Have you ever wondered about the offstage world of a professional musician? Every month in this column, bluegrass now will provide a glimpse into the lives of some of your favorite bluegrass stars. To see captions, just move your cursor over the photos!

Check out this guy. Wild rust-colored hair, casually hip clothes, bright red shoes . . . and, often, a funky goatee. He looks more like a young urban professional than a traditional bluegrass musician.

But Casey Driessen is, indeed, a traditional bluegrass musician. He's also a progressive bluegrass musician, an old-time musician, and a guy who plays music that cannot be tucked neatly into any particular category. At any given time, this 24-year-old fiddle wizard could be working with one of four very different bands.

“This past summer was one of the busiest I've ever had!” he says. “I've been gone every weekend since May. I was doing gigs with Chris Jones and the Night Drivers. I play with Tim O'Brien. I play with Mark Schatz, and the project he's got with Jim Hurst and Missy Raines. And I work with Wise Child.”

By the time you read this, Wise Child will have finished its first 11-song CD. Members of the band also include Luke Bulla and Pasi Leppikangas. “Luke and I come out of the bluegrass tradition,” says Casey. “Pasi's our drummer; he plays with John Cowan. We're really excited about it!”

The product of this amalgamation of talent was described in the Nashville press as “mature and progressive music that nevertheless has maximum youth appeal . . . the group's instrumental interplay is all too rare in pop. It's nearly all acoustic, just to make it more remarkable.”

The oldest of four children, Casey was born in Minnesota and grew up in Chicago. He started playing fiddle at age six, and cut his teeth on bluegrass at festivals and contests all over the country. After graduating from the Berklee College of Music, Casey followed his muse to Nashville, where he's lived for the past three years. He rents a four-bedroom house with two other young musicians: Justin Thompson, a jazz guitarist, and Matt Mangano, an R&B bassist and the fourth member of Wise Child.

“We've got a pretty hip house happening right now,” he says. “There's a younger Nashville generation that comes and hangs out here. It's a cool crowd, lots of new guys. There's always picking!” The guys also throw big parties, like the Fireworks and Fiddles bash for Independence Day and the ever-popular Halloween costume party. The guest list has included David Grier, Chris Thile, Tim O'Brien, and other musicians who participate in their hosts' epic jam sessions. “Chris and Sally Jones have some of the best costumes. The first year, he came as a pharaoh and she came as Cleopatra. Last year, he came as Abraham Lincoln, and she was the Statue of Liberty!”

This year, Casey was on the road with Mark Schatz and Friends for two weeks prior to the party, and didn't have time to fashion his own elaborate costume. Between gigs, Mark offered Casey a clever suggestion. “I wore a white garbage bag with yellow drawstring, white pants and shoes overflowing with newspaper, and newspaper around my hat,” he grins. “I was White Trash!”

One of Casey's favorite hobbies is the noble art of billiards. He owns a pool table that once belonged to his grandfather. “We went up to Minnesota, took it apart with him, and drove it back in a U-haul!” he says. “Luke and I play quite a bit when we're both in town. I enjoy it! But I wouldn't try and hustle anybody, that's for sure.”

All that time away from home made it a real challenge for Casey to maintain his Web site, which contains sound clips, photos, a journal, and more. “I was on the road so much this summer, it was difficult to get work done. So I finally got an Apple Titanium laptop, and it's just been awesome.” He's now able to keep an updated schedule on his site, which enables family and friends to keep abreast of his travels. His site also Acontains Wise Child's four demos, which have helped publicize the band's music. “I get e-mails: 'That stuff's great; is there a CD I can buy?' They get put on a mailing list, and I know who's interested in getting a CD. It's a great tool!”

lmost all of the photos on Casey's site are his own. “A couple years ago, I got a digital camera. It's so easy to try out anything and not worry about wasting film! I've been taking pictures during different trips, going on walks to see what I can find.” One of his favorites, printed here with a few of his other photos, was shot during a trip to Ireland with Tim, Mark, Jeff White and Dirk Powell. “We were in Teelin, a town up on the sea cliffs in northern Ireland. We had this incredible jam session, till about 7:00 AM, with locals and people from different towns. When things cooled down, I went outside, and the sun was coming up. I walked up to the sea cliffs and snapped some pictures.”

One of Casey's newest hobbies might someday make it onstage. “I began learning how to juggle last summer,” he says. “I started with tomato sauce cans-you've got to do that over a bed-and it's a lot of fun. Luke Bulla juggles, and so does Chris Thile. Luke and I talk about getting get some sort of act together for the band. It would be great to get three cheap clunker fiddles, and learn to juggle those, sort of like pins . . . and then light the ends on fire. Flaming fiddles!”

This month, Casey will be able to practice his juggling on the Festival in Paradise Concert Cruise. Lucky passengers on the Norwegian Sun will sail in luxury, listening to exceptional music from Casey, Tim O'Brien, Mollie O'Brien, Mark Schatz, Missy Raines, Jim Hurst, Craig Smith, Rob Ickes, Stuart Duncan, and Darrell Scott. Laughing sheepishly, Casey checks his online schedule for the itinerary. “I have to visit my own website to find out where I'm going to be! Let's see . . . from Miami, we go to Grand Cayman, Roatan, Belize, and Cozumel. I'm really looking forward to it!”

Visit Casey online at www.caseydriessen.com.