Neal Casal (CRB, Circles Around the Sun, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals) R.I.P.*

To each his own. I love them. Neal's rock & soul band with a touch of funk. I bought my records directly from Neal and he was kind enough to sign and include a little message with them before dropping in the mail.

Man, I miss this guy so much already.

 

...and The Skiffle Players

 

I’m tipping these’ll be pretty emotional gigs.

“Bring your hearts and memories to the desert to celebrate our brother Neal Casal with the Green Leaf Rustlers / Chris Robinson Brotherhood family at Pappy & Harriet's this Friday & Saturday.

Tickets at folkYEAH.com”

GLR - 8/30 + 8/31 - Pioneertown

 

When I was going through a separation with my wife (it all worked out for the best but was rough going) I was driving to meet some close friends for a Phil Lesh family band show at Terrapin Crossroads. In the car I was blasting the electric studio version of Free To Go off of the Leaving Traces comp with tears running down my face singing along with the lyrics.

Even though they were very close friends who knew I was dying inside when I showed up I was all hey bro, I’m doing great. You can guess who was plying that day with Phil’s kids. I didn’t even bother to check the lineup before arranging the brunch date.

 

If the Chris Robinson Brotherhood choose to continue is there a favorite or a preference to replace Neal?

 

That is really cool!

 

I can't imagine the Brotherhood without Neal (and Adam). I like to think CR would be smart enough to let the name rest with Neal, but...he's CR.

 

No. There is no replacement for Neal. CRB was already gone before this tragedy. Let CR ride off into his toxic sunset with his solo shows playing to 10 people.

 

I can never think anything to say at a time like this, but I would like to share a song from the CRB show in Chico earlier this year.

 

It's nice that Casal picked up the Telecaster at the end of CRBs run.

He played some beautiful stuff on Shadow Cosmos

 

Link to the great CATS Brooklyn Bowl show from June here.

 

One of the surprising developments I've heard, after watching how the odd last year of CRB unfolded, is that Neal was apparently saddened by CRB ending and took it hard. I just assumed he was super excited to go forward with CATS and wouldn't return to CRB if it ever got revived (which CR had insisted it would).

To me, there was no doubt Neal was going to take flight from here with whatever projects he latched onto.

 

Those comments about Neal being saddened about CRB ending were attributed to the woman he allegedly took out a restraining order against.
If Neal really had been saddened about their demise, it seems odd that they didn’t honour their remaining dates for 2019 (incl. Lockn’) after the European tour.

 

I think that CATS would have remained a side project though.

I saw them last year at OPL in Half Moon Bay. Just south of the Bay Area. Couldn't been more than 300. I loved it, small venues are the best but I don't think it pays the bill

 

True on all accounts. But the writer Dennis Cook also said Neal was "down" the last few times they spoke and the end of CRB "hit Neal hard" and he was worried about making a living.

 

I think they had long-term plans for CATS. Adam was joking but a few months back he called CATS his "retirement plan." Sure, they weren't going to play large theaters, but they were building momentum. Heard nothing but rave reviews from their spring shows. The audience turnout was encouraging. And some of those early CRB shows probably only had a couple hundred people, too.

 

I didn't know they were planning to disband at least for a bit this year anyways. I fell off a bit after the first two records and the first BB live release. The two live shows I saw of them at the Fillmore were very good.

 

Fair enough. I hadn’t seen those comments by Dennis.

 

Camille = Yoko

CATS was never going to be playing large theaters, but I fully believe they were about to take off in 2020. I bet they'd be playing the same size places as CRB within a year or two. Then Neal and Adam could once again enjoy the lifestyle they'd become accustom to.

 

The list is from Wikipedia, so if anyone here works on that kind of thing, Wikipedia for Neal needs help.

 

Dude was a workhorse! I had no idea he was on those James Iha records and there are at least 4 or 5 albums on that list that I own that had no idea he was part of (like the Vetiver and Fruit Bats ones).

 

Agreed -- the last time I saw him was November, 2017 in Chicago -- he played the hell out of his b-bender - man, it sounded so great....

 

Interesting, I didn't know he was playing with Ryan Adams that late, I thought 2009 was the last time they did anything together. Guess you learn something new every day. I'm biased (huge Ryan Adams fan), but Neal's best work was with The Cardinals, him and Ryan brought out the best in each other.

 

Agreed on Ryan and him being a complement. He did the for Robinson too in a very different way - he was fluid. I had no idea he was on ashes and fire either. One of Neal’s many talents seemed to be being out the best in others.

 

Which is so surprising that Neal didn’t understand that after CRB any number of people would have grabbed him up to be in their band. I would imagine his demand would have been incredible - he was one of the most well thought of and respected people and musicians in both the Americana and Jam band scenes. I’d assume he could have landed a higher profile and higher paying gig by just putting the word out. Who would trip over themselves to have Neal in their team? He improved every situation he was involved in that I heard.

Aside from the list of people above that he recorded with, who else did he guest on stage with other than Oteil and Phil Lesh? There’s must be oodles of jams he guested on on the jam band festival circuit.