American singer-songwriter Neal Casal was born in New Jersey in 1968 and initially built his reputation as a musician playing guitar for Blackfoot, the successful southern rock band led by ex-Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Ricky Medlocke. After a five-year stint with Blackfoot, Casal began working on solo material and released his first solo album 'Fade Away Diamond Time' in 1995. It was to be the first of ten studio albums Casal would release during his career. Alongside his solo career, Casal joined Ryan Adams & The Cardinals for a tour in 2006 and in many ways the work he did with Adams defined Casal's career and reputation as an outstanding musician. He appeared on five albums with The Cardinals the last of which was 'Class Mythology' released in 2011 and this coincided with the release of his own final solo album later that year titled 'Sweeten the Distance'.
Latterly, the main body of Casal's work was with the Chris Robinson Brotherhood with whom he recorded a number of critically-acclaimed albums. As well as his career as a musician Casal was also a fine photographer and in 2008 held a one-man exhibition at Tokyo's Bauhaus gallery.
Sadly, Casal died on 26th August 2019 after taking his own life.
