Casey Driessen - Fiddle
“Worldly musical delights.” — NPR Weekend Edition
“Monster chops and imagination to match.” — Downbeat
“Driessen pours all he’s seen into his instrument; the result is both breathtaking and transformative.” — Rolling Stone
“One of the most brilliant bluegrass fiddlers in the world… This is the life we should wish for our best traditional artists, jetting around the world, melding minds with other masters.” — Folk Alley
“Casey Driessen revels in making his fiddle do things that seem not just left-of-center but downright improbable.” — PopMatters
Once described by singer-songwriter Zac Brown as “a mad scientist with a five-string fiddle,” Driessen has made a career of experimenting, developing collaborations, teaching and traveling. He credits much of the approach and attitude that led to Otherlands to his experiences with musicians such as singer and multi-instrumentalist Tim O'Brien, with whom he first explored the musical traditions of Ireland and Scotland, and banjo player and vocalist Abigail Washburn on their first tours of China and Tibet. Driessen’s work with Béla Fleck on Throw Down Your Heart (an exploration of the banjo’s roots in Africa) is particularly influential. As a special guest on the record and accompanying US tours, it was Casey’s first time collaborating with African musicians.
Driessen has performed in 22 countries on four continents, including a one-person live looping show called The Singularity, and has released three solo records. His life made a shift in June 2015, when Driessen and his family settled in Valencia, Spain, where he spent the next four years as Director of the Contemporary Performance master’s program at Berklee College of Music’s first international campus.
In September 2019, the family traveled the world for a year to explore, connect and create Otherlands. “The idea was family, music and a life dream—so we tried it." (As part of her education on the road, Casey’s 11 year-old daughter blogged and earned A/V credits on Otherlands.)
The family made their way around the world and landed in Finland a day and a half before the borders closed, and spent their first COVID-19 lockdown in a remote cabin. Thankfully, the town was known for its fiddling tradition, and when it felt safe, the music continued. However, visits to Estonia, Norway, and Sweden, set for April 2020, were postponed.
Collaborators Maija Pokela and Antti Järvelä commented, "When the whole world was falling under lockdown, it felt very special and even slightly absurd to get the chance to share music and stories with Casey. According to statistics, Finland is the happiest country in the world—and we dare to claim having the Driessen family stuck in our home region made it even happier!"