Highway Butterfly: The Songs of Neal Casal Review/Podcast

If you’re not new to Petal Motel dot com, you’re aware of my revere for Neal Casal, as a musician, a songwriter, a guitarist, a music lover, and a person. Last year I did a complete retrospective on his solo albums, and well, there’s a dedication to him imprinted on the bottom of the site, he’s my #1 musical hero, the reason I have good taste (from gorging myself on every interview I could get my hands on and just listening to whatever he said to or played on), and, he’s just missed immensely. He made such an impression on absolutely everyone he ever came into contact with..

Neal’s friends and family started the Neal Casal Music Foundation to provide mental and physical healthcare to musicians, and to provide New York and New Jersey students with instruments and music lessons. Of several fundraising projects, the behemoth is Highway Butterfly: The Songs of Neal Casal, a sprawling 41-song collection of tributes recorded by Neal’s friends and colleagues, many of whom played on the originals. Each artist’s interpretations are unique and spell-binding, and the entire pursuit is an enormous labor of love from Executive Producers Gary Waldman and Michele Augis and co-producers Jim Scott and Dave Schools.

You can hear more about each individual song directly from the musicians who re-imagined them on the Highway Butterfly: The Stories of Neal Casal podcast. But today, we’re sticking to the music. And who better to discuss it with than Michele Augis (Executive Producer and Marketing Director of the Neal Casal Music Foundation); Kevin Calabro (head of Royal Potato Family, the label issuing the album, and head of Calabro Music Media, the PR firm promoting the record); Jon Graboff (who played on 17 tracks on the album and of course played alongside Neal for many years); and Mark Feingold (fellow writer and music enthusiast, you’ll recognize his writing from Terrascope.)?

In this episode, we discuss our initial reactions to the music, our personal standout tracks on the album, our favorite “deep cuts”, and all those involved in making it share insights into the recording sessions, plus a few great Neal stories thrown in for good measure.

You can still order Highway Butterfly: The Songs of Neal Casal through the Foundation’s website.

Header photo by Jay Blakesberg.

Songs used: “You’ll Miss It When It’s Gone” performed by Cass McCombs, Dave Schools, Farmer Dave Scher, Joe Russo, and Ross James; “Pray Me Home” by Jason Crosby.