Cassino will be releasing their new EP, Bottlenecker, on May 27th and today I’m excited to premiere the new song “Rose of Lee” from it. You’ll find that below and can pre-order the album on iTunes. Nick, talking about the song said:
This song was the first one written after Kingprince. We had some of the same guys who played on Kingprince jam on this record. They tour with bigger pop-country acts, so it’s entertaining to let them loose and see what they come up with. Their understanding of the mathematics of music is interesting to me because they hear the songs sometimes at a different angle. We recorded this record in my friend’s log cabin north of Nashville in the snake infested woods of Smiley Hollow. It had two creeks and was fairly quiet most of the time. Ed said there was a wolf like creature haunting the woods around the house, and the dogs wouldn’t go outside. I came to the conclusion it was maybe some version of Ed’s soul haunting himself. Or a malamute.
They began recording their debut album, Sound of Salvation, in 2006 with Nashville-based producer/drummer Craig Krampf, known for his work with artists like Dolly Parton, Alabama, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Perry and Melissa Etheridge. While the record didn’t have a specifically Nashville sound, the city did become prevalent in the writing & recording process, both as a new environment to inspire songwriting and in the cast of characters brought in by Krampf. Featuring contributions from E Street Band bassist Garry Tallent and legendary saxophonist Jim Horn, Salvation was released independently in March 2007.
Cassino settled down and started working on another record in early 2008. Odom exited the process (he now plays with the group Destry), and Torres teamed up to write primarily with Alabama native and longtime friend Edward Puckett. Puckett filled in on bass for the earlier Cassino tours, and through constant exposure, they found that their similar tastes and different styles complimented each other well. They set up shop in a small apartment and wrote & recorded for most of 2008. The city of Nashville this time found its way into the recording process through the contributions of friends and session/touring musicians Kevin Arrowsmith (fiddle, banjo, mandolin) Tripper Ryder (bass) and Craig Krampf (drums, percussion). This endeavor became Kingprince, and was released in December 2009. An EP of unreleased versions of songs from the Kingprince sessions followed in 2011, titled The Weight of Bother.