Rain, Wind and Speed
UPDATE 8.18.22 – The Neal Casal Music Foundation is reissuing special edition vinyls of Rain, Wind and Speed- get yours here.
This is part two of Petal Motel’s series where we go through each Neal Casal solo album one by one and chat with friends and fellow musicians who participated in their making.
Neal Casal’s second release, the tender, raw Rain, Wind and Speed, was recorded in just five days in a neighborhood studio. After some personnel changes at Zoo Records, the label that had released Fade Away Diamond Time, cut Neal from their roster. He got back in a neighborhood studio with a minimalized ensemble and recorded this record “to get closer to the musical truth” for independent local New Jersey label Buy or Die Records.
Although Fade Away is rich with folk and Americana references, this to me always felt like a more purely “alt-country” record, probably due to songs like “Hands on the Plow,” the subtle twang in Neal’s voice in “Name in Vain,” and the down-home instrumentation on “Annabelle.” In Neal’s words, from the liner notes, it’s “the kind of record where someone sits down, sings and plays a song all the way through and leaves it just like it is, rough spots and all, without fixing a thing- it may not be perfect, but it’s got something.”
It’s certainly one of the most intimate-sounding records, not overly-produced, just Neal’s young voice over an acoustic guitar or a subtle steel note, Hammond key, or mandolin pluck, right next to your ear. The dirge-like “Angels on Hold” is a favorite, and “Pilot’s Song” is achingly gorgeous. The singular piano-driven song, “To Look For You,” is my favorite on the album, stripped down and laid bare, written at sunrise during the Fade Away recording sessions, just those keys and Neal’s voice full of longing and sincerity.
The record is a chiaroscuro – like the album art, some extremely dark and lonesome vibes with light peaking through. The majority of these songs have something to do with loss, leaving, saying farewell. But the redemption comes at the end.
The album’s finale, “I Will Weep No More” is credited to Robbi Robb with an additional verse by Neal, the enigmatic South African poet-musician who resides in Joshua Tree by day and probably another universe at night and recited that powerful incantation at Neal’s memorial. Here he is on how exactly that song came about:
There came a time when I was into “dream speak” – that is; not sitting down and writing lyrics but rather have a tape recorder running and just let whatever comes out be recorded and then go back and fine tune. So as you can tell this poem was born in a Hollywood morning after Neal and I had spent all night sharing music, lyrics and medicine speak… in a way it is a photograph of that early morning..a photo of what was going on around and inside us.
It was born as a spoken word type thing, he was playing this lazy guitar part and I pressed record and spoke some words over what he was playing…- Later that week he transcribed it and carved it into song.
To tell you the truth he was involved in writing all [the verses], because he was the co creator of the evening, and when the morning came with sunrise, we were still in deep dialogue, so this song was an extension of that dialogue.
Gary had asked me to cover this song for the fundraiser album. So I was riding through the desert, my heart was afraid to listen to it, you see, Neal had just crossed over and i was still hurting, So i lined up the song and turned the volume up high, and then his voice came through the car speakers, and filled the cab, filled my mind, filled the desert sky, so alive, all surrounding me…i yelled over the music and my streaming tears, right there, “i’m gonna give you a fucking slap!!” – yea i told him! – To be honest with you, I completely forgot about this song, I was quite puzzled : “did i write this song?” Gary laughed when I asked this, – I recognized things in there that were not “Neal” speak, but rather something I would say or have said before. I felt honored.
Neal was more than….. – , he was a quality, a very refined, subtle, beautiful quality – we would slip out of company, and then out of time, so engrossed in our conversation, cross a busy intersection in Manhattan and never even notice…there was no difference, between walking in New york, or on the beach in California, or through the Mojave desert…we always seemed to merge into this same subtle quality filled with listening and learning and wonder, so fine….yea… we became like ghosts in a way, …a timeless quality….so fine…
-Robbi Robb
Special thanks to Robbi Robb for his words. Download Rain, Wind and Speed from the Neal Casal Music Foundation here.
