Published By
Lamont Jack Pearley
During a 1939 folklorist excursion to the Clemens State Prison Farm, John Lomax and his wife Ruby recorded several musicians as they stayed on the Varner-Hogg Plantation in West Columbia and drove about 15 miles to Clemens.
There they recorded Blues and Rag guitarist Casey Smith, documented as Smith Cason in Lomax’s notes, and Smith Casey on his prison records. The penitentiary record for Smith Casey shows that he died of tuberculosis in 1950, five years after receiving a conditional pardon.
Smith Casey, had appeared on the weekly radio show “Thirty Minutes Behind the Walls,” which featured musical performances broadcasted from the prison in Huntsville. Casey was a guitarist who had worked as a musician before his arrest for murder.
As of now there are no available photographs of Casey, but you know I’m on the job!!
