Casey Abrams - Put A Spell On You (2018)

The night Casey Abrams was voted off of “American Idol” on season 10, he went out with a bang, covering the 1956 classic “I Put a Spell on You” with such ferocity as if to promise he would be back.

For his new album, the multi-instrumentalist reprises the performance. “It’s a really fun song, and yeah, it’s the last song I did on ‘Idol,'” Abrams tells Variety. “It’s also one of the first songs I did live on ‘Idol.’ That was the first week with the top 24. It was the first time that we were ever live on that stage and it was scary to be on that stage. But man, it was fun.”

“Put A Spell on You,” the album, in a way chronicles Abrams journey with a mix of songs people may remember from the show (“Georgia on My Mind”), songs from his album “Tales from the Gingerbread House” (“Cougartown”) and new material (“Robot Lovers”). One song, “Let’s Make Out,” even name-checks Tenacious D. “Idol” fans may recall that Abrams performed with Jack Black on the season 10 finale.

“Put a Spell on You,” which will be released on Chesky Records, was recorded over two days in a decommissioned church in Brooklyn called The Hirsch Center. Abrams was joined by the members of his trio — Jacob Scesney [saxophone, cajón] and Taylor Tesler [guitar, vocals]— David Chesky in the producer’s chair, and a single “mannequin microphone.”

Abrams brought in Scesney and Tesler, and immediately began to jam on songs that they knew from touring. The result includes fun selections like the theme from “The Flintstones” and “I Put a Spell on You,” which they had never tried before.