Randy Casey - I Got Lucky (2018)

Randy Casey's 8th album, t Got Lucky, was inspired by a guitar that Casey beat out Rick Neilsen of Cheap Trick to get. ln fact, Casey was getting it back; the 1969 Gibson Les Paul Custom was the first guitar Casey had ever played as a kid. When decades later, the neighbor who had let him play the guitar back then got an offer from Neilsen to buy it, he offered it to Casey first. Casey dug deep, and the neighbor let him make payments, but at last, his first love was his. immediately, songs began to flow from the guitar, Casey said. lt's that guitar that produces the swampy slide of "Bed Bug Blues," "Broken Arm Blues," and "That Train," the Stonesy rock of "One Step Ahead," and the moody overdrive of "Strange."

Casey is a consummate guitarist; as Shannon Curfman's first music director, he has played the largest of stages with the biggest of stars. He's also gotten his instrumental work placed on NPR's "AllThings Considered" and other national shows. I Got Lucky reveals Casey's other prodigious talents as well, including creative and clever songwriting that captures the essence of classic blues while contributing tasteful innoyations to the genre. The result is a collection of songs that is at once impressively eclectic and firmly rooted in tradition.