Kiser fronts new band

Published 9:26 am Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Casey Kiser, the former lead guitar player for local musician Jimmy Bivens, has struck out on his own and formed a blues-rock group: Casey Kiser and the Jakewalk Saints.

Kiser, 20, formed the group with David Salim, 16, on drums and Zion Mark, 17, on jazz bass. The latter two are former attendees of the local “School of Rock,” which featured Kiser as a co-instructor. Salim is a sophomore who has also played with Bivens and Mark is a junior in high school with recording engineer aspirations. Kiser is also lead singer in addition to lead guitar duties.

The group has been together for about six months. Kiser said the group’s name came out of sheer panic. True to blues fashion, the name comes from Prohibition slang for imported Cuban whiskey.

“It was so potent it would paralyze you if you drank too much of it,” Kiser said. “When you’d get paralyzed, it would be called the jake walk.”

The group’s first formal gig came at the Lostine Tavern on New Year’s Eve.

“We’ve all played together off and on for a few years,” Kiser said.

The group practices about twice a week. Practices last about two hours for covers and three to four hours for originals, of which the group has several. As an example, they played a well-put-together blues number, “Right Back,” for the Chieftain.

Covers are chosen by listening to a thorough collection of 1950s and 1960s blues and blues rock.

“I really like a lot of the English stuff like Cream and Derek and the Dominos,” Kiser said. “Chicago stuff too, like Magic Sam (Maghett). Salim likes the same music with modernized drum beats. His favorite drummer is Garth Brooks’ road drummer.”

“He’s just absolutely amazing,” Salim said. “I saw him last summer.”.

Kiser mixes in the old with the new, naming modern blues dynamo guitarist J.D. Simo. Kiser recently acquired a red Gibson es-335 similar to Simo’s.

Kiser said the band has something different to offer than the usual Wallowa County fare.

“I like to think we’re going for something different that maybe a lot of people here aren’t used to hearing,” he said. “With the singer-songwriter crowd around here, we’re going more like Chicago blues.

All the band members agree they need to work on more original material. To that end, the group is working on making a recording. Mark plans to eventually attend a mixing engineer school in Nashville. Kiser is also working on getting the band new gigs, particularly out of the area. He’s aware that many people associate him with country music because of his time with the Bivens band.

“It might be a bit of a shock, knowing me as the country guitar player showing up to play blues,” he said with a laugh. “We’re getting to play what we want.”

To contact Kiser for band bookings, use the band’s Facebook page or email: ckiserband@gmail.com.