Photo By Neal Casal Laguna, California
I had to check the ol’ songsillinois archives to make sure I hadn’t done this Neal Casal post already. I would have thought that I’d have done it already since he’s so high on my list of great undiscovered artists. I bought the first Neal Casal album at Reckless on Broadway for $.99 back in the day (1995). It was a promo copy in a cardboard sleeve and it quickly became a favorite. It reminds me very much of Hollywood Town Hall by the Jayhawks in it’s guitar lines, organ fills and harmony vocals. Even the songs have some similarities (“Waiting For the Sun” – Jayhawks and “Day In The Sun” Neal Casal, also “Maybe California” by Neal Casal and “Nevada, California” by The Jayhawks). Here’s those two songs now from Neal Casal’s 1995 debut album Fade Away Diamond Time: Day In The Sun
Maybe California
Three from his 1998 release on German Label Glitterhouse
Today I’m Gonna Bleed
Angelina
Dandelion Wine
Neal Casal put out an ep with Shanon McNally that was a litle different from his other records. Firstly it was duets, secondly Shannon McNally was a major label songstress that had a lot of hype for awile but didn’t sell through and now is surely dropped. The ep works though, Shannon does have a great voice and the material on here is different than the major label schlok she seems to have been forced to put out. Here’s two from Ran On Pure Lighting:
[...] and continues to record solo albums that are solid works of songcraft (wrote about his earlier work here and here). His new record is out soon in Europe on Fargo Records but is also available now on his [...]