R.I.P.--J.D. "CAST" KING 1926 - 2007

From Locust Music:

"Cast King passed away at his Old Sand Mountain home in Alabama on December 13th. He will be missed.

"Cast taught himself to play guitar when he was a 10-year-old boy on Sand Mountain. In 1955 King recorded fewer than a dozen songs with his Honky- Tonk band, The Country Drifters, at the legendary Sun studios in Memphis. Five decades later, he recorded his debut for Locust Music with local producer & musician Matt Downer at the age of 79.

"To many of you, his single album release - Saw Mill Man - became a household favorite, a taste of something raw & unadulterated from a musician few had heard of but whose rough and ready confidence & knack for song garnered praise in Rolling Stone, No Depression, Arthur, Mojo, Harp, Spin, Playboy, The Wall Street Journal and numerous other publications. Filmmakers started emerging out of the woodwork from all over wanting to tell Cast's story. No documentary was ever made but Cast's music graces the closing credits of Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park which is expected for theatrical release in the U.S. in 2008. Promoters far and wide tried their best to bring Cast to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and a number of European Cities throughout 2005 & 2006 but, having never flown in an airplane, he didn't see reason to begin now.

"Cast was working on new material for a second record. Cast had talked often about wanting to make a gospel record, not the kind you'd see on television, he'd say, but the kind that really gets to a man's soul. 'Saved' is one of those songs. Please download the song & enjoy it."

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Cast King's Saw Mill Man is one of my favorite records of the last few years. Go to the Locust Music site to download "Saved," and--if you havent--pick up Saw Mill Man. It's damn sad that we wont have another album from Cast King.