Black River Sides

This review is part of a series in which I review Neal’s solo records one by one chronologically, and chat with various friends and bandmates who were part of the making of each record.

Last November, the entirety of Neal Casal’s solo discography became available on Spotify, and the difficult-to-find Black River Sides was at last available to the masses. This intimate-sounding live duet album was made with Neal’s good friend, Kenny Roby, on August 2nd and 3rd, 1999 at Bernie’s Black River, in Chester, NJ.

Roby’s deep croon is a perfect foil to Neal’s silky tenor, and each song is exquisite. They each contribute a handful of originals that showcase both the artists’ deft songwriting skills, as well as cover a few standards by classic country artists they both loved like John Prine, Townes Van Zandt, the Louvin Brothers, and Tom T. Hall. The combination results in a timeless collection of classic acoustic songs.

It opens with Roby’s “Chopping Block,” an amazing, bluesy earworm that’s impossibly fun to sing along with. Neal’s “Town Fathers” is a heart-rending tune with the most tender of melodies and impeccable harmonizing. Roby’s “Sailor’s Request” is another really tremendous tune, lyrically. These two really knew how to write a song that’d really hit you in the gut. They also return to some of their own roots with “Guilty” from 6 String Drag’s High Hat and Casal’s “Maybe California” and “Outskirts.”

The culminating track, “Crickets of Columbia,” has replaced my white noise machine, six minutes of night noise recorded outside Neal’s home studio in New Jersey.

Kenny Roby himself was kind enough to tell us a bit about how this lovely album came about:

Neal and I were touring in England, Ireland and Scotland in the spring of 1999. He kindly invited me along to open for him for 4 weeks . We also ended up going to France for a week after that. Each night I would open for him solo and he would hop up during my set and play a few songs. Then he would do a solo headlining set and during his encore I would join him on 2 or 3 cover songs. 

The folks from Glitterhouse Records, the label that put out our current albums overseas, came over from Germany for a few of the shows in England. They saw us singing and playing together and said “You guys have to do a duo record for us!”

We had both just released new studio records so decided we would do a live record of some of the songs we were playing live together on tour. It was recorded that fall at a place called Bernie’s out in the New Jersey countryside along the Black River kind of near where Neal lived at the time. We invited John Ginty to play some keys with us to add a little flavor. 

There are lots of anecdotes about touring together but specifically about the recordings I would say Crickets of Columbia stands out. It is credited to Neal Casal on Black River Sides so when the label got the master recording for duplication they were so excited that they were getting a new Neal Casal original tune but when they listened, well, crickets… Neal had literally taken a mic outside of the dog kennel and recorded over six and a half minute of crickets. They were so pissed! I don’t think he was doing it to piss them off. It was just a joke that backfired a little. What ’s even funnier is that since being digitally released recently, Crickets of Columbia is one of the most played tracks from that record. Maybe people are using it for ASMR or something to help them fall asleep? Who knows?!

Kenny Roby, September 2020

Harder to find is another EP that Neal and Kenny made called Not So Low. If you pre-ordered Kenny’s latest album The Reservoir, you got a digital download. It has some overlap with Black River Sides – a few originals, the Tom T. Hall cover, as well as “You Are Not Needed Now” by Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan’s “Billy the Kid,” and Woody Guthrie’s “Keep On Movin’.” It’s a really sweet, warm EP where the pair’s musical and personal affinity for one another really shines through. They recorded it before that UK tour and brought 50 homemade copies that sold pretty quickly. I asked if there were any plans for broader release and Kenny said,

Hopefully some day. I dig it. It’s an intimate portrait of Neal and I sitting around his old home studio (a converted dog kennel  in a cinderblock shack) having a few two many whiskey drinks and filling the room with Camel wides and hand rolled tobacco smoke. Just sitting around and playing a few originals and covers. Some we had just learned together. I love the version of his song Town Fathers on it. One of my favorites of his songs. Neal is totally loose on the recording. He never drank much, like I did back in the day, but that night he did. Lots of laughs during and between takes. I think we quickly reached the point of diminishing returns so what we got was what we got that night. 

You can get Black River Sides on Bandcamp, and good luck finding Not So Low. Additionally, check out Kenny’s latest album The Reservoir, released earlier this year on Royal Potato Family.

Watch the amazing video with animations by Angie Pickman for the beautiful song Kenny wrote for Neal, the night of the memorial show just over a year ago now.