Tramp Art songwriter Casey Abrams releases "Thirteen American Ghosts"

Singer-songwriter Casey Abrams did most of his growing up in Northwest Florida, which is a couple hours in various directions from Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana and is, thankfully, nothing like Miami Vice. It was, however, a difficult place to cultivate obscure (and cultivated) musical tastes. So Abrams spent countless hours digging through dusty record bins at flea markets. There, for 25 cents, he could take home a slab of vinyl and discover that he did like Genesis and John Sebastian but not, say, Mahogany Rush or the 1910 Fruitgum Company.

On his debut album, Thirteen American Ghosts, Abrams unveils the result of all that album-scouring—a style he calls "tramp art music" that melds the folksy songwriting traditions of Paul Simon, Warren Zevon, and Randy Newman with a sense of arrangement and melody influenced by jazz and progressive rock. Recorded by Abrams with assistance from engineer Chris Rochon (King Calculator) the mood and lyrics of these 13 meticulously crafted tunes evoke the dark-wood creepiness of Southern gothic Americana alongside influences from the Tin Pan Alley song book. That mix is sweetened by Abrams’ delicately cynical vocals and a unique finger-picked guitar style that recalls folk, ragtime, and country blues. But despite his old-fashioned musical education, Abrams’ sound is thoroughly modern, a treat for fans of Jeff Buckley, M. Ward, and Iron & Wine.

The album is a logical progression for Abrams, who spent his formative guitar-playing years slaving over Leo Kottke and Ry Cooder records. While playing in a prog-rock group in his youth he discovered jazz and the American songbook through the compositions of Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael. "It struck me that these guys were the original singer-songwriters," Abrams says. "The only difference between them and Bob Dylan or Joni Mitchell was that their music was grandparent-style, and they didn’t do drugs."

Abrams went on to earn a degree in composition and jazz guitar from the University of Massachusetts, where he garnered numerous awards and wrist injuries from practicing too much. He has performed at festivals, concert halls, and countless coffee houses, sharing stages with Richie Havens, Joan Baez, and Eric Burden, among others. His first project, Big Swifty, was awarded second place in the "Late Night With Conan O’Brien Unsigned Band Competition." Thirteen American Ghosts is available at www.caseyabrams.com, and a string of tour dates in support of the album are planned for the fall, as well as festival, radio and TV appearances.

Check it out if you dare at:

http://www.caseyabrams.com

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