Posts tagged susan james
Desert Nights: Nov 10
It’s a new week and we all know what that means — It’s time for 3 new musical acts who will collect in our Cactus lounge at The Standard Hollywood to have a little personal jam with a few hungry music-philes. This Wednesday introduces a new crop of fresh talent you do not want to miss.
(Listen to Neal Casal here)
Neal Casal’s debut record, Fade Away Diamond Time was released in 1995 to muchcritical acclaim. Produced by Jim Scott (Wilco, Tom Petty, Johnny Cash), the album introduced the intimate songwriting and lyrical guitar work that would become the foundation of his career. In between recording and touring with other artists such as Beachwood Sparks, James Iha, Lucinda Williams, Sheryl Crow, Mark Olson, and Rufus Wainwright, Casal managed to record multiple solo releases, including 1996’s Rain, Wind, and Speed and 1998’s Basement Dreams. Casal is also known as the lead guitarist of Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, with whom he recorded three albums: Easy Tiger (which reached #7 on the Billboard chart), Follow the Lights, and Cardinology. His time in the band led to working with such luminaries as Willie Nelson and Phil Lesh and allowed another talent to be revealed when he released his first photography collection, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals: A View of Other Windows.
After the Cardinals went on hiatus in 2009, Casal moved his home base from New York to Southern California, where he has worked on a variety of projects. He released the self-produced solo effort Roots & Wings, Connections—the third album by his rock-and-roll band Hazy Malaze—and worked as a technical advisor on the upcoming Gwyneth Paltrow film Country Strong, in which he also appears. Currently, Casal is finishing up his tenth solo record with noted producer Thom Monahan (Devendra Banhart, Vetiver, Pernice Brothers, Gary Louris). While listeners will recognize Casal’s strong yet understated vocals, his acoustic-driven melodies have been amplified by complex sonic layers, resulting in a new, expansive sound that is the culmination of this prolific songwriter’s multifaceted catalog.
