Jason McNiff's legendary weekly acoustic strand with a different featured guest every Friday.
This week is an extended special, featuring the phenomenal Casey Neill & Chet Lyster
Entry is always free but contributions for the players are welcome via the Jenny 'gig jug'
CASEY NEILL & CHET LYSTER
Sending Up Flares, the fourth record from Casey Neill & The Norway Rats, is the sound of a band rallying together, turning the genre-bending range of its influences into the group’s most cohesive, cathartic album yet. Created amidst chaos and uncertainty, these songs offer a lifeline to a world in need of balance, shot through with stories about resolve, resilience, wonder, and positive human interaction.
Those themes come together in the album’s cinematic title track, where Neill sings about a stranded motorist whose car breaks down in the middle of the night, seemingly far away from civilization. “The flares are shot off in hopes someone will come to help,” explains the frontman, who co-wrote the album’s songs with guitarist/producer Chet Lyster. “Upon climbing a hill to get some perspective, the lights of a massive metropolis unfold with countless flares being launched by other people who also need relief. It’s the same realization of the castaway in ‘Message in a Bottle’ — I’m not alone in being alone. It can work as a metaphor for mental health, addiction, alienation, or simply trying to be seen.”
With Sending Up Flares, Casey Neill & The Norway Rats don’t just make themselves seen; they make themselves heard, too. Each of the band’s previous albums explored the evolving range of Neill’s musical interests, from the dreamy Americana songs that filled 2010’s Goodbye to the Rank and File to the electronic textures that peppered 2018’s Subterrene (whose critically- acclaimed songs received praise from Rolling Stone and No Depression). Here, the Portland- based supergroup finds room for everything, turning a wealth of musical influences — including folk, punk, art-rock, atmospheric soundscapes, guitar freak-outs, and string arrangements — into something singular. “I love exploring all of the music I love,” says Neill, who even nods to artistic role models like David Bowie, author Ursula K. Le Guin, and filmmaker Wim Wenders in the song “Meteor Shower.” “Sending Up Flares feels like we’ve reached a point where the band has settled into a natural, nuanced place”, he adds. “This is who we are. It’s what we do.”
JASON MCNIFF
Jason is a troubadour who has made nine albums which people call Folk, Americana, or Alt. Country. There is an Englishness in his guitar playing however, and you might like to think of Bert Jansch or Wizz Jones meeting John Prine & Townes Van Zandt. Time Out writes, ‘McNiffs quiet, intimate, fragile-sounding vocals draw you into his world, an almost timeless place, through which he drifts, a romantic loner, a dreamer, at home with the blues.’ He is often touted as one of the UKs most overlooked musical treasures.
'I love Jason's version (of Fisherman's blues)'
Mike Scott, The Waterboys
'Jason's versions sound so fresh, whilst staying true to Bert's timeless music'
The Bert Jansch Foundation
One of the UK's best kept secrets"
Mojo
"A superior singer/writer "
No Depression
"A fantastic body of work"
Shindig!
"A bounteous mix of the finest roots music has to offer"
Folk Radio UK
"Deft finger-picking style against a wonderfully atmospheric vocal"
Clash
"Britain's greatest contemporary fingerstyle guitarist"
Guitar Quarterly
"A triumph of English-Americana"
Time Out
"The nearest thing out there to Bob Dylan and the Band"
Sean Rowley, BBC Radio London
"Dark songs of drunkenness and murder!"
The Independent
"A troubadour and one of the best singer/songwriters we have in this country"
Morning Star
"Not just a good songwriter, a truly great one"
Americana UK 9/10
Album of the Year for 2nd album Nobody's Son
as voted for by the staff at Americana UK
https://www.jasonmcniff.com/
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