NO DEPRESSION: Friends Remember Neal’s Career and Legacy

An interview with Neal Casal in the September-October 1996 issue of No Depression. (Photo by David Menconi)

Guitarist Neal Casal first appeared in No Depression in a record review in Vol. 1, No. 2, Winter 1996 (the issue with Blue Mountain on the cover), followed by an interview feature in Vol. 2, No. 1, September-October 1996. Much of that interview was about Casal’s career travails and the record deal he’d recently lost. That hastened his transition from bandleader to sideman, but it would be a role he thrived in.

Over the next two decades, Casal became a key player in bands including Ryan Adams’ Cardinals, Chris Robinson Brotherhood, and the supergroup Hard Working Americans. He worked steadily into August 2019, at which point he was busier than ever.