NYS Music 20​19

Tag: Hard Working Americans

  • Neal Casal, Guitarist for Circles Around the Sun and Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Dead at 50

    Neal Casal, prolific guitarist and member of Circles Around the Sun, Chris Robinson Brotherhood and many more over his career, has died at age 50. Pitchfork reports through a representative of Casal that the death was ruled a suicide. The tragic news was confirmed on Neal’s Instagram account this morning.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B1qfCJHDC73/

    A native of Denville, NJ, Casal was best known for his work with Circles Around the Sun, Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, Hazy Malaze and Blackfoot. Ryan Adams shared his thoughts this morning on his Cardinals bandmate

    Casal had performed at Lockn’ Festival in Arrington, VA. this past weekend with Circles Around the Sun (as well as with Oteil and Friends), a project that originated from being tapped to compose music played over the P.A. during setbreak of Fare Thee Well in July 2015. That music was so well received by fans, that Circles Around the Sun released the music as a double album, Interludes for the Dead, in 2016 and made their debut at Lockn’ Festival that summer, as noted by Jambase.

    In addition to his recent success with Circles Around the Sun, Casal was an original member of Chris Robinson Brotherhood alongside the Black Crowes co-founder. From 2005-2009, Casal was a member of Ryan Adams and The Cardinals, during which time Easy Tiger and Cardinology were released to critical acclaim. Neal spoke with American Songwriter in 2012 and said this of his time with The Cardinals: 

    “It really was a great lineup… For a couple years there, man, we were on fire. We really were. We were playing some amazing shows and running through Ryan’s entire catalog, just burning those songs to the ground. We really felt confident for awhile. We had a lot of synergy, we were all really connected, and everyone believed in it. We were firing on all cylinders. It was a great thing to be a part of.”

    Neal Casal to American Songwriter

    Casal was also a founding member of Hard Working Americans, a supergroup including Dave Schools and Duane Trucks (Widespread Panic), singer Todd Snider, and Chad Staehly (Great American Taxi), and performed with Phil Lesh and Friends on numerous occasions. Neal was also a photographer who shot cover art for a number of albums and publications.

    This October 18, Casal’s upcoming EP Circles Around the Sun Meets Joe Russo, is scheduled to be released. Listen to “Peace Reprise” from the forthcoming album.

    RIP Neal Casal 1968-2019

  • Hearing Aide: Todd Snider ‘Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol 3’

    The album Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol 3, which features vocals by Jason Isbell on one track, goes back to Snider’s more quiet, folk-based roots. While he composed the lyrics for the songs in Stinson Beach, California, the melodies to the songs came to him behind Cash Cabin.

    Cash Cabin Sessions
    Todd Snider

    The album as a whole can be attributed to a list of things that are happening in the world, told in the form of satire with songs about reality TV, the government and just the conspiracy of it all. Calling this album a nod to the world we live in is perfectly conveyed throughout in songs like “Talking Reality Television Blues,” “The Blues on Banjo” and “Framed.”

    With the influence of Johnny Cash on his side and, of course, his recording studio, courtesy of Cash’s son John Carter Cash, Todd Snider really taps into the essence of the legendary musician with his Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3.

    Snider cites working in the studio and actual reoccurring dreams of Johnny Cash that he had that led him to record in this studio in 2016 and 2017 with his supergroup Hard Working Americans. This, however, is his first solo album produced here.