An early Vaudeville specialty, and frequently imitated in the first decades of recording, Casey's Irish monologs were very popular in the days before World War One. Edison hired John Kaiser to imitate Casey, which he did on several
wax cylinders (three of which can be heard at the UCSB Special Collection), but there were six sides recorded
for Columbia disc in early 1915 which are credited to Michael Casey himself, and this is one of them. While the earliest of "Casey" recordings by Columbia referred to Russell Hunting (another recording pioneer) as the author, the labels
on these discs state "original, by Michael Casey", and there's nothing like the original then or now. Despite the predictibility of the stereotype, regarded as "politically incorrect" nowadays, there is some definite personal charm
that comes across. The disc itself was in great shape and only needed surface rumble removal to sound good again.
