Casey Black, Casey Black, Casey Black…can you tell that’s my new mantra? The experience of seeing Black perform is not just musical, it’s spiritual. I call it Zen-Black’ism. Before going to see him perform—pardon me, if you will—I thought, 'Don’t we have enough white boys singing about pain n’ shit?' However, I was drawn to him in the first place, because he is not just another dude on a Gibson Hummingbird acoustic trying to make it in the city of Los Angeles —okay, maybe he is- but he’s a damn good one.
Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, Casey Black incorporates that all-American folk into a set of carefully crafted songs—piece by piece, they blew me away...well, most of them. Black is part poet, part songwriter, part philosopher. And I can’t go on with life without hearing him perform “Sad and Dangerous” live again. The style of the Black’ism lyrical content was partially in the Marshal Mathers fashion, the seemingly strange correlation between Em’ and Casey being a painfully private air about it. He could write a full album about the most personal themes in his life—love, abandonment, loss, death, ya’ know the usual—and I might feel like I could stab myself in the heart, and he’d go on about singing in his smooth, modest manner blowing away at that harmonica.
Room 5 was the right venue to hear him perform for one's first time. It was quite a romantic setting—a room full of women sipping on red wine and smiling doe-eyed every time Casey would say, “This one’s for the ladies.” There were quite a few of those. I urged him to “Take it off!” from the audience, and he replied “Maybe I should” so calmly and kindly that it seemed a common invitation that he undress to which he RSVP’s tastefully and appropriately. That is how Mr. Black conducts all of his business—like a Southern gentleman, extending his melodies like a good ol’ chap might lend a hand to a damsel in distress nearly hit by a bus on Flower and 3rd.
Casey’s singing voice surprised me, really. It’s deep, rough, sexy. A slender and mild mannered man he is, I thought his recorded vocals were an illusion, an exaggeration. But no, his voice was—bamn. Excellent tone, and I want to hear him do more with it. I also want to hear more variety from Mr. Black’s songs. As he is a first-rate songwriter, I can already envision his adding sass to those jams.
Come on, Casey, rough it up a little—me too, while you’re at it. We ladies like variety to get our heart rate up from time to time, and it is only partially praising when midway through a set my friend whispers, “I think he listens to nothing but Bruce Springsteen ballads.” But really, I just want to see more Casey...because, bottom line, there’s a profound, almost-mystical well of talent and vibrancy in Mr. Black, and I’m a-comin’ back for more.
I’m a globetrotting, pen and ink loving LA woman doused in honey but oh so very raw, raunchy at my finest, and certainly straight up. I’m just as likely to quote Theodore Dreiser—"The old melancholy of desire"—as I am to rap to some Khia and tell you what to do to my neck and back. Of course, I love tacos. My mom still makes the best I’ve ever had. Actually, there was that one time in Mexico City that my stance on this matter nearly changed, but I got car sick and threw up in my cousin’s 1987 VW bug, so that taco de carnitas did not seem so tasty on the way out. Here’s to life: L’chaim!
Plus an Roman chef veteran in a Hollywood apartment, chocolate Cuba Libres, Uzbeki plov with lazer rice, and cochinita melts in a Silver Lake yard. Here are the best things to eat around Los Angeles (and San Juan Capistrano!) this weekend.
When your company sponsors L.A. TACO, you receive a variety of quick and cost-effective benefits for far less than what we price our traditional advertisements and social media mentions at.
The month-old strip mall taquería in Anaheim make all their flour tortillas from scratch using both lard and butter, resulting in an extremely tender vehicle for their juicy guisados like carne en su jugo, carne deshebrada, chile colorado, chile relleno, and chicharrón. Every tortilla is cooked to order, too.