BILLINGS - TJ Casey is Montana's singing cowboy. His songs put lyrics to life under the big sky.
His latest CD, Pure "D" Cowboy, recently won the Rural Roots Music Commission's country western album of the year.
"It's pretty awesome actually," said Casey. "My passion is music and watching people smile when I sing and their faces lighting up, that's what I love to do."
It is not the glitz and glam of a Country Music Association award given to Nashville's hottest stars, but it is a top honor for traditional troubadours like Casey.
He grew up on a cattle ranch in the Pryor Mountains with his mom, dad and two brothers.
It is hard to say whether he was raised by the land or in the saddle.
"We listened to Marty Robbins and all the gunfighter ballads, that was the kind of stuff we listened to growing up," said Casey.
And who he dreamed of being. In the early 1980's, he left the ranch and rode into Nashville to make it big as a singer/songwriter, and was succeeding, "I used to go back stage at the Opry all the time and hang with Jim Ed Brown, Whispering Bill Anderson, Jeanie Seely, and Tammy Wynette."
Until tragedy stuck in 1988, when his mother, down visiting him in Nashville, was shot to death during a domestic dispute where she just happened to be a bystander.
Casey blamed himself. He left Nashville and his singing career behind and returned to life as a ranch hand.
He returned to his music career in 2002 after the death of his father, who always encouraged him to sing again. He now has three albums under his belt and performs nationwide. He maintains a humble life with his wife Marcie and their dogs on a few acres of land in Shepherd.
The bright lights of Nashville are pretty dim from here, but that is just how this cowboy likes it.
"My studio is right here, everything you see out here is my studio, the mountains, the plains," said Casey standing in a field. "We take for granted what we have in this world and in this life, and I don't take for granted what we have. I used to but I don't anymore. This means more to me than anything."
Casey said Dierks Bentley is one of his favorite country singers right now. The two shared the stage together last year.
Casey is working on his next album. He said it contains songs he wrote that allowed him to express his emotions over his mother's murder.