New Album Review in the Corvallis Gazette Times

Letters from a friend
Soulful singer, pastor, bartender manages to embrace it all on new CD

By Nancy Raskauskas
The Entertainer

CORVALLIS — Corvallis singer/songwriter Casey Hurt is a man of contradictions and it suits him just fine. As far as he’s concerned, the harder he is to label the better. A few that might come to mind:

Pastor

Bartender

Musician

Tattoo lover

Husband

For Hurt, it all boils down to one thing: Honesty.

“I’ve always wanted to hold myself in tension,” he said. His new CD “Letters from a Friend” artfully harmonizes the many seemingly disparate facets of his life, with conscious songs that muse on “trying to learn to treat everyone as human.”

“There is an intimacy in anything that you would sing or write to a friend,” Hurt said. “I kind of view all my songs in the album as letters,” he said. “My music tries to give a voice to people that don’t always have voice.”

The title song was inspired by Hurt’s experience working at a pharmacy, where one day he watched a co-worker belittle a heroine user, who came in to buy clean needles.

The song is sung from the perspective of the addict.

“You know I love you, but I’m just working on myself/it’s not as easy when you don’t have somebody else -. Everybody has got some sort of vice/it’s just that this one’s got me.”

“We all have our vices, so that song is really about struggle,” Hurt said.

In another song, “Seven Seas,” Hurt reflects on the vices in his own life, which include an obsession shared by many — Facebook.

“There’s a fight that’s inside of you/A fight that you can’t win/You treat distractions like lovers and truth like a distant friend.”

Hurt calls his music “nakedly honest Americana soul.”

Many of the songs on “Letters to a Friend” go whole-heartedly to the dark side with brooding reflections on serious themes. Others are beguiling simple ditties with irresistibly catchy lyrics, such as “Stick Around” and “Get Back to You,” a duet with harmonies by the talented Valeri Lopez.

“I’m going to take that train/I’m going to take it soon/I’m going to find myself a way to get back to ya.”

Other collaborators on the CD include Brian Harvey of Pine Language and members of bands Norman and F.O.L.K.L.O.R.E.

Hurt has put out a couple of EPs, but this is his first full-length album.

“I’m just trying to step out and play the music that really says something to me, he said.

Hurt spent many of his formative years in Corvallis, attending Adams and Mountain View elementary schools, Santiam Christian and Crescent Valley High School, between the ages of 5 and 16 years old.

His family now lives in Hawaii, where he finished out high school before moving heading back to the mainland.

These days he works behind the bar of the Downward Dog. His wife, Lauren Hurt, is a photographer.

In addition, he is the pastor for a nondenominational Corvallis church called Doxology that meets Sundays at Avery Park. Formerly it held worship in local high schools and in the now-closed Platinum nightclub.

“We figured if we held it in a bar almost anyone could show -. and be transparent and honest about who they are,” Hurt said.

Hurt sees encouraging other artists and musicians as one of his primary roles in the church.

He often collaborates with other local musicians. He’s also a drummer for the Vicious Kisses.

Just so there is no confusion, it should be stated that Hurt is not a fan of Christian rock.

“I don’t understand why Christianity needs a subculture,” he said. “Anyone who makes music is displaying God whether they believe in it or not — you can say that about the most obscure or profane artist.”

CHECK IT OUT

WHO: Casey Hurt

WHAT: “Nakedly honest Americana soul”

UPCOMING SHOWS:

• 10 a.m. Sept. 5, Corvallis Artisan’s Market.

• 8 p.m. Sept. 5, Cloud 9, Corvallis. Admission: $5. With: Vicious Kisses, F.O.L.K.L.O.R.E., Norman and Pine Language.

NEW CDS: “Letters from a Friend” can be purchased online at CD Baby, ITunes and Digg Station or at an upcoming show.

INFO: www.myspace.com/caseyhurt