Neal's Back: Wheel Out The Casalties...

It's been a good long while since I posted some Neal Casal here at One Buck Records. Time to change that. In the text accompanying my compilation introducing the man's music I already said most of what I wanted to say. Casal was a major talent, and deserves to be more widely known. So consider this new series of Casal albums my humble contribution towards this goal. Having followed Casal's career seriously, if not religiously, I still managed to pick up most of, then all, of his solo studio albums. However, that still left room to hunt for stuff that fell through the cracks, or hid in the margins. Casualties of circumstance, you could say. Or, rather, Casalties of circumstance. Ahem.

So, Casalties will the a three album series of rare and stray tracks, outtakes, demos, live tracs, contributions to tribute samplers and the like. Basically a big smorgasboard of goodies that aren't on any of Casal's regular studio albums. These albums heavily draw on the two rarities collections he issued - Field Recordings for Glitterhouse in 1997 and All Directions in 2006, as well as albums or EPs he did in collaboration with Shannon McNally and Kenny Roby. The albums will proceed chronologically, with Vol. 1 covering Casal's recording beginnings up to Basement Dreams. 

The first thing any listener will notice is that even for the stuff that didn't make albums or was somehow otherwise marginalized, is that the quality control is really high. Simply put, there's nothing bad on these albums, even the more experimental stuff that didn't make it onto Basement Dreams usually has something interesting going on. Speaking of Basement Dreams: That album was re-issued on Fargo in the 2000s as a special edition with a bonus dis full of unreleased stuff. This unreleased stuff will make up the back end of Casalties Vol. 1 and spill over onto the beginning of Vol. 2. The front half of Casalties Vol. 1 is essentially drawn from Field Recordings, plus "Black Honey", recorded for a Graham Parker tribute album. 

Casalties Vol. 1 should serve as a nice reminder of how, after years spent on the margins of the music business - among other things, as the guitar slinger for Blackfoot - fully formed Casal's music arrived once he got to record it. The album also shows how malleable it is. "Best To Believe" and "Angels On Hold", recorded like the whole Rain, Wind And Speed album essentially as solo acoustic numbers, they are here in full band versions, and arguably the better for it. Basement Dreams highlights and beloved Casal classics like "Highway Butterfly" and "No One Said A Word" can be heard as live versions here. All surrounded by a number of outtakes and demos that could have easily - and in some cases should have - been issued at the time.

Ready for a deep dive into the treasure trove of Neal Casal's hidden gems? Well, ready or not, here we go...