Hal Casey

We regret to inform you of the death of a Central New York fiddle legend, Hal Casey, Sr. Hal played the Grand Ole Opry. He won the NYS fiddle championship six times, as well as the Canadian International Championship, and the southeastern US Championship. He was a member of the North American Fiddlers' Hall of Fame. and played in many groups, most recently, Swing This!, with guitarist Mark Hoffmann.

Hal began fiddling at the age of 8 in 1936, playing Irish jigs and square dances in a duo with his mandolin playing brother for the Hibernians in Syracuse's West End. The skill he developed on the instrument as a young man won him a scholarship to the prestigious Eastman School of Music but Hal passed it up for a chance to join a touring band. During the 1950's, he worked on the Louisiana Hayride, where he backed up Elvis and Johnny Cash, and later in Nashville as a staff musician on the Grand Ole Opry. Over the years, he performed with such luminaries as George Morgan, Jack Greene , Bill Monroe, Floyd Tillman, Vassar Clements, and Billy Walker. He later toured with Ernest Tubb and, more recently, the Winters Brothers. In the late 1950s Hal returned to Syracuse for good. For several years he played locally with Hal Casey & North Country. Over the past decade, Hal began to sit in with various bands in Syracuse, including the Bluegrass Band, Diamond Someday. He enjoyed playing any genre of music equally well!!

His obituary and service dates/times can be found here.