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.”
Jerry Joseph is a musician who lives in Portland Oregon, but he’s often gone. He’s been inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame but is still rather obscure to a lot of people. He plays well over 150 shows a year in the usual places. Across America. Sometimes in Europe, Mexico, and Central America. Then there’s these other places he plays—Lebanon, Israel, Kurdish Iraq, India, and Afghanistan. All over the Middle East, often in war zones and refugee camps.
In addition to his touring, Jerry has set up a non-profit called Nomad Music Foundation that acts as a sort of School of Rock for displaced teenagers in areas of conflict. So far, he has taken guitars and taught lessons in camps in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Sulaymaniyah and Dahuk, both in Kurdish Iraq. These life-changing missions have been written up in Rolling Stone, Relix, and PBS News Hour.
Oh yeah, and he’s really fucking great.
A triple threat—someone who works at the highest levels as a songwriter, singer, and player. Jason Isbell, who kinda personifies such, recently tweeted about triple threats and listed Jerry Joseph (along with Richard Thompson and St. Vincent) among the greatest examples of that phenomenon.
