Song for Joe Casey

As artists and now gallery owners, we are often asked how do you know when art is good – here is an example.

Marty and Corinne Lucas, (Return to Normal) who performed at Artpost during Joe Casey’s exhibit, were so inspired by his life and work that they wrote this beautiful song for him.

You can listen to the song here – just click the big orange button:
Joe Casey – (mastered by smallfishrecordings) by MLucas

Joe Casey

A woods of sturdy perfect trees,
seven cattle in a meadow standing strained.
A two-lane highway, a truck rolls down
loaded full with yellow grain.
Somewhere in America.

An empty house upon a hill,
the lights are on, the drapes are open –
an empty window, an empty porch,
beside an empty driveway.
Somewhere in America.

His daughter pearls, his wife knits,
he sets his easel up and sits,
and paints these scenes from yesterday,
takes his memory back a-ways.
To the Ozark hills, big Missouri rivers,
to the dripstone table at Meramec Caverns.
Where the James boys gathered to split the loot,
to the hollows and the ridges where they’d fish and shoot.

On his canvas the hills are melting, the hills are melting.
Hills are melting.

Here he’s a toddler on his mother’s knee,
all around is family.
Arranged on chairs and posed real nice,
look at the camera, smile —
twice as long as they ever smiled before.
He’s got suspicious eyes, he wonders what they’re smiling for.

Different colors, different days,
different people with different ways,
A common story, a simple scene,
a sky that’s blue above a land that’s green,
Somewhere in America.