Guitarist Neal Casal (better known for his work in the Chris Robinson Brotherhood) committed suicide at the age of 50. Casal had just showcased a monumental peformance with his band Circles Around the Sun at the 2019 Locked In Festival as well as sitting in with Oteil Burbridge and Friends. Neal was not just an amazing musician but he was a kind-hearted man who touched everyone he met with a smile and lots of love for both music and humanity.
Neal is another casulty to mental health/suicide and it truly breaks my heart that we’ve lost another great musician. Oteil Burbridge of Oteil and Friends/Dead & Company said that he didn’t even see it. Those of us with mental health issues have a way of hiding it from the general public, friends, and family. Neal was obviously struggling inside. Because of the social stigma of mental and emotional illness, most people are prone to keep their struggles to themselves therefore making it somewhat invisible to others.
Many of the musicians that worked with Neal took to the Internet to express their feelings about Neal’s passing:
Chris Robinson (Chris Robinson Brotherhood)
““I can’t believe I’m having to say goodbye to my friend and my brother. It’s almost too painful. When I think about the songs we’ve written, the shows we’ve played and all the laughs and great times we shared, it’s almost unbearable to know you’re gone.”
Bob Weir (Dead & Company/Wolf Brothers)
“My last memory of Neal will be the smile he left me with.”
Shooter Jennings
“I am absolutely devastated with the news of the loss of my dear friend and consistent collaborator Neal Casal. He was always my favorite picker in LA and we’d all just finished some beautiful music together. I’m really just hollowed out by this. God bless NC.”
Ryan Adams
“Oh man. My heart is broken. It’s too much. What an honor to have known you, true believer. I love you, always. Go easy, brother. Go easy. Through thick and thin your heart was a lighthouse of kindness. Your eyes a mirror to a better world — your soul bled into ever note. I don’t know how to even feel right now. Grateful for your time. But immense loss.”
Tift Merrit
“Neal Casal was a beautiful part of the Tambourine sessions, a kind and generous player and friend. I always feel strange about showing up for someone once they are gone. I’d rather do it when they were living. Neal, I miss you and I didn’t think you’d be gone so soon. Love, rest and peace to you, gentle man.”
The Grateful Dead
“It’s an unbearable loss, but the love and light that our friend Neal shed on the world is forever.”
Jason Isbell
“Neal Casal was a fantastic musician and a great photographer and a kind, sweet soul. We’ll miss him.”
Casal worked with Willie Nelson, Shooter Jennings, Chris Robinson and Phil Lesh and Friends, but is perhaps best known as the lead guitarist in Ryan Adams’ backing band the Cardinals. Casal also released several solo albums and founded the psychedelic band Circles Around the Sun, whose music was famously played before and in between sets at the Grateful Dead’s Fare Thee Well shows in 2015.
Released that year as a two-disc album set titled Interludes for the Dead, the album included “Gilbert’s Groove,” a tribute to the Dead’s 1978 disco-influenced Shakedown Street. “The working title for this song was ‘Fakedown Street,’ but we eventually opted for the classier ‘Gilbert’s Groove’ — a tip of the cap to Gilbert Shelton, the legendary artist who created the artwork for the Shakedown Street album cover,” Casal told Rolling Stone in 2015.
Neal Casal performed a blistering guitar solo with his band Circles Around the Sun at Virginia’s Lockn’ Festival last weekend. It was one of the roots guitarist’s final performances before his untimely death at the age of 50, which was announced on his Facebook page Tuesday morning.
The solo in the clip above clocks in at just over four minutes, with Casal settling into a swampy, jam band funk and mesmerizing the crowd with his six-string skills as a disco ball spins and the crowd sways back and forth.
As Relix points out, what would turn out to be Casal’s final performance took place Saturday, August 24th, when the guitarist joined Oteil Burbridge & Friends for a set at Lockn that featured the Dead & Co. bassist as well as Bob Weir and Duane Betts.
Rest in Peace, Neal. You will be missed. This one really hurts.
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