Neil Cavanagh

News

March 2008:
NC is featured in a short piece in LI PULSE, brilliantly written by Alan Semerdjian.

MySpace Blog
November 07 2007: iTunes / Last.fm / iLike / Eventful links
I am featured in this week's iTunes compilation, INDIE SPOTLIGHT: SINGER/SONGWRITER. Very humbling to be in good company with a diverse set of talented artists. If you have iTunes, you can check out t...

Dream Journal
July 14 2008: The Village Honors, Elvis Intervenes
I'm in some kind of native village; many, many locals around because today is some type of ritual day. It turns out I'm one (the only non-native) of many who are to be part of some ancient rite of passage ceremony today. It's a great honor apparently, but I'm just trying to get up to speed today. I'm running late for this outdoor gathering when I realize I don't have some totem/artifact that all ...

Biography

Neil Cavanagh was raised in Queens and Long Island, and his first radio airplay came with a local rock band at age 13. Later, he went to NYU to study classical music composition, then to Boston to learn film scoring at Berklee College of Music. While in college, he took bass lessons from session legend Jerry Jemmott (Aretha Franklin, B.B. King), studied the tabla with Pandit Ramsamooj, and sat in with bands on piano or drums.

Following college, Neil returned to New York, where his chops and diverse musical vocabulary led him into a variety of situations, including sessions at The Hit Factory with pop legend Michael Jackson. Neil also quickly developed a reputation for wildly diverse solo shows that blended beautiful acoustic songs with offbeat arrangements and hypnotic improvisations.

Neil Cavanagh's new album Short Flight To A Distant Star was released on September 11, 2007 through the Kindred Rhythm Music Group (KRMG), an eclectic Manhattan based label group that released vocalist Roberta Gambarini's Grammy Nominated debut album, and jazz legend Jack DeJohnette's first new age project (which was also Grammy Nominated). KRMG is distributing the album to all of the major digital retailers, and to traditional retail through its agreement with Koch Entertainment Distribution.

Neil's dream-inducing arrangements are built around his captivating tenor, his 12-string acoustic, and a memorable set of songs. The simple acoustic introduction of the album's opener, "Time to Sleep" melts into a majestic arrangement of layered vocals and guitars that hint at the creative depth and playful eccentricities that are to come on this most adventurous and most rewarding project. The songs that follow, "Our Day Will Come" and "The Spirit of '76," are stunning, hit-worthy tunes that outline the beginning of what is a complete album - with start, middle, and end - and many peaks and surprises along the way.

Neil played all of the instruments (vocals, guitar, bass, keys, drums, harmonica, etc.), he handled all of the production and most of the engineering, and he wrote and arranged all but one song ("The Kiss" by the late Judee Sill, a haunting, classically inspired folk singer from the 70s). The recording began at The Hit Factory in New York, and was completed in Los Angeles, where Neil was nominated in the Best Adult Contemporary Artist category in the 2007 Los Angeles Music Awards.

Calendar

Upcoming performances

Fri Jul 25 2008 8pm
Pisces Café 14A Railroad Ave Babylon NY 11702 map

Past performances

Sun Feb 17 2008 Air Conditioned Santa Monica, CA
Sun Jan 13 2008 Air Conditioned Santa Monica, CA
Sun Dec 29 2007 Pisces Café Babylon, NY
Sun Dec 2 2007 Air Conditioned Santa Monica, CA
Sun Nov 4 2007 Air Conditioned Santa Monica, CA
Thu Sep 20 2007 Hotel Café Los Angeles, CA West Coast CD Release Party
Fri Jun 15 2007 Pisces Café Babylon, NY
Thu Jun 14 2007 Rockwood Music Hall New York, NY
Sat Dec 30 2006 Rockwood Music Hall New York, NY
Fri Dec 29 2006 Pisces Café Babylon, NY

Press

A Cavanagh Farewell Performance

Sunday May 29th 2005, 8pm at the Pisces Café, Babylon

by M. E. Anders, Aural Fix Magazine July 2005

FAREWELL LONG ISLAND SHOW - marathon performance in the style of the early shows, bringing back the electric guitar, synthesizer, bass drum, other surprises and guests.

An art enthusiast tries to find something eternal in that snapshot of time captured in the medium of their delight. Whether staring deeply into vague images of Monet, floating hypnotically on zephyrs of Mozart, or fighting mythical battles of Homer, the enthusiast is able to, if only for a short time, slip the fetters of cruel reality and run naked in that terrifying savage and exhilarating realm of the imagination.

Recently the patrons of Pisces Café were lucky enough to experience one of those transcendental performances from the mercurial talent Neil Cavanagh. Dubbed "The Suitcase in Hand" performance portending his eminent departure for California, Cavanagh sang played and entertained like it was his last day on Earth and not just his penultimate performance in New York.

With a seemingly hand picked audience of family, friends, and adoring fans, the tiny café played host to a two way love fest until the wee hours of the next morning. The overwhelming consensus: a Neil Cavanagh performance of any length (he played over five hours with nary a break) was way too short.

The set list was virtually irrelevant as Cavanagh tore and twisted even well known standards like "Will the Circle Be Broken" into soulful meandering Cavanaghesque creations that would be hard to describe as anything but original. In between actual originals like a stirring version of his mesmerizing signature "Forgiveness" and a wistful rendition of "Our Day Will Come" the set was peppered with comic sampling of Yes and Zeppelin (to lampoon falsetto and that Plant moan yell respectively.)

The evening was loose and fun and Neil kept the crowd in his vice-like grip even when his understated vocals weren't the only voice heard in the room. One instance was when Neil shredded his guitar as Mark Loebl barked out "Forty Thousand Headman" in a spontaneous collaboration that can only happen in such intimate confines as Pisces (Mark in his front row seat was as close to the mic as Neil on stage.)

Photos

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Contact

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For general inquiries: contact@neilcavanagh.com

For media inquiries, contact Jane Chun at Now Forward Music: jane@KindredRhythm.com

For radio inquiries, contact Tatsuya Koeda at Now Forward Music: tatsuya@NowForward.com