I'm a musician and music writer turned entertainment attorney at The Seay Firm LLC (www.theseayfirm.com) where I work exclusively with artists. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram, both: @TheSeayFirmLLC. I live in Atlanta, Georgia. I listen to music all of the time.

assume everything on here is unfinished. i cannot play guitar do not ask.

The Contrarian is the alter ego of Washington, DC-based musician/producer/writer Casey Rae.

This page is for demos, covers, unfinished ideas, and mixes-in-progress. 

For the whole sweet real deal, head to:
www.thecontrarianmusic.com
www.luxeternarecords.org

The debut release from The Contrarian was 2001's harrowing "Cult of the Dead Rockstar." It is now an out-of-print collector's item. 

"The Contrarian" arrived in 2003. Ambient glitch with a dream-pop bow. 

"Soft Rock," from 2005, combined toothsome pop and musique concrète. 

2007's "Northern Lights" was a nod to flamboyant '70s pomp-rock. 

2009 brought "Eldritch Musicks," a song-cycle inspired by early 20th-century weird fiction scribes such as HP Lovecraft and Arthur Machen. 

2010 saw the release of "Farewell Plutonia," an epic rock cycle about all manner of daring escape.

The EP "Margins" was released in 2011, followed shortly by the technicolor heaviness of "Arjuna" the same year. 

Most recently, The Contrarian took a deep-dive into "occult-rock" with Advanced Magick for Beginners, which fuses the psychedelic witchery of early Fairport Convention with thrumming guitar menace.

In 2015, the Domina Abundia EP took a death-pop detour to frozen space in the name of science. At least that's what the mission brief said.

The Contrarian refrains from live performance, preferring the hermetic confines of his Sounds of the Baskervilles studio to the many stages he's graced.

“Atlanta’s genre blending ensemble Blair Crimmins and The Hookers have been creating a sound that is both unique and inspired for years. Crimmins himself began developing it some time ago, honing in on the magic of ragtime and the 1920’s, coupled with some Dixieland jazz. The fourth studio album from Crimmins’ impressive creative mind is due out in February of 2017, and we haven’t been this excited in quite some time.” – Impose Magazine

Best Songwriter “Crimmins has never been more refined than on this year’s Sing-A-Longs CD. If he caters to any genre, it’s one that’s entirely his own, and that’s something a lot of guys with pens and guitars either don’t know how to do, or don’t have the guts to do.” – Creative Loafing

“Blair Crimmins & The Hookers will make a jazzbo out of you. This ain’t your great-grandfather’s ragtime, and Blair Crimmins isn’t any quaint Dixieland revivalist. He’s a rock star — and Sing-A-Longs is a boisterous good time. Swing, Hookers, swing!” – James Man (Ink 19)

“Ragtime and 1920’s Dixieland Jazz have got a champion in Blair Crimmins.  Sing-a-Longs is a perpetual motion machine of notes, rhythms and words and, while all albums should be just that, this one proves its worth as it shimmies, shakes, rattles and roars Ragtime.” – The Alternative Root

Best Songwriter 2013 ”Crimmins has never been more refined than on this year’s Sing-A-Longs CD. If he caters to any genre, it’s one that’s entirely his own, and that’s something a lot of guys with pens and guitars either don’t know how to do, or don’t have the guts to do.” – Creative Loafing

“The new Blair Crimmins and The Hookers album is fantastic. Dr. John and Preservation Hall have amalgamated a very astute protégé. While honoring his influences, Blair adds his own swinging southern panache with dashing youthful vehemence: rapid-fire lyrics and an audacious hair-tossing delivery. The band is solid, recalling fine players like Pete Fountain and Al Hirt.”
- Pete Knapp & Company

“The sound evokes the hot jazz, ragtime and blues of the 1920s. Still a rocker at heart, Crimmins’ marriage of these distinct musical worlds wound up creating a timeless niche.” – Creative Loafing

“Blair Crimmins is a time traveler of sorts. He’s a kind of music preservationist seeking to reintroduce the clamor of vaudeville and the wild glamor of speakeasies and jazz to an audience less aware.”- Charleston Scene

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Blair Crimmins began his current music career in Atlanta, Georgia, with a determination to bring Ragtime and 1920’s style Dixieland Jazz to new audiences. What he created was a sound that is at once modern while being deeply rooted in the past. Now four years, and five hundred shows later, he has toured the Eastern United States playing large venues and has opened for national acts such as Mumford & Sons and Preservation Hall Jazz Band.  A multi-instrumentalist and music academic, Crimmins writes songs and arrangements for a classic New Orleans style horn section consisting of Trumpet, Clarinet, Trombone. His debut release “The Musical Stylings Of” became a college radio sensation on WRAS Atlanta making him the most requested band on the air. His last release and video “State Hotel” landed them a full feature in Creative Loafing Atlanta.  In 2012 Crimmins showed his musical diversity by writing and recording the full score for the independent short film “Old Man Cabbage”. The following year, Crimmins was the critics pick for Best Song Writer of 2013 in Creative Loafing's Best of ATL issue. Blair Crimmins now continues touring this year to support his newest studio album entitled “Sing-a-longs”, a break through record which showcases a band who have polished their signature sound from years of touring.

Alabamian in Brooklyn via Seoul, Korea. Making songs.

John Seay is following