Casey Neill

Casey Neill is an American musician. He leads Portland, Oregon-based band Casey Neill & The Norway Rats, singing with a raspy vocal quality and playing electric and acoustic guitars. Neill's style, folk-punk, mixes influences from punk, Celtic and folk music, and has been compared to R.E.M.[1] and The Pogues.[2]

Casey Neill
Casey Neill and the Norway Rats playing at a union rally in Salem, Oregon
Casey Neill and the Norway Rats playing at a union rally in Salem, Oregon
Background information
OriginPortland, Oregon, United States
GenresFolk-punk, rock
Years active1994 - present
LabelsIn Music We Trust Records
MembersCasey Neill
Jenny Conlee
Jeff 'Chet' Lyster
Joe Mengis
Jesse Emerson
Websitewww.caseyneill.org

The Norway Rats have included Jenny Conlee of The Decemberists on keyboards and accordion, among other established Portland musicians Jesse Emerson, Jeff 'Chet' Lyster, Lewi Longmire, Little Sue, Hanz Araki and Ezra Holbrook of Dr. Theopolis.

History

Casey Neill was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1971 in a hospital room with "a nurse singing Irish folk songs".[3] His father is Peter Neill.[3] He moved to Olympia, Washington in 1989 and graduated from the Evergreen State College with an ethnomusicology education. Neill then developed as an artist in the underground music community of the Pacific Northwest, releasing two early cassette releases and then his first CD, Rifraff, in 1995. Two songs from that album, Rifraff and Dancing on The Ruins of Multinational Corporations, became the de facto soundtracks for many Earth First! and other logging protests during the 1990s, a time of growing tension between environmentalists and the logging communities of the Pacific Northwest.[4] Dancing on the Ruins of Multinational Corporations is still sung by protest communities around the world.[5]

Highly regarded Scottish musician and producer Johnny Cunningham, one of Neill's early supporters, produced his albums Skree and Brooklyn Bridge. Cunningham plays fiddle on these albums plus Live on 11th Street, the last live recording of him before his untimely passing in 2003. Besides including some of his current bandmates and Johnny Cunningham, Brooklyn Bridge features cameos from Chris Funk of The Decemberists, John Wesley Harding, Erin McKeown and Phil Cunningham, Johnny's brother.[6]

Neill has been included on numerous compilations. One tribute release, Where Have All the Flowers Gone: the Songs of Pete Seeger (Appleseed Recordings), won Top Independent Release of 1998 from the American Association of Independent Music. The compilation includes Neill alongside tracks from Bruce Springsteen and Billy Bragg, two artists to whom Neill has been compared.[7]

Since 2012, Casey Neill has been a member of The Minus 5 playing electric guitar and backup vocals.[8] He sings on The Minus 5 box set 'Scott the Hoople in the Dungeon of Horror' on Yep Roc records along with Ian McLagan, Jeff Tweedy, Mike Mills, Laura Gibson, and other guests.[9]

Casey Neill is also in a Pogues tribute band called K.M.R.I.A. The full band is: Casey Neill, Scott McCaughey, Hanz Araki, Jesse Emerson, Jenny Conlee, Chris Funk, Derek Brown, and Ezra Holbrook.[10] They perform around St Patrick's Day and Christmas in Seattle and Portland and are "heartily endorsed" by James Fearnley of The Pogues.[11]

In 2017, Casey Neill performed a set at the Newport Folk Festival. He was also a part of Speak Out! - a performance of protest songs with the Berklee Gospel and Roots Choir, Billy Bragg, Jim James, Kevin Clark, Kyle Craft, Lucius, Margo Price, Nathaniel Rateliff, Nick Offerman, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Rayland Baxter, Shakey Graves, Sharon Van Etten, Stephanie Hunt, Zach Williams and a house band made of Carl Broemel and Partick Hallahan of My Morning Jacket, Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee, John Moen, and Nate Query of The Decemberists and Casey Neill.[12] Speak Out! was released on LP for Record Store Day 2018.[13]

In 2018, they released their third official record as Casey Neill & The Norway Rats 'Subterrene'.[14][15] All the songs were produced and co-written by their guitarist Jeff "Chet" Lyster and guests on the album include Scott McCaughey, Peter Buck of R.E.M., Dave Depper of Death Cab for Cutie, and Thayer Sarrano.[16] Rolling Stone debuted the stop motion animation video for 'In the Swim'.[17]

Discography
  • Subterrene - Incident Recordings - January 2018
  • All You Pretty Vandals - Incident Recordings - November 2013
  • Good Bye to the Rank and File - In Music We Trust Records - 2010
  • Brooklyn Bridge - In Music We Trust Records - 2007
  • Memory Against Forgetting - Daemon Records - 2005
  • Live on 11th Street - self-release - 2004
  • Raleigh & Spencer 7" - Broadside Records - 2003
  • Portland West - Appleseed Recordings - 2001
  • Skree - Appleseed Recordings - 1999
  • Casey Neill Appleseed Recordings - 1998
  • Riff Raff - Mock Turtle Music - 1996 - out of print
  • Pawprints (cassette-only) - 1994 - out of print
  • Wooden Shoes (cassette-only) - 1993 - out of print

Compilations (Exclusive Tracks):

  • KBOO Pickathon 2003 Live - on "Lucy Campbell and the Jolly Tinker" (reels) with Kevin Burke and "Chinquapin" by Casey Neill with Little Sue and Lewi Longmire.
  • Hold Me Up To The Light: A Tribute to Peter Wilde (2003) - on "Carnival" by Peter Wilde with Little Sue
  • KBOO Pickathon 2001 Live - on "Kitty" by Casey Neill Trio
  • Where Have All the Flowers Gone: the Songs of Pete Seeger (1999) - on "Old Father Hudson/My Dirty Stream" by Casey Neill

References
  1. "Memory Against Forgetting Review". 2005-05-19. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
  2. "Casey Neill's new CD paints a folk-punk portrait of the Big Apple". 2007-04-26. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
  3. Wright, Craig (2019-04-11). "Subterrene Homesick Blues: Casey Neill And The Norway Rats Push Through Changing Times". Split Tooth Media. Retrieved 2019-07-22.
  4. "Rousing Sendoff for Bari at Memorial Party". 1997-03-17. Archived from the original on May 11, 2008. Retrieved 2009-03-25.
  5. "Big Wedding vs. Big Oil - Shell Petrol Station Blockaded in Activist Wedding". 2008-09-19. Archived from the original on 2008-09-26. Retrieved 2009-03-25.
  6. "Brooklyn Bridge Review". 2007. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
  7. "Casey Neill on All Music Guide". 2007. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
  8. "Split Tooth Media". Split Tooth Media.
  9. "Seattle Weekly". Seattle Weekly.
  10. "The Oregonian". The Oregonian.
  11. "The Stranger". The Stranger.
  12. "What's Up Newp". What's Up Newp.
  13. "recordstoreday.com". Record Store Day.
  14. "No Depression". No Depression.
  15. "OPB". OPB Music.
  16. "Split Tooth Media". Split Tooth Media.
  17. "Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone.
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