Our old friend Casey is coming from Portland to play a CD release show at the High Dive in Fremont this Wednesday, June 30th. Now, before we get too much further, we’ll insert the disclaimer: he really is an old friend: every summer brings back memories of trudging a starlit wooded path to the abandoned quarry in New England where we group up, stripping down and charging off the cliff into emptiness, then bracing cold, ink black water water below.
Of course, his music has come a long way from the the rabbly campfire anthems he played back then. His latest line-up, Casey Neill and the Norway Rats shows the influence of Husker Du and The Clash more so than Richard Thompson (as his promo material notes), and perhaps it’s personal knowledge of his obsessions that allows us to hear the influence of Springsteen’s The Ghost of Tom Joad in his Radio Montana track. Mark Stock of the Willamette Week had this to say:
“Casey Neill’s latest record, Goodbye to the Rank and File, is just as much audio book as it is album, teeming with rich lyrics that paint the glory and gutter of a wanderer’s struggle. Backed by talented Rats like Jenny Conlee … and Chet Lyster (Lucinda Williams Band), Neill bellows pack the punch of white-capped seas, soaking the band’s big sky, prairie wind sound with a haunting graveness. It just may be Portland’s strongest brand of unfettered, contemporary roots rock.”
The live shows, though, are the thing to see: they’re a bar band at heart, raucous and joking on stage, power-pop-punk for leaping up and down and shouting. Piano and accordion from Jenny Conlee (The Decembrists) and flute from Hanz Araki (The Paperboys) help distinguish the band from your standard rock foursome, and Casey’s voice and writing show the strength and maturity of musician decades into his art (don’t worry, Casey, we won’t let slip your age).
Click below to sample a track, All Summer’s Glory. It should be a fun show, hope to see you there.