Today marks the two year anniversary of the tragic death of Neal Casal, who was just 50-years-old when he died by suicide. Casal’s life and music continue to be celebrated with the Neal Casal Music Foundation, which seeks to “inspire future musicians and bring mental health support to musicians already on the path.”
The non-profit foundation is producing a tribute album, Highway Butterfly: The Songs Of Neal Casal and released a book of Casal’s photography, Tomorrow’s Sky: Photographs By Neal Casal. A documentary film focusing on Casal’s life is also planned.
Between 1995 and 2012, Casal released several solo albums and two collaborative albums. His career also included playing guitar as a member of Circles Around The Sun, Chris Robinson Brotherhood, The Skiffle Players, Hardworking Americans, Beachwood Sparks, Hazy Malaze and Ryan Adams & The Cardinals. Among those who Neal also performed with were Phil Lesh, Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, Joe Russo, Amanda Shires, Vetiver, Shooter Jennings, Fruit Bats, The Jayhawks, Robert Randolph and Rufus Wainwright.
Another of Casal’s musical collaborators was bassist Oteil Burbridge, who recruited Neal for a few Oteil & Friends sets in 2019. At the May 2019 Summer Camp Music Festival, just months before Casal’s death, he spoke about Burbridge in an interview for The JamBase Podcast, stating:
I’ve never played with anyone quite like [Burbridge] before. I just did one gig with him — about a month ago — and I just thought “wow!” I’ve played with some great bass players but I’ve never heard anything like this.
A similar Oteil & Friends lineup as the one at Summer Camp performed on August 24, 2019 at the LOCKN’ festival in Virginia. The set was the final public performance by Neal Casal. In response to Casal’s death, Burbridge posted the below image taken backstage at LOCKN’:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B1q9aOPgQV7/
Joining Burbridge at LOCKN’ for what was Casal’s last performance was an impressive all-star band made up of guitarist Eric Krasno, drummer Jay Lane, keyboardist Melvin Seals, multi-instrumentalist Jason Crosby, trumpeter/vocalist Jennifer Hartswick, trombonist/vocalist Natalie Cressman, saxophonist/vocalist James Casey, saxophonist Kebbi Williams and vocalists Alfreda Gerald and Lamar Williams Jr. The set was constructed of songs from the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia catalogs, some Burbridge originals and a few other covers.
Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir sat-in with the ensemble on Dead staples “Weather Report Suite” > “Let It Grow” and “Cassidy.” Guitarist Duane Betts came out to augment The Allman Brothers Band classics “Dreams” and “Jessica.” Audio of the entire LOCKN’ set taped by Steve Baker as well as video clips of Casal’s final performance can be found below:
[Originally Published: August 26, 2020]
