Joseph D. "Cast" King (February 16, 1926 – December 13, 2007) was a country musician and songwriter.
Cast showed musical interest when he was young and taught himself to play guitar when he was a 10 years old in Sand Mountain, Alabama. He formed his first band the Alabama Pals at the age of 14. After a tour of duty in Germany with the army’s 106th Infantry Division, during World War II, he put together the Country Drifters. The band played everything from country to bluegrass and also Cast’s own compositions and arrangements.
With his new band he toured extensively and appeared with artisits such as Roy Acuff, Carl Story, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs and Hank Locklin. An invite for the band to record a session at the Sun Studio, resulted in 8 sides, revealing a touring band in fine form and a glimpse into the musical genius of Cast King. The songs the group cut there remained unissued for decades. They eventually turned up in the ‘80s, tucked deep in the midst of the massive 11LP Bear Family box set The Sun Country Years 1950-1959 and on the Charly Records’ compiled single volume Good Ole Memphis Country.
Though the band made no more recordings and eventually broke up, Cast continued to write songs and play his music for family and friends. It was musician, Matt Downer, who located King and encouraged him to come out of a long musical retirement and record. On September 23, 2004, Cast gave his first public performance in upwards of 30 years at Rhythm & Brews in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In 2005 King released the album “Saw Mill Man” with Cast playing acoustic and Downer playing the electric guitar.
The record was met with favourable reviews from Rolling Stone, Arthur Magazine, Mojo, and No Depression among other publications. It also drew comparisons to Johnny Cash's American Recordings series. A song from the album entitled "Outlaw" was included in the score of Gus Van Sant's 2007 film, Paranoid Park. King’s baritone voice and acoustic guitar have been praised as possessing a raw and affecting quality. The narratives of the songs dealt with characteristic country themes such as poverty, broken relationships, and murderous outlaws.
King estimated that he wrote up to 500 songs in his lifetime and while accurately assessed as a rural musician with a style that by 2005 was fairly appraised as being out-of-time, he was again no rustic oddity. Underneath the rediscovery trappings, is just a guy with music in his blood. King was preparing a second collection of songs when it was discovered that he was suffering from cancer. He passed away at his Old Sand Mountain home in Alabama On December 13th, 2007, at the age of 81.
(Edited from Matt Downer’s CD liner notes, Wikipedia, No Depression & The Vinyl District)