Casey Kelly: Reach Out For Me

As in the past, I’ve featured songs that never made it to a respectable position on the charts. Although the term “Bubbling Under” usually refers to songs that charted between 101 to 110, I am a bit more liberal with my definition and use it in a broader sense.

For today’s selection, I picked a cut from an album that was given to me in 1978 while I was a student in Marshall University’s speech department. One of my fellow grad assistants, Joyce Burley McCracken, had a brother that worked in a Warner-Elektra-Asylum warehouse and he had given her some albums a few years earlier. As she knew I loved music, she graciously gave me five of these LPs.

Of that group, two albums stood out: Horslips “Happy to Meet, Sorry to Part” and Casey Kelly’s “For Sale.” Kelly’s LP was often found on my turntable during the next several years. While since the release of his second album for Elektra in 1974, Kelly has distinguished himself as a country songwriter with four top ten country hits he co-wrote with others. The Louisiana native also showcased some of the techniques of the trade in his and David Hodge’s The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Art of Songwriting published in 2011.

I found it difficult to pick just one song to feature as I liked the entire album. Although the recordings didn’t propel him to fame, I found them refreshing and very personal. In addition, there’s a bit of variety in styles on “For Sale.” After listening to all of the tunes, I’ve decided on “Reach out for Me.” I didn’t know this at the time or until today for that matter, that this was the song Elektra selected as the album’s single release.

“Reach out to Me” reminds me of some of Dan Fogelberg’s early material and probably is my favorite cut on the album. Interestingly enough, I didn’t remember that this song was produced by Norbert Putnam who coincidentally produced Fogelberg’s first LP: “Home Free.” Enjoy.