Neal Casal – Field Recordings

Only 1,000 copies of this gorgeous package, containing demos and outtakes from Neal Casal’s previous releases, were pressed — which means that, like Casal’s excellent Zoo Records disc Fade Away Diamond Time and independent follow-up Rain, Wind & Speed, most people probably won’t get a chance to hear it. But it’s well worth seeking out.

Casal writes some of the most beautiful songs you are likely to hear, ever, combining a vocal style seemingly borrowed from early Jackson Browne with music that can soothe the soul or blister the heart — sometimes in the same song. Field Recordings contains some of his best work. The opening “Best to Believe”, with its swirling organ and fuzz guitar break, sounds like it could have been written for the Jayhawks’ Hollywood Town Hall album. The image-heavy tear-jerker “Brand New Damage” (“So you go out walking, the corn stalks frozen where they stand”) and the honky tonk-esque “Midway” (with steel player extrordinaire and frequent Casal contributor Greg Leisz on electric “spaceshit” guitar) tell tales of broken hearts and broken dreams. And the glorious “Angels On Hold” uses a slowed-down (don’t laugh) “Sweet Home Alabama” riff to talk about not giving up when “they come for you.” Casal’s music begs for repeated listens — and constantly rewards each time.