Season 12 of NBC's "The Voice" brought an extra-special treat for fans of the show in Kansas City, my place of residence. Local singer-songwriter-musician Casi Joy, a native of Smithville, MO, captured the attention of the coaches with a 4-chair turn, the hearts of her hometown, and the ears of music lovers across the country with her yodel-infused cover of "Blue", by Patsy Cline. Are you kidding me? Killin' a Patsy Cline song! On national television, in front of four of the premiere musicians in the business! That takes some guts, my friends.
Casi Joy had a great run through "The Voice", making it to the live performance shows before having to say goodbye. Since then, Casi has been a woman on fire, performing a frenetic schedule in Kansas City, Nashville, Iowa, Minnesota, and many other locales across the country.
Earlier this year Casi announced on Facebook that she was planning a Christmas album. Well, this was astounding news for me, as I was a fan already, and then adding a Christmas record! What could be better?
Well.... how about an exclusive interview with Casi Joy to talk about her upcoming Christmas album? I reached out, she responded, and before long we were sitting in a booth at
Kozak's Laketown Grill in Smithville, MO, chatting about her upcoming Christmas record, and many other things. So, I'm pleased to present to you a Merry and Bright! artist interview with Casi Joy.
"Joy for the Holidays" by Casi Joy, featuring 12 classic Christmas songs, including "Santa Claus is Comin' To Town", "Mary Did You Know", "Cool Yule", and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". Available November 21, 2018. Visit
casijoy.com for ordering information.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Merry & Bright: I always like to start out with the
story of your inspiration for making a Christmas album. Can you tell me a little bit about what made
you decide to make this record?
Casi Joy: I’ve
actually been getting a lot of requests at my shows because I do so many of the
classic country songs, – we even had some pre-orders for it. They’re like “When you make your Christmas
album – here’s the money for it – write my name down”. So I guess the demand is high enough for it we’d
better get on it. We’ve been talking
about doing a Christmas album for years but you have to think of doing it six
to eight months in advance, because there’s so much promo that goes on, and it
takes so long to record a full album, and I’m doing ten songs [MB: Since the interview, Casi added two songs - there are now 12 on "Joy for the Holidays"], so it’s taken so
much time and planning. We’ve been
thinking about it for years, and this year we remembered “Oh! We should start
on the Christmas album right now!”
MB: I saw that you reached out to your Facebook fans to
get suggestions for what to include on the album. How has that worked out? What kind of response have you gotten?
CJ: Well, we had
an overwhelming response for “O Holy
Night” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, so those were the first songs added to the
list. We had a pretty good response with
requests for songs! And I pretty much
followed those requests.
MB: And you
performed “O Holy Night” at the Kaufman Center (in Kansas City)?
CJ: Yeah!
MB: Tell me a
little bit about that. Was that part of
the holiday show?
CJ: Yeah, they
were doing a holiday show for the members of the Kaufman Center.
MB: Like a special engagement?
CJ: Yeah! It was a
really, really special event to be part of – just to perform on that stage in
such a formal setting was really special, especially in my hometown. And that was my first time getting to perform
“O Holy Night”, and I’ve loved that song since I was young. It’s always been the most epic vocal song, in
my opinion.
MB: It is.
CJ: I’ve always wanted to sing it. So that was my first time having to learn the
guitar parts and everything. But I think
for the Christmas album I’m going to play piano on it.
MB: Oh ok – that’s
neat! Amongst the Christmas music collectors community there’s s rule that if
you can’t sing “O Holy Night”, please
don’t try, because it is very challenging.
CJ: Yeah,
yeah! Don’t touch such a sacred song!
MB: Well you did a
great job with it, and I can’t wait to hear the album version.
CJ: Thank
you! I’m excited!
 |
| Der Bingle meets Casi Joy! |
MB: Can you tell me a little bit about you and Christmas
music? Has it been a life-long love of
yours?
CJ: Yeah, I mean
Christmas has always been my favorite time of year. I spend so much time with my family, and we
go up to Minnesota, and have our Christmases up there with my grandparents and
my Mom’s side of the family. So Christmas
music always makes me feel so nostalgic and warm and fuzzy, and makes me think
of family, and, you know, delicious food!
And spending so much time with loved ones. So it’s fun to get to just wrap myself
completely up in that feeling for like six months while I’m recording this 😊
MB: That’s a key
to a good Christmas song – that feeling of home and family and nostalgia and
those happy memories.
CJ: Yeah!
MB: The artists
that write original Christmas songs – if they can get that aspect of it,
they’ve got a good one.
CJ: Right, yeah 😊
MB: What are some
of your favorite Christmas songs? I
assume some of these that are on the album.
Favorite songs? Favorite
artists? Performances?
CJ: “O Holy Night”
is definitely my favorite. “The Christmas
Song”… I’ve always loved “What Child Is
This”.
MB: When recording
Christmas standards, some musicians play it straight and do a very faithful
interpretation of the songs, and others really try to put some unique personal
flavor into it and make it their own.
Have you done that with any of these songs? Is there any one that jumps out as ‘this is
going to be a signature Casi Joy Christmas song?”
CJ: Yes - “Silent
Night” is a more country vibe of the song.
MB: That’s a hard
one to really put your own spin on.
CJ: It is. I had a hard time recording it. I actually had to go back - I listened to it
the next day and I was like ‘actually, that was not very good and I can do
better’, because it was a more challenging song than I thought. You think ‘Silent Night’, whatever…
MB: It’s kind of
the elephant in the room – ‘how can I tackle that and really do it justice and
make it unique?’
CJ: Yeah, exactly,
so that one’s a different one. “Have
Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” I’ve put my own spin on. Oh “Santa Baby”! Oh! I really like how that one came out. I had fun being sassy on that one!
 |
| casijoy.com |
MB: “Mary, Did You
Know” - What’s your connection with that
song? Why did you pick that one to be on
the album?
CJ: That one was
requested a lot. I think that’s what put
it on my radar. I don’t know if that’s
one I would have chosen initially, but now that I’ve done it – I had a lot of
fun with that one in making it my own, because I hadn’t heard it a lot of
times. I guess that just wasn’t a
popular one in my world growing up. So
that one came from the requests, and I’m grateful for that one, because I love
it.
MB: So you’re
doing most of the work on this album yourself – the vocals, the
instrumentation. Can you tell me a
little bit about the journey and making the album?
CJ: Yeah – it’s a
lot of work. I’m working on some outsourcing
on this one, because when I did “Covered in Joy” it was so, so much more work
than I anticipated to record and perform and mix and master all by myself, and
I had never really mixed female country vocals before, so I had to do a lot of
research on that, and there was a learning curve. So I have learned a lot and I’m using that
with this Christmas album, but I’ve got so much other stuff going on that I
might bring in my producer that works on my original music, Keith Harris. I’m going to record my vocals and he’s going
to make them shiny, and merry and bright!
😊
MB: Do you have any holiday season concerts planned where
you’ll be performing songs from the album?
CJ: Yes. The Kansas
City
Plaza Lighting, which is on
Thanksgiving. And then on December 13
th,
my band and I are going to be the house band on NBC on KC Live! They’re doing a holiday content special and
they’re going to have us playing in between segments. So we’ll be playing on the TV! And I’m doing a concert in Nashville for it
too, so we’ve got a ton of holiday stuff, and those are all on my
website.
MB: And I hope at
some point you’ll get to take a breather and enjoy the holiday season.
CJ: Yeah! I don’t know when that’s going to be. We really slammed so much into this year,
especially with the album, because this is a project that I have to put six
months to eight months of my time into, and you can only sell it - it’s only relevant for two months.
MB: Yeah.
CJ: So we’re just trying to slam so many shows and so
many opportunities to sell the physical copies before it’s the New Year and
nobody cares about it anymore.
MB: Hopefully
until next year, it’ll come back around
CJ: That’s true –
there’s always next year!
 |
| http://thevoice.wikia.com/wiki/Casi_Joy |
MB: OK – a couple
questions about “The Voice”. You had a
great run – Blake Shelton was your coach. What’s one of the key things you
learned from Blake?
CJ: From Blake –
he told me not to look down, not to angle down so much, when I’m playing on
stage. He said that’s because I’m used to being on a stage where there’s people
down below, like in the honky tonks in Nashville there’s people on the floor,
and so you’re looking down, and so he told me ‘Remember to look up too”. That was kind of the neat tip that I had
never noticed. I learned a ton from the
actual vocal coaches behind the scenes and the hair and makeup crew and the
wardrobe department and the choreographers.
I just learned so much from that side - the business side of everything- that was really helpful and I still use all of
that.
MB: Watching the program I try to imagine what all
has to go into that production, and I can’t.
CJ: It’s
insane. It’s nuts, yeah. So much money in there.
MB: I have a unique opportunity to ask this: You had a four-chair turn. What is it like? How in the heck do you actually pick a coach? And how do you even keep everything together
while they’re all fighting over you, and making their pitch.
CJ: Yeah,
yeah! It was insane. It’s so much like you see on TV that you’re
like ‘wait – is this real and I really have to pick a coach now?’ or is
somebody going to come in and be like ‘ok, we already pre-picked and you have
to pick Adam’ or whatever. And I was
just like ‘really, this is where I pick?
You want me to talk now? Or what do I do here? You guys are really fighting over me – this
is real!’ It’s really surreal.
MB: How did you
make that decision? Did you have Blake
in mind beforehand?
CJ: Yeah! They ask you before to put your choices in
order of preference, so I had already had Blake for my number one, and I had
just been told from people in the industry and in Nashville to choose Blake
because he would help me after regardless of what happened, so that’s what I
did 😊
MB: Well
congratulations on the good run that you had.
CJ: Thanks!
MB: Kansas City has really embraced you as a hometown
star since being on The Voice. What’s a
message for your Kansas City fans?
CJ: Oh gosh - I
can’t even put into words how grateful I am for them. I mean, to have a whole city rally behind me
– I just feel that love every day and I send it back to them. And I just hope to keep putting Kansas City
on the map in a good way, and making my city proud.
MB: About Kansas City…, I’ve seen just in the past four
or five years the local arts and music scene here has just exploded with the
Crossroads district especially. What are
your thoughts about what we’re seeing in this town with this burst of creative
energy?
CJ: Yeah! I think
that the whole arts district is just remarkable. It’s beautiful down there and there’s so much
creativity going on. I think it’s just so cool to be part of such a
creative community and at this time when it’s starting to boom. I’ve had friends come from Nashville, which
is such a creative capitol of the world, and they’re like “Gosh the art here is
just amazing!” and they couldn’t even believe it, and I’m like “Yeah! That’s my
town!” I’m very proud to be from Kansas
City.
MB: You’ve posted
on your website that you’re very supportive of some animal-friendly charities,
and you recorded “Howl at the Moon”, which probably makes everybody cry.
CJ: Yeah – my Mom takes a break when I perform that
one. She’s like “and that’s my cue to
leave”.
MB: Tell me a little bit about your love of animals.
CJ: I’ve always loved animals. I’m such a huge animal advocate, fighting for
animal rights because they can’t fight for themselves, so that’s why I’m so
behind that cause. I’ve been so lucky to
have such special pets, and they’re such a big part of my life. My dog Danny Boy is all of my Instagram and
he’s like more than a child to
me. It’s like – obsessive. So I’m all about anything I can do to be
involved with animal rights and speaking up for rescuing.
MB: I also saw that you had Autism Speaks as a foundation
you support. Is there any personal
anecdote around support of that, or just because it’s a good organization?
CJ: It started
just because it’s a good organization. I
have a degree in education and I’ve worked in Special Education rooms, and I’ve
seen autism first hand and how special those kids are. They’re just incredible – some of the things
that they say. They’re just such smart,
amazing little kids. So that was
definitely inspiring, to get involved. I
used to substitute teach in my Mom’s classroom – she works in an early
childhood room – and they have a lot of children with autism in those
classrooms and they would just blow my mind every single day. That was how I got the connection with Autism
Speaks, when one of those student’s mothers asked me to come and sing at an
event. I’m like “Absolutely!”
MB: We’re coming up to the end of the questions. You are just a bundle of energy when you
perform. Not being punny by intent but
there is joy that bursts from your music – where does all this energy come
from?
CJ: I think just
surrounding myself with such a positive group.
I think I’ve always just been a very positive person. I always want to see the good side in
everything. There’s so much to that
because if you wake up and you’re like “Oh, I’ve stubbed my toe and Oh! It’s a
bad hair day and Oh! I’m ugly and I don’t’ feel good” then your whole day is
going to keep being like that. So I wake
up and I’m like “Head kinda hurts but <clap> I’m gonna do this today”, so I just try to
have the glass half full mentality anytime that I can and remind myself of all
the positive things that are going on. That
helps a lot. And not scrolling social
media all the time <laugh>
MB: Bringing it back to your Christmas album – any final words that you want to share about
it?
CJ: It’s going to
be coming out November 21st – because oh! I’m going to be co-hosting KC Live That day
to promote the Christmas album and the Plaza lighting since I’m doing that the
next day, so I figured ‘what a perfect day to release when I’m on live TV co-hosting
a TV show.
MB: And then it’s
on to the next thing, right?
CJ: Yeah, then I’m getting back into the studio to do more original stuff!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Following the interview we continued to chat. We talked about the endless possibilities for titling her Christmas album - she had not yet settled on "Joy for the Holidays". She said that she had considered a Christmas song featuring some of her trademark yodeling, but decided against it this time (please, for next time, I'd love to hear that!) We discussed the challenges of marketing music in today's world, and how to stay current with her broad and varied fanbase, balancing the preferences of the classic country fans who (like ol' Der Bingle) still prefer physical CDs, with the listening habits of the fans of her original works, who live more in the streaming world (think Spotify) where frequent releases of singles is the best way to stay present and in the listeners' playlists.
Interviewing Casi was a true pleasure. She is the same positive, energetic, super-friendly person that you see during her shows and on broadcasts. I enjoyed getting to know her and getting a little preview of "Joy for the Holidays". Many thanks to Casi Joy for spending time with me and sharing her thoughts about "Joy for the Holidays" with the readers of Merry & Bright!
"Joy for the Holidays" releases Wednesday, November 21. Ordering information is at
casijoy.com.
Catch Casi Joy at these upcoming events:
November 21, 2018: Co-host of "KC Live" on KSHB (NBC)
November 22, 2018: Performing at the Plaza Lighting (Kansas City)
December 1, 2018: Smithville, MO Christmas Parade
December 4, 2018: Chicken 'n' Pickle Christmas, North Kansas City, MO
Details and complete show schedule on
casijoy.com.
Casi Joy
Website
Casi Joy
Facebook
Casi Joy
Twitter
Casi Joy
Instagram
Curious about Casi's yodeling?
"Blue" on "The Voice"
Thanks to
Kozak's Laketown Grill for letting us occupy a booth for an hour or so.
A special thanks to dear friend Angie for serving as my interview editor!
Copyright 2018 - Aaron Henton
