Circles Around The Sun / Neal Casal Interludes For The Dead (Ogv)

Circles Around the Sun isn't a band so much as a project; one that served a specific purpose. Neal Casal, guitarist for the Chris Robinson Brotherhood -- and occasional member of Phil Lesh & Friends -- was approached by Justin Kreutzmann to provide five hours of music to accompany his visuals that would play during the intermissions of the Grateful Dead's 50th anniversary sendoff Fare Thee Well concerts. Casal enlisted keyboardist Adam MacDougall (a fellow member of the Robinson Brotherhood and Lesh's bands), bassist Dan Horne (Beachwood Sparks, Jonathan Wilson), and drummer Mark Levy (the Congress) to that end. They walked into a studio with engineer J.P. Hesser having nothing prepared, spent two days recording live, and left with their mission accomplished. No overdubs were added during post-production. Concert attendees were so responsive to what they heard that Rhino decided to assemble this double disc. The titles of these ten tunes offer clues -- some quite deceptive -- as to