“A master guitarist . . . instantly compelling . . . Produces a diabolical downpour that drenches listeners in blues, rock and downright madness.”
Casey Wickstrom is a multi-instrumentalist and live looping artist, vocalist, music producer, writer, and film editor. He sings and plays guitar, lap slide guitar, cigar box guitar, bass, harmonica, and other instruments. His songs have charted on the Apple Music Blues charts, and he has been named one of the Top 100 Unsigned Artists by Music Connection Magazine.
Wickstrom is also a writer, publishing blogs, essays, and short stories on his website. His short story, "Jolene: A Ghost Story" has been published as an e-book and is available on Amazon. In his spare time, Casey teaches yoga and meditation in Silicon Valley, and he is pursuing his MA in English Literature at San Jose State University.
The Music of Casey Wickstrom: Death, Drugs, and Redemption
Casey Wickstrom was born in Mountain View, California, but grew up in the small isolated mountain town of Durango, Colorado. It was here that he began writing and playing music, inspired by artists like Paul Simon and Ben Harper. The prominent bluegrass scene in Durango influenced Wickstrom to pursue guitar, bass, and take up lap slide guitar, using an old acoustic that he converted into a lap slide. His Colorado band The Shoes! recorded two albums, It's the Shoes! and Dig This. After the dissipation of the band in 2008, Wickstrom moved back to Northern California, where he began his solo career with his self-titled album Casey Wickstrom.
In 2011, Casey moved to Los Angeles, and within the first week, disaster struck. He was hit head on by a drunk driver on a freeway offramp -- he broke his back, his right knee, his left arm, his spleen was removed, and his liver suffered extreme lacerations which nearly killed him. His face needed reconstructive surgery, and he would never be the same. In the aftermath of this horrendous event, Casey spiraled into four years of suicidal depression and heavy addiction to opiates, alcohol, and other drugs. Still, during this time, he was able to record his three track EP 1984 Sessions, his concert album Live @ the Pocket, Santa Cruz, and his fourth studio album Desperate Times.
Wickstrom post-crash, Los Angeles, September 2011
Moving back to Northern California in 2014, Casey recorded his hit single "Surf Zombies!" After an overdose, he checked himself into Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, California, where he was able to finally get clean. He began practicing yoga and meditation, and set up a recording studio in his house in Cupertino, California. Wickstrom's blog discusses his past in a deeply personal and honest way, giving intimate insight into his music and his life. His musical recordings and videos have been streamed and watched thousands of times. His fifth studio album Bleed Out was released in 2017; this dark, introspective album covers a wide range of experiences in the aftermath of Wickstrom's late twenties, from his drug use to his sobriety, from his depression and close calls with death to, ultimately, his redemption. Various singles and projects have been released since, as Wickstrom continues to work on his creative output.