I’m going to start off this review by giving Casey Neill the first turn at saying what this album is: ‘Live on 11th Street is a piece of our lives, rock and/or roll music with a good rootsy-thing happening. Johnny held court at the 11th Street Bar, and we’d often find ourselves singing around on an out-of-tune piano and stumbling home with ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ in our heads. Pull up a stool.’
Pull up a stool indeed. On what would be the very last album that the late and much missed Johnny Cunningham recorded as both one of the finest fiddlers ever and as an accomplished vocalist, the Casey Neill Band created one of the finest albums that I’ve ever heard. More on why that is so later.
The CD itself comes in a modest red cardboard package that reminds me of the wrapping of a solstice gift that might come one magical night for a child. Interestingly enough, another CD that Johnny was involved in came in similarly delightful packaging — the Peter & Wendy Cast Recording, which had such outstanding musicians playing with Johnny as Jamshied Sharifi, Karen Kandel, Jay Ansill, Seamus Egan, and Susan McKeown! Johnny and Susan were a musical duo for many years right up to his untimely death in December of ’03.
Inside the packaging (which is simply titled on the front CASEY NEILL BAND Live on 11th Street) is a CD and almost no liner notes, save the lyrics to ‘Philadelphia Girl,’ which Casey wrote, and a scant few notes about the CD itself. Ahhh, but it’s the music you want to know about. And that it is indeed what this CD is all about. It’s that rarest of CDs –a recording of a concert where both the material and the musicians are first-rate. No, it’s not impossible, as I’ve heard a number of truly great live recordings including the Oysterband’s Alive and Acoustic, Childsplay’s Live, Dervish’s Live In Palma and Old Blind Dogs’ Live CD. Don’t bother looking for the latter — the band disavows that it exists, as they say it wasn’t authorised which is a story for another time.
Why is Live on 11th Street so great? Because it rocks! Casey voice is every bit as good as Springsteen’s was at his best, and his band were obviously having a ball the evening this was recorded. (Casey covers Springsteen’s ‘Racing In The Street’ off the Darkness on the Edge of Town album here. His version is, in my opinion, even better than the Springsteen original.) So unless someone cleaned it up afterwards, the sound board tech that night, Mark Frankel assisted by Chris Taylor according to the liner notes, is one damn fine sound engineer! It’s crisp, it’s clear, and it’s rearly fun to listen to.
Before I leave you, let me stress that Johnny is very much present here. He plays fiddle — brilliantly as always — sings his heart out, and cracks witty comments from time to time. It’s as good a recording of him as you’ll likely find anywhere. Yes, he shows up as part of Nightnoise, the Celtic Fiddle Festival, Relativity, and other groups, but he really is caught at his best here. Casey and he obviously were at their very best here, and the rest of the band were just as good. Enjoy it — it’s that rare live recording that actually feels live.
(Casey Neill, 2004)
