Neal Casal´s new album (his seventh in just 5 years) “Anytime Tomorrow” was recorded and mixed over 15 days during the summer of 1999 in Los Angeles. Producing was the esteemed Jim Scott (Tom Petty, Whiskeytown, Matthew Sweet, Wilco), who performed the same function on Casal‘s 1995 debut album, Fade Away Diamond Time. Also returning from those sessions were the in-demand players Don Heffington (an original member of Lone Justice, Emmylou Harris) on drums, Bob Glaub (John Fogerty) on bass, Neal‘s longtime partner John Ginty (Jewel, Matthew Sweet) on Hammond B3 and piano, Angie McKenna, another old friend and frequent collaborator, on backing vocals, and Greg Leisz (k.d. lang, Joni Mitchell) on pedal steel. How interesting that an unheralded artist like Casal could attract such a world-class lineup, and that they‘d all keep coming back for more. Every one of them, including Scott, also contributed to the limited-edition 1997 anthology “Field Recordings”, as well as 1999‘s “Basement Dreams”. The musicians and the producer weren‘t the only talent in the room, either: director Ray Foley (an associate of the Maysles Brothers) and his film crew shot extensive studio and interview footage for a documentary on Casal.
With “Anytime Tomorrow”, Casal set out to make a more diverse rock album then the folkier material on his more recent releases. When asked about the direction of the new album, Casal says „The music I play is rock and roll. Sure, there are elements of country, pop, blues, folk, and other sophisticated musical forms surfacing in my music all the time. But when it gets right down to it, I still feel like the 14-year-old kid in my Stones T-shirt, battered Converse All-Stars, and Gibson Marauder about to step onstage at the middle school talent show. I guess I haven‘t progressed very much after all these years [laughs]. Really, though, I‘ve absorbed everything from....... więcej |