Casey Neill

Casey Neill, a singer and songwriter based in Portland, Oregon, fuses politically charged folk traditions with Celtic, punk, country, and additional influences. Raised on the East Coast, he relocated to Olympia, Washington, for studies at Evergreen State University, where exposure to environmental causes and protest songs shaped his direction. In the mid-1990s he immersed himself in the Pacific Northwest’s underground circuit, issuing several self-released cassettes and CDs before securing a deal with the Appleseed imprint. Operating from Portland, he launched a series of recordings for the label with his self-titled 1998 effort. The subsequent releases Skree (1999) and Portland West (2001) emphasized his Celtic leanings and were helmed by the renowned Scottish fiddler Johnny Cunningham. He also contributed to Appleseed’s Pete Seeger tribute alongside Bruce Springsteen and Billy Bragg. Heavy touring marked the early 2000s, culminating in the 2004 live album Live on 11th Street. In 2005 Amy Ray’s Daemon label assembled the retrospective Memory Against Forgetting. After a short period in New York he returned to Portland and partnered with In Music We Trust for the well-received 2007 album Brooklyn Bridge, which drew on many styles and included contributions from Erin McKeown, John Wesley Harding, and several Decemberists members. His 2010 album Goodbye to the Rank and File marked the debut of his new ensemble the Norway Rats, whose lineup featured the Decemberists’ Jenny Conlee and other prominent Portland players. The band’s second effort, All You Pretty Vandals, followed in 2013. In 2015 Neill issued the expansive Big Bridges, a collaboration with Japanese heavy-metal artist Takashi O'hashi.