Tim Casey
and THE BLUESCATS
Rockin, Jumpin, Swingin the Blues !

What's Happening - News and Events

What's Happening Update 04'-05'

   2005' started out with a bang due to the release of our fourth CD "Rockin', Jumpin', Swingin' the Blues". The Bluescats proceeded to play CD Release Parties everywhere from The Oxford in Snohomish, The New Orleans in Pioneer Square to Jazzbones in Tacoma. We received some rave reviews from Blues Review Magazine, The Blue Suede News, Blues on Stage, The Washington Blues Society , Inland Empire and Walla Walla Blues Society's as well as Europe's Juke Blues Magazine and many more E-zines all over the world. Airplay in the states was good, Europe even better and also Australia and Japan.

   Some of the memorable gigs we did last year were The Hot August Nights Festival in Walla Walla, The Strawberry Festival on Vashon Island, Dance Networks Swing Dances at The Leif Erickson Ballroom in Ballard, Snohomish Artist Guild's Winter Blues Festival, Jazz walk in Anacortis, The Northwest Folklife Festival @ The Big Bamboo Dance Hall located in The Exhibition Hall @ Seattle Center (200 swing dance couples jumpin' & jivin '). Mark Dufrense lead singer from Roomful of Blues sat in with The Bluescats at The New Orleans and we backed up Vocalist/Harpmaster John Nemeth at The Oxford Saloon the day after we played a rockin' New Years Eve show the day before there.

   A downtown Seattle highlight was our first engagement at Seattle's newest and best venue The Highway 99 Blues Club located on the waterfront where we set a weekend local band record for attendance. The Bluescats just moved to our fourth venue in Pioneer Square, Doc Maynards and tore it up on St Patrick's Day and will continue to play Doc's one Saturday night a month. I have been a blues video collector for the past 15 years and was on Marlee Walkers Blues TV Show three times showing vintage blues clips for her viewers.

  Big Alan Issackson developed carpel tunnel disorder after playing with The Bluescats for about three months which opened the door for Don Montana to sit in while we auditioned drummers. During that process Don decided he would like to return full time and we could not be happier! The Bluescats continue to kick ass and take names. You know what I always say ( and I was a drummer for 25 years ), a good band with a crappy drummer is a crappy band, a crappy band with a good drummer is a crappy band, a good band with a good drummer is a good band. If that band practices, and keeps the same members, you have a chance at being a great band!

  We have decided to keep filming this 2005' festival season to include more footage to our upcoming DVD release. I know it's taking more time than expected but with technology changing so quickly, we will be presenting our fans a retrospective look at Tim Casey and the Bluescats from our first appearance at Bumbershoot in 1997 thru 2005, lots of great stuff.

  We hope to see you-out on the blues scene Rockin',Jumpin', and Swingin' the Blues!

Update 2003-2004

Hey now! It's time to update our "What's Happening" page, so here we go straight from Bluescat Productions Headquarters. 2003' was another fortunate year for the Bluescats, plenty of gigs where we met a lot of great new people out on the blues scene. We would like to thank our friends and fans for all your support!
Once again we were on the bill with some very big names in the blues, Little Charlie and the Nightcats, Roomful of Blues, Koko Taylor, Darrel Nulisch, Joe Louis Walker, Coco Montoya, Big Bill Morganfield, as well as Northwest Ledgends Jerry Miller, Curtis Salgato, Too Slim and the Taildraggers and The Fabulous Wailers.

We spent the year recording at Bluescat Studio's for the 2004' release of our fourth CD "Rockin', Jumpin', Swingin' the Blues" with Mike Meagher engineering, "which will be released in February 2004'. The Bluescats were included in two CD compilations in 2003'. Raw Records "Seattle's Best Blues" Vol. 2 and Crossound Records "Washington's Golden Delicious Music Series" Rhythm and Blues Volume I. We are currently putting the finishing touches on an updated DVD version of our "American Blues Scene" video. This will now include live performances from Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival, Portland's Waterfront Blues Festival, The Jazz in the Valley Festival in Ellensburg, The Winthrop Blues Festival, KSER 90.7,..:t:M's Blues Festival at The Historic Everett Theatre where we had The Lindy Bomb Dancers on stage dancing with us and some private footage from Tim's 50th birthday party .This should be due in March 2004.

After five years with the same line-up The Bluescats have gone thru some changes in 2003'. Jeremy Smith was first to leave due to personal reasons. Brad Chatfield got married, moved to Tumwater and is just too far away to keep up our schedule. Don Montana and his family adopted a beautiful son, which will keep him busy while remodeling his house. We are proud to announce our new drummer is "Big AI" Isaacson formerly with The Mark Dufrense Band. All of these Bluescats are on the new CD and we wish them well.
With this many changes we have had the time to review all the material we play and it has been a positive refreshing experience to up-date it all

We feel real good about this current version of the Bluescats, although streamlined from the past, the band has added more backing vocals, and with the drive to survive, and a renewed team outlook and respect for the musicians we are playing with, The Bluescats will continue to deliver. Every time it changes, it just gets better. Jumpin' and Jivin' is what we do, so come on out and swing with us in 2004!

Update 2002

Hi everybody, thought it was about time to update our "What's Happening" page so here we go with what's happened, and what's going to happen.

Last year The Bluescats were fortunate enough to open for some major blues stars we really dig! The list is as follows; Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters, Little Charlie and the Nightcats, Rusty Zinn, and Tab Beniot.

We released our 3rd CD "Swing Shift" to great reviews from all over the planet, of course Seattle's Washington Blues Society, and Blues To Do's Monthly acknowledged it as well as Blues Magazines such as Blues Review, Blues Access, Juke Blues, Rootstown, La Hora Del Blues, Blues Bytes, Blues On Stage and The Blue Suede News. (see highlights from these reviews on our "Media Reviews Page".

The summer festival season was good to us last year, we played The Edmonds Waterfront Festival, Heritage Festival in Redmond, Everett Concert Series, and headlined a stage at Portland's Waterfront Festival on the Fourth of July with the playbill reading; Anson Funderburgh & the Rockets, Roomfull Of Blues, Tim Casey & the Bluescats, and Shemika Copeland in front of about 25,000 blues fans.

Some of the memorable gigs we played were New Year 's Eve at Larry's Blues Cafe' in Seattle's Pioneer Square, Swing Dances for Living Traditions at The Leif Erickson Ballroom in Ballard, The Oxford in Snohomish and Washington States biggest, best and newest venue
Jazz bones in Tacoma, where we competed in the "Road to Memphis" contest sponsored by The Blues Foundation (WCHandy Awards).

Raw Records in Port Townsend released a CD titled "Seattle's Best Blues" with one song from The Bluescats on it. It is currently on sale throughout the northwest.

Bret Jacobs our Trumpet player took a job in the Midwest leaving the Triple Shot Horns around New Year's Eve 02', the search was on for a replacement. We are proud to announce the addition of Joey St. John on 2nd Tenor Saxophone. Joey's aggressive, hard-rockin' style has been a fixture in the Seattle music scene from smoky blues bars to the Key Arena.

The Bluescats are currently recording @Tim's Bluescat Studio with Mike Meagher Engineering. Congratulations are in order for our Baritone Sax player Brad Chatfield who just got married! The Bluescats have renewed their corporate sponsorship with Washington's largest motor sports dealer The Cycle Barn, our thanks to Jim Boltz and Dave Preston for their continued support. We have updated our entire website for a new look and added a picture gallery and a guest book. Please sign our guest book, let us know you're out there ........................a big thanks to Carol Brammer for maintaining our website so fabulously!

The Bluescats are proud to announce we are the featured act at this year's Washington Blues Society's "Best of the Blues" awards show, April 29th at The King Cat Theatre. We will open the show and back-up Louisiana harp master, Charlie Musselwhite after he does an acoustic set with San Francisco guitarist Rusty Zinn. Tim Casey & the Bluescats are nominated for " Best Blues Band" again for the fourth time, and our own Mike Fish was nominated for "Best Bass" his second time!

Hope to see you soon out on the blues scene, Rockin " Jumpin " Swingin" , the Blues with us.
.............................................................................................................. Tim Casey and the Bluescats

2001
***Tim Casey and the Bluescats have just inked a deal with Raw Records in Port Townsend to have a song from their Swing Shift CD included in a cd entitled "Seattles Best Blues, Vol. 1. Due in May 2001, along with 14 other seattle blues groups. **** Last year we spent the entire year working on our new CD "SWING SHIFT". We recorded the tracks at Robert Lang Studios in Shoreline, a castle overlooking the Puget Sound with Jeff Ott engineering, and Tim and Jeremy producing. Jeff took us next to Ironwood Studios for some overdubs and mixing, and we ended up at Stepping Stone Studios for the final mixes. Swing Shift was then sent to Rick Fisher at RFI CD Mastering for final mastering. We are very proud of Swing Shift and hope you enjoy it as much as we do In addition to Swing Shift, the Bluescats have recorded a TV Show Video to accompany the new CD entitled "AMERICAN BLUES SCENE". This was recorded with four cameras in color, capturing the band in an 8 song performance, and edited at Pinnacle TV Studios in Seattle for Bluescat Productions.

Tim Casey and the Bluescats are also very excited to announce the addition of Cycle Barn as our new Corporate Sponser! The arrangement is a natural one, says Dave Preston, the Cycle Barn's marketing director. "Blues bands-especially good ones-tend to play gigs that are popular with our customers", Preston said. "We love the music the Bluescats play, and this local outfit has made quite a name for itself in the Seattle area over the past three years". The band and Cycle Barn will list each other on their respective Web sites and will co-promote various activities.

Cycle Barn will also sell the band's three CD's, Video, and T-shirts promoting both the band and Cycle Barn. the pair will also combine to produce a fourth CD to be used as a fund raiser for Riders for Health, a London-based charity that provides dirt bikes, training, and resource management to medical staff in African nations. The Cycle Barn provides U.S. funding for the international organization.Stay tuned for more developments in 2002.