Neal Casal
1:29 PM
An Interview with Neal Casal
Member of The Chris Robinson Brotherhood
September 27,2016
By David Anderson
Angela Weber
With Chris Robinson Brotherhood’s upcoming show at The
Varsity Theater on October 11th, we had the privilege to interview
accomplished singer, songwriter and guitarist, Neal Casal. Not only has Neal put out his own original
music, but he has collaborated with artists such as Ryan Adams, Phil
Lesh, Todd Snider, Willie Nelson, and, of course, Chris Robinson, just to name a few. The talent runs deep and far. We talked with Neal about the new band
members, new album, Anyway You Love, We Know How You Feel, and keeping things fresh in the music world. Being the Minnesotans we are, we snuck in a
little Dylan as well.
October 11th,
CRB will be in Minneapolis performing at the Varsity Theater. Since your last visit up here you guys have a
new album and a couple of changes in the line up. My question is what have the new band mates
brought to the sound and the direction of the music these days?
Well, we had a change
in rhythm section, the bass player (Jeff Hill) and the drummer (Tony Leone), so what is great about our
new rhythm section is that these guys both are really good friends. They’ve played in many other bands and they
have a really great playing relationship and friendship outside of our
band. It is something that existed
before they joined us so there is a real strength in that. A band can’t function properly unless it’s rhythm
section functions properly; there is just no two ways about it. The fact that we have such a clean, smooth-running
rhythm section has made a huge differences in our music, in our live shows, in
our record we just made, so I would say that is what’s going on.
I haven’t had a
chance to see the new guys live, but obviously there is a lot of media out
there and I got a chance to watch recently the LOCKN’ Festival online. I would say there is definitely a free-flowing
and spontaneous vibe there with the Brotherhood. It is almost like there are no restraints and
you can expect the unexpected. Do you
see that as a conscious decision to go that way or does it happen naturally?
No, it was a conscious
decision for sure. We wanted musicians
that could play that way and could think that way. We do want it to be a free-flowing
thing. We build sections into our show
that change every single night. We don’t
play the same set every night. We are
always mixing it up, so we wanted musicians who are versatile enough, and like
you said, free-flowing enough, to be able to handle that
kind of playing and be able to
enjoy it and look for it. Some people want
more of a rigid regimented musical life and that isn’t for us. We had to find people who were at least as
good as us, as musicians, and with the case of our new rhythm section, those guys
are actually more advanced than the rest of us.
In a way, they are better players than the rest of us, they are lifting
us up and taking us along with them, and showing us things we couldn’t have
planned. So, there are unexpected things
happening now that we have them and that’s what happens when you bring great
personalities into a group. Things will
happen that you could never have planned, you couldn’t script. As much as it is their job to follow what we
have been doing and the template that we set out, it’s our, Chris and myself
and Adam’s, job to follow what these guys are bringing to the group. That’s synergy. That’s the true relationship. We are all responding and reacting to each
other as a band.
You mentioned set
list and from night to night, no two set lists are ever the same. That is really cool.
We have some similar
combinations of songs, so there will be familiar places we will go, but yeah,
as you have noticed it changes, and we want it that way.
What goes into
putting together a set list for a particular night? Do you sit down before the show and kind of
script it out?
Well, Chris does it
primarily. He just thinks about the
venue, where we are, the setting, how it is feeling that day, and I think he
will often times look over a set list from the last time we played that place
to make sure we are always bringing something different to cities we played
before.
Being in Minnesota, the
birthplace of Bob Dylan, no CRB show would be complete without a Dylan song or
two.
Yeah, we definitely
play a few.
How would you say he
(Dylan) has influenced you as an artist or musician?
Dylan, well, he is the
greatest songwriter on the face of the Earth, bar none. When it comes to our world of rock music and
contemporary song writing, I don’t think there is anyone who can touch him even
close. He has influenced me, whether it
is directly or indirectly, because he influenced everyone that came after him. That includes The Rolling Stones, Neil Young,
any songwriter you can think of. They’ve
all been influenced by Bob Dylan; he really changed culture in music. Of course, we all owe a debt to him. Speaking personally, I am a massive fan,
always have been, seen him play many times.
I could go down the list of my favorite records and songs. We all know it well.
My whole family, we
have always gone everywhere to see him.
We just love him. One of my
earliest childhood memories is my dad playing Blood on the Tracks. I was probably 7 or 8 years old, he’s filling
out his bills and his paperwork and he has Blood on the Tracks going. I was hooked at a young age. It’s been a huge influence on my whole
musical taste.
Yeah, well that is one
of the greatest records ever made is Blood on the Tracks. I don’t know how your dad can sit and fill
out bills listening to that record!
That’s a strong man who can do that, for sure.
You guys are pretty
much are relentless tourers. The show in
Minneapolis is less than three weeks away, but you still have 15 other shows to
play before you get here. How do you
keep yourself freshly engaged and not let it become a grind let’s say?
The traveling part of
all of this can certainly become a grind and there is no avoiding that. But then again, anything can become a grind,
any job. Even if your workplace is a
half a block from where you live, it can become a grind. Life is a grind, life in a bus. As far as the music, it rarely becomes a
grind. Some nights are better than
others for sure. We have all had our
share of nights where we are just not able to summon the magic. That goes for anyone, the greatest of
anybody. But that being said it almost
never feels like a grind. It is a
privilege to play music for a living. We
are very fortunate people to still be doing this at this age, at this time,
after all the records we made and all the years we have been around. It is lost on none of us what an honor it is
to be able to make artistic contributions for a living. It’s not that hard, man. It’s not that hard to stay in the game with
this, it really isn’t, and for me to get to play guitar in front of people
every night is an absolute joy and I am just hoping I can do it for the rest of
my life.
Being a huge Allman
Brothers fan, I wanted to ask you about your experience playing Duane Allman’s
Les Paul back in July in Macon. How did
that come about and what was that experience like?
We have known Richard
Brent who runs the Big House and he has been kind enough to bring us Duane’s
guitar a few times. He brought it to us
in Athens a couple of times. This last
time in Macon was my third trip around with that guitar. A guitar like that, every time is like the
first time. It is just an honor to be
able to get to take an instrument like that for a spin. Feel the magic in it and the history in it. As a musician, as a guitar player, I study
instruments all the time and what make them tick. It is very cool to play that guitar and get a
sense of how Duane got some of the sounds and where that guitar maybe led him. It is just one of those things. I have had the nice opportunity to play Jerry
Garcia’s The Wolf a few of times and Duane’s guitar, I try to approach those
instruments with the respect they deserve and that’s the best we can do.
The guitar that you
mostly play now, it seems to have a pretty Jerry-like sound to it. Is that by design?
Yeah, partially. Playing Wolf influenced some of the features
in the guitar I have now. I learned from
Wolf a few things, electronic and wood choices that influenced how this guitar
was built. But that being said, I don’t
really, I am not one of those Jerry imitator people. That is not what I go for. I have been making records of my own and
records with other bands in other styles of music for over 20 years. Jerry imitation isn’t all that interesting to
me. You can hear his influence in my
playing, but that is as far as it goes.
If you look at his rig and mine, I have almost none of the same
features. Any similarities are just my
hands and hearing it. I heard a lot of
his music growing up, so the influence is there.
Imitation is not that
interesting, like you said. I could see
maybe influence in possibly interpretation, but definitely not imitation.
Yeah, right, it’s like
there is some kind of vibe or essence I am going for, not do the guy’s
thing. That wouldn’t be moving culture
or music or life forward. It’s a bad
idea to constantly be trying to copy something that happened a long time
ago. It would never work. You’d just end up ruining it that way.
CRB is coming to Minneapolis October 11th at The
Varsity Theater. You can get your
tickets at www.ticketweb.com starting at
just $22.50. If you haven’t already, I
suggest you order them now! Head over to
www.chrisrobinsonbrotherhood.com
for more info on getting the new album and additional tour dates.
Huge thanks to Neal for taking the time to talk with us! You can checkout more of his projects, as
well as his personal photography, at www.nealcasal.com.
Get out and support live music!
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