NASHVILLE, Tennessee- Casi Joy has been singing publicly since she was 5 years old. Her first performance was a talent at her hometown’s local talent show near Kansas City, Missouri. Not being from a musical family, her parents were a little confused by her desire to become a singer.
But like most people, even if they were not performers, they liked music, and they had a cassette tape of the group Alabama and on the other side was a karaoke track of their song “Angels Among Us.”
It was Joy’s track first experience with an instrumental track that she could along with.
She recalled, “I became obsessed with the song and begged my parents to enter the talent show.”
From that point on, her mother started booking her shows around the Midwest, including the country opry circuit. After years of performing country classics from artists like Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, and Tanya Tucker, she was spotted and signed by Radio Disney at 14.
To be honest, after hundreds of interviews and years of experience, no one I have ever met sings Patsy Cline better than Joy. Her covers of “Crazy” and “She’s Got You” are not to be missed.
When I told her that she replied, “I credit my mom for that, for making me learn all the classics when I was younger. It is ingrained into my soul.”
As she got older, Joy tried out for various music competition shows but never made it.
And while she initially resisted, her mother told her, “You have to yodel.”
Joy finally relented, and in 2017, she sang Patsy Cline’s “Blue” on NBC’s The Voice and got a four-chair turnaround. And even though she didn’t win, being on the show on Blake’s team was the catalyst she needed to move the needle.
Besides being gifted musically, Joy is also athletic. At first, she had no plans to attend college. Her goal was always to move to Nashville to begin her music career in earnest. But when she was offered a four-year scholarship to attend Park University to run track, she took the opportunity before her meteoric rise to fame on The Voice.
She kept doing music while getting her degree in Early Childhood Education.
Once she completed college, she and her husband, Bryan Lankford, decided to move to Nashville on New Year’s Eve of 2014.
“Let’s do the dang thing,” she decided.
Not too long after, she was recruited to try out for The Voice.
Besides being a stellar singer, Joy is a gifted songwriter. She recalled writing her first song in third grade about a friend who moved away. In college, she was in a rock band and wrote a lot of their music as well.
Once she moved to Nashville, she being writing with others, which she admits has been a “growth opportunity.”
She said, “It is great to be in the room with other great writers who lift me up and inspire me and help me say things that I hadn’t been able to say yet. I’ve been doing a lot more writing since I moved to Nashville.”
After The Voice, Joy and her husband toured extensively until COVID shut everything down. Earlier, they had sold their house and bought a tour bus. However, they took the obstacle and made an opportunity. They took their bus to campgrounds where Joy could perform outdoors as they still maintained the required social distance.
“I am super grateful that we could find a new opportunity to still be able to spread joy and sing music. I think we kind of came out on top for 2020. Doing music is so important for people’s mental health,” she informed.
To date, the most popular self-composed song Joy has on Spotify is a spirited, bouncy tune called, “The Money.” With words like It ain’t about the money unless you just don’t have it all, it is a sentiment to which many can relate.
And with the song “Namaste,” Joy’s true country roots shine as she humorously states, “Namaste right here and drink this beer.”
Since her time on The Voice, she’s shared the stage with Maren Morris, Keith Urban, Carly Pearce, Dustin Lynch, LOCASH, and other various chart-topping artists. She has also previously been featured by Rolling Stone, People, CMT, and many more.
Joy is currently working on a new album. The first single she has just released off the record is one of her more personal and serious songs and is called “Under the Hood.”
She came to the write with the thought of a beat-up old car that still ran well.
She explained, “You know when you have your first car when you are 16 and the tank’s on empty and the lights been on for a couple of days. But you still know you can get to the store a couple of more times because you’ve got a few more miles left in the tank. I feel that a lot of people have been feeling that way for the last three years, running on fumes and hope.”
“Under the Hood” was the inspiration for the upcoming album.
“It’s been a crazy workload in the studio getting all these songs done and I can’t wait to get them out,” she exclaimed.
With the record nearly done, Casi Joy will soon be getting back out on the road where she does what she does best, which is singing in her sassy, soulful way that ultimately will make people smile.
You can follow Joy on her website, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and all streaming platforms.
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Bethany Bowman is a freelance entertainment writer. You can follow her blog, Instagram, and Twitter.
