Casi Joy performs at Pickering Horse Show

By Phil Cobb | August 2, 2018 |

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Casi Joy laughs during her performance Thursday night at the Pickering Horse Show in Pickering, Missouri.

PICKERING, Mo. — From Johnny Cash and Linda Ronstadt to Tom Petty, Taylor Swift and even some yodeling, Casi Joy performed her heart and her feet out Thursday night at the Pickering Horse Show.

Originally from Smithville, Missouri, the former contestant on “The Voice,” wore a pair of white high heeled shoes and joked about possibly wearing the wrong shoes as she shifted between songs during her two-hour set at the Pickering Rodeo Arena.

Around 200 people, some inside the arena and others lined up outside in lawn chairs in their yards, took in the show full of recognizable songs like “Play That Funky Music White Boy,” by Wild Cherry and “Jolene,” by Dolly Parton as well as several original songs written by Joy.

She performed her new single, “I Do,” that is to be released on Saturday as well as, “Sparks in a Mason Jar,” and a “sassy tune,” Joy wrote titled, “Red Lips.”

Joy told the crowd that she wrote “I Do,” completely in secret and the original recording of the music is less than desirable because she didn’t want anyone to know she was doing it. She recorded the guitar in her car on her phone. She performed the song as her vows to Bryan Lankford at her wedding in February. To view her vows, visit https://bit.ly/2O6SpNt. For more information or to pre-order Joy’s new single, visit her website at http://www.casijoy.com/.

The crowd swayed and tapped toes, and 15-month-old Cooper Fisher dressed to the nines in his best rodeo attire did his best hip shakes to the faster tunes. Fisher seemed quite taken with Joy’s yodeling, which she did while performing two different songs. Later he danced with his mother Brooke Fisher to Joy’s rendition of “Uptown Funk,” and walked with his grandparents Jim and Marlene Florea.

During the final few songs of her set in Pickering, Joy was informed of a special guest in the crowd, former Pickering Horse Show Queen Donna (Hanna) Carmichael, who 70 years ago on opening night of the horse show had been crowned queen.

“The horse show wasn’t here on this ground when I was crowned,” she said. Going on to explain that the current Pickering Elementary, used to be the high school, and the horse show used to be held on some land north of it.

Carmichael doesn’t remember if they had to sing, but that contestants surely had to come out and do something.

“It was very dressy,” she said. “We didn’t have to ride a horse. It was always big crowds.”

Carmichael tries to go to the Pickering Horse Show every year, she said and has noticed the crowds dwindling over the years.

“Maybe more people will come tomorrow,” she said.

A former third grade student of Carmichael’s, Jim Cline came up Thursday night to congratulate her on her achievement.

“Seventy years, I thought, How old does that make me?” Cline joked. “But you’re able to get around good. You’re fortunate.”

Carmichael taught grade school at Mount Pleasant for two years, before meeting her husband John, Carmichael while he was on leave from the service at the time. She said she gave notice at the school that she didn’t know when she’d be back, and went to New York and New Jersey where John Carmichael had been stationed. The two thought at the time he would deploy, but he never did. The couple now resides in Maryville.

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John and Donna (Hanna) Carmichael are shown Thursday at the Pickering Horse Show in Pickering, Missouri. At the age of 16, Donna Carmichael was crowned Pickering Horse Show Queen 70 years ago on opening day of the horse show.

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Cooper Fisher is shown decked out in his western wear on Thursday night at the Pickering Horse Show in Pickering, Missouri.

SKYE POURNAZARI/THE FORUM
Casi Joy performs Thursday night at the Pickering Horse Show in Pickering, Missouri.

SKYE POURNAZARI/THE FORUM
Donna Carmichael stands as she is recognized by the crowd. Seventy years ago on the opening night of the Pickering Horse Show, she was crowned Queen of the event.

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Casi Joy tightens her microphone stand because it kept sliding lower during a previous song on Thursday at the Pickering Horse Show in Pickering, Missouri.