be broadcast this Wednesday and the week leading up to it is a media-intensive time around Nashville.  Even though Casey is a newly-signed recording artist and won’t have a record out till next year, the buzz surrounding him is already so strong that he was a much sought-after interview subject.  Casey handled questions about his decision to sign with a country label, the status of his debut album and his hopes for the future as well as some less music-focused questions.  Casey did a tremendous job with the media, whether their questions are silly or serious, and is bursting with excitement to do what he said he would many months ago — show us all what it is that he does.   The media interviewers all shared that they are looking forward to playing his music when it comes out.

There will be more interviews as it gets closer to the Wednesday night show.  UPDATED:  There is live streaming of arrivals at the CMAs here:  http://www.ustream.tv/cmaawards#events

First is an interview conducted Tuesday with 95.7 New Country, San Diego.  It’s a relatively long and detailed interview for CMA week and the interviewer asks some great questions about the tour, his musical influences, how work on his upcoming album is going.  He mentioned meeting Alan Jackson and Jackson telling him “my daughters are going to be excited that I met you.”   He said he’s having a blast meeting with other writers around town (asking one writer, “do you have this much fun every day?”).  She asks him about his fans (mentioning that he seemed to have the most fans out of anyone on Idol) and Casey said, “it’s a good thing to be appreciated by people all across the board.”  She said Casey was her favorite on the show and that she’s looking forward to hearing his music.   Casey, in answer to the question what his expectations were going into the show, said he tries not to have any going into a new situation because you’ll either be disappointed or take things for granted.  He said his music on the show was more a “Texas southern thing” and how he likes good music regardless of genre.  But he specifically mentioned always liking bluegrass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbTpqmuZwRM&feature=share

Next is Casey’s brief interview with Angie Ward of 104.1 WTQR, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  She asked said she’d voted for him “four hundred million times” and said they’d be playing his music.  Then they discussed a little Idol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTm7YNjqaao&feature=player_embedded

Casey interviewed with Neil and Reese of B93.7 in Michigan.  Nice interview, discussed what a life-changing experience being on AI has been.  “A little while back I was doing the same old gigs here and there doing what I could to make money and be happy, play music and do the thing I love and now I’m here with you and about to go to the CMAs.” He talked about the plans for the album and how they “want to do it right, take my time, make sure the album is right.” After the interview was over, someone off-camera mentioned the catering at the CMAs and Casey said, “That’s what I’m looking forward to right there.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhpJeX2BgIE&feature=player_embedded

Next is a great interview with Dave McKay of 99.5 WQYK, Tampa Bay’s country station, that was aired on their local ABC affiliate.  Casey mentioned that “Gary Overton came out and met with me and talked with me from Sony Nashville and we talked about my musical influences and where I wanted to go with my stuff.”  Who are those musical influences?  “I listen to everything across the board, but — I love Merle Haggard, Waylon, Willie, Marty Stuart, Ricky Skaggs.”  Noncountry?   Casey mentioned, not surprisingly to his fans, familiar names Doyle Bramhall, II, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Lynyrd Skynyrd.   The interviewer asked if Casey was going to the CMAs and he joked that he was “going to sneak into, maybe sweep the floor or something.”  For fans eager to hear some new music, Casey said he’s been invited to come back to American Idol to perform and hopes to have a single done in time for that.

Next is an interview released Wednesday morning with Lori Grande from 102.5, WKLB Boston.  He handled her not knowing much about the Idol tour with aplomb.  He said, “what a blessing to be able to go from busting my butt every day in a place this size, to going to a play for big crowds who want to hear you.”  She said you (like Carrie and Danny) would have made it even if you hadn’t gone on AI, but he said he’s tried for eleven years to take a different path but it was AI that was the path that worked.  At the end she said that we want you, just Casey, nothing to do with AI.  That was nice to hear.

http://www.wklb.com/On-Demand/Episodes.aspx?PID=1873&pn=2

The next interview is with Sammy Cruise of 107.9 WIRK from West Palm Beach, Florida.  Casey mentioned Gary Overton coming and visiting with him during the AI tour and the eleven years playing before going on the show.  He said almost everything has changed and that he has opportunities he’s never had before.  He’s looking forward to hearing his music on the radio and seeing it in stores.  Casey said he enjoys the interview process and getting to meet new people.  Some new info, Casey said he loves to fish.

http://wirk.radio.com/2010/11/09/cma-week-in-nashville-2/

The next video is part of Casey’s interview with 99.9 WKSF, Kiss Country, from Asheville, North Carolina.  A longer audio of the interview is below.  The scoop from this interview? Casey said the record should be coming out in the beginning of the summer.

The next video contains an excerpt of Casey’s recent interview with Jeff Roper and Angie Ward of WTQR 104.1 from Winston-Salem, North Carolina.   Unfortunately, the interviewers did not ask for any details about the upcoming album, but they did mention that they’ll be playing it when it comes out.

Next is a terrific audio interview with WNCY 100.3, Y100 Country, part of the Podcast with Bear and Charli.  The interviewer starts out talking about guitars, which is great as it is one of Casey’s favorite topics.  Casey said he’s “writing right now” trying to put out a great album.  He shared that “the record label is taking me as an artist, not a contestant.”  He also expressed that he and Sony are on the same page of what they want:  “Let’s do it the right way, let’s get a great album.”   When the interviewers asked if he’d played at one of the local Nashville venues, he responded with words that should make his fans around the country and around the world hopeful, “I want to play every place that I can play.  That’s what I love to do.”  And he added that he’ll be as excited as the rest of us to hear his songs on the radio.

http://www.wncy.com/podcasts/bear-charli-podcast/2010-cmas-casey-james/

Next is the longer, radio version of the interview with 99.9 Kiss Country.   In this part, Casey mentions his connection to and appreciation of country music.  He explained to the interviewer that back during his eleven years as a working musician, he would play Merle Haggard, George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson,  and others who he looks up to in country music.  The interviewer was very positive and supportive, said he was excited about hearing the music and getting to play it.

http://www.99kisscountry.com/cc-common/mediaplayer/player.html?redir=yes&mps=default_skin.php&mid=http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/30353/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/30353/1847/richmedia/Casey_james_edit.mp3?CCOMRRMID=20621529&CPROG=RICHMEDIA&MARKET=ASHEVILLE-NC&NG_FORMAT=&NG_ID=&OR_NEWSFORMAT=&OWNER=1847&SERVER_NAME=www.99kisscountry.com&SITE_ID=1847&STATION_ID=WKSF-FM&TRACK=

The station posted pictures from during the interview as well as after.  Here are their pictures:

Casey James at KISS Country

Here’s an interview with Tom & Becky from WBBS, B104.7 in Syracuse, New York.  Tom says to Casey, “You sing from your heart, you sing from your gut.”  He tells Casey that he has a lot of talent and they’re looking forward to playing him on their radio station.

http://www.b1047.net/cc-common/mediaplayer/player.html?redir=yes&mps=cmaawards2010.php&mid=http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/SYRACUSE-NY/WBBS-FM/casey%20james-EDITED-WBBS-CMA2010.mp3?CPROG=PCAST?CCOMRRMID&CPROG=RICHMEDIA&MARKET=SYRACUSE-NY&NG_FORMAT=&NG_ID=&OR_NEWSFORMAT=&OWNER=&SERVER_NAME=www.b1047.net&SITE_ID=1679&STATION_ID=WBBS-FM&TRACK

The following photo of Casey was tweeted by Mark Razz, musical director of 92.5XTU, Philadelphia’s country station.

Casey James interview with WXTU

Casey was at the BMI awards show on Tuesday. Here’s a picture tweeted by Shane Tallant, of Fox 17 Tennessee.

Casey James at BMI awards

Casey James and interviewer

A blogger posted the above photo with Casey. Thanks to @CaroLaughs for finding it.

YouTube channel twistdfrk put together two compilation videos of all of Casey’s interviews during CMA week:

Casey James w/Rita Huff

A fan posted the above photo of her meeting Casey.