Local music legend Gene Casey is hitting all the right notes
Mr. Casey grew up in a “Beatles” household in Malverne in the 1960s dreaming of two careers: being either the star center fielder for the New York Yankees or a guitarist in a rock-and-roll band. His life is bookmarked by the release dates of the Beatles’ movies and albums; Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band came out when he was 7, he recalls.
He and his brother Vincent — who he says is his hero – would practice the two-part harmonies of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. It was Vincent who taught Mr. Casey his first few basic chords.
All it took was a high school talent show to cement Mr. Casey’s love of performing. Forget the bright lights of Yankee Stadium; on stage is where he wanted to be.
Mr. Casey spent years living in Manhattan and working odd jobs while playing $70-a-night shows in bars and clubs.
That money didn’t go far when split with three bandmates, and Mr. Casey fled New York in 1988 to work as a handyman at writer John Irving’s estate on the East End.
“I knew what I wanted to do, I just didn’t know how to do it,” he said. “I still don’t know how to do it. I just want to play music and write songs, wherever it takes me or doesn’t take me.”
He settled in Sag Harbor and threw together a band with his brother and a few friends to play gigs for fun.
The name “Lone Sharks” came from what he thought was a clever play on words: The “Lone” symbolizes the cowboy hero, like the Lone Ranger, while the “Shark” is a hint at the Hamptons’ beach heritage.
To this day, people still misspell it as “the Loan Sharks” — to Mr. Casey’s dismay.
“Had I known it was going to be the name that followed me around my whole career I would have picked a different one!” he joked.
And as for his signature white cowboy hat, which he now wears at nearly every performance?
“Receding hairline,” Mr. Casey jokes, pulling off the hat to reveal a tuft of gray hair.
The band’s popularity spread across the South Fork and by the ’90s Mr. Casey was playing at Mr. Irving’s parties. Since then, the group’s popularity has slowly spread, especially after Mr. Casey moved to the North Fork in 2003.
There are a few consistent members of Mr. Casey’s band: Chris Ripley on drums, saxophonist Paul Scher and Tony Palumbo (not the politician) on the bass. The rest of his bandmates cycle in and out as they’re available, he said.
Inspiration for Mr. Casey’s songs comes at strange times: when he’s raking the leaves; when he’s painting the walls.
When a tune jumps into his head, he scrambles for a pad and a tape recorder. When he’s driving and can’t find his recorder, Mr. Casey will call his answering machine at home and leave a 10-minute message of him singing.
“There’s a part of the brain — like the subconscious — that definitely gets released when you’re thinking about something else,” he said.
Gene Casey & the Lone Sharks have released several CDs on their own. They book about 150 shows a year. The band’s music has been sold to TV shows like “Sons of Anarchy” and “Justified” and was featured in the 2012 thriller “The Tall Man” and the 2013 Robert De Niro flick “The Killing Season.”
The band doesn’t have a record label. Mr. Casey does the marketing himself, relying on word of mouth to spread his music.
“When you’re at this level of show business, when you’re doing it all yourself, the only way you really get the word out is by showing up,” he said. “On a certain level, it’s a success, even though it’s not rock stardom.”
The business of music, he says, is a necessary evil.
“This is going to sound corny, but music is a spiritual journey,” he said. “The gigs and the showbiz and the business aspect of it is just the paperwork. The real thing is playing music.”
Mr. Casey’s passion shows in his music, said Mr. Thompson, a longtime friend. A London native, Mr. Thompson moved to the North Fork via New York and recalled first hearing the Lone Sharks at a small, now defunct venue on Main Street in Greenport.
“They blew my mind,” he said. “I couldn’t believe a band as good as the Lone Sharks were playing out here on a regular basis … Here was an act that really knew how to bring the spirit of rock and roll back.”
Mr. Thompson said few can transition so seamlessly between musical styles and do it so well. Fewer still can make a living doing it.
“He’s making a living as a musician on the North Fork. There’s not many other people, if any, who are,” he said. “In another world or in another time, if he had lived in Nashville, he would have been on many records.”
Mr. Casey said he’s “thrilled” to be receiving the Long Island Sound Award.
“It’s nice to be acknowledged,” he said, adding that it makes up for the days when the gigs don’t go so well and the long drives at night drag on.
But if he could, he’d let the accolade fly under the radar. Sure, Mr. Casey has been telling people about his award, but not because he wants to brag. He’s inviting people to come because that’s what he thinks bands have to do when they win awards.
“It’s kind of embarrassing in a way,” he said, laughing. “I’m there to entertain people and they’re giving me an award.”
It’s an award that’s long overdue, Mr. Thompson said.
“It’s sometimes very easy to take for granted someone who you can see every week,” he said.
