The official music video for Circles Around The Sun
– “One For Chuck”
Including A Cameo By Hip-Hop Legend Chuck D
from the album “Let It Wander” (available August 17)
Circles Around The Sun will release their new double album, Let It Wander, this Friday, August 17 via Rhino Records on limited edition vinyl, CD and digital formats. It’s the first new music from the quartet since their acclaimed 2015 debut, Interludes For The Dead. In advance of this week’s release, they have leaked the video for “One For Chuck,” featuring a cameo by hip-hop legend Chuck D. The charismatic leader of hip-hop pioneers Public Enemy happened to stop by the studio they were recording and overheard the session. He raved to the band how much he loved the music, so they asked him to record an intro. He obliged, and they dedicated the song to him. Watch and share “One For Chuck” here.
Circles Around the Sun (CATS) was born when guitarist Neal Casal was asked to record a handful of Grateful Dead-influenced instrumentals to be played during the set breaks at the Dead’s “Fare Thee Well” concerts in 2015. He configured a band featuring keyboardist Adam MacDougall (his bandmate in the Chris Robinson Brotherhood) along with bassist Dan Horne and drummer Mark Levy. Initially, it was only meant to be a one off recording session. But the response was so positive, and the band was having so much fun making music together, that they all agreed to keep it going.
Let It Wander signals a new beginning for the band as they move beyond their original musical mandate of evoking the spirit of the Dead and fully embrace their own personality. Recorded earlier this year at Castaway 7 Studios in California, CATS cut seven instrumentals for the album that explore new musical horizons. “More than anything, what you hear on this album is a band growing into its own sound,” Casal says.
The songs on Let It Wander are focused and filled with imaginative musical turns. Horne and Levy form a veritable groove machine that knows intuitively when to tighten up and when to stretch out. They expand and collapse the rhythmic pocket around Casal and MacDougall, who pass melodies back and forth in an elaborate game of musical tag as they take turns adding color and shade from a seemingly endless kaleidoscope of cosmic sounds. David Fricke at Rolling Stone writes in a review of the recording: “‘Let It Wander’ is a two-CD set of even deeper spells that thread suggestions of Little Feat–style grooves and Bernie Worrell‘s percolating synthesizers in Parliament-Funkadelic through the German mid-Seventies space travel of Tangerine Dream and the offbeat churn of the Dead’s ‘Estimated Prophet.'”
Circles Around The Sun’s individual members are busier than ever due to participation in other projects, but the band plans to tour behind the album as their schedules permit. Seven shows have already been announced, including five East Coast and two West Coast dates with more expected to be added shortly.
August 22 – Asbury Park, NJ – Wonder Bar
August 23 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl
August 24 – Ardmore, PA – The Ardmore Music Hall
August 25 – South Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
August 26 – Pine Plains, NY – Huichica East
September 27 – San Rafael, CA – Terrapin Crossroads
September 28 – Half Moon Bay, CA – Old Princeton Landing
Circles Around The Sun explore new horizons on the band’s upcoming double album, Let It Wander. Available August 17 on Rhino ( limited edition vinyl, CD and digital) it’s the first new music from the quartet since their acclaimed 2015 debut, Interludes For The Dead.
Guitarist Neal Casal and keyboardist Adam MacDougall (bandmates in the Chris Robinson Brotherhood) along with bassist Dan Horne and drummer Mark Levy recorded seven instrumentals for Let It Wander earlier this year at Castaway 7 Studios in California.
Originally, Circles Around the Sun (CATS) was only supposed to record a handful of Grateful Dead-influenced instrumentals to be played during the set breaks at the Dead’s “Fare Thee Well“ concerts in 2015. But the response was so positive, and the band was having so much fun making music together, that they all agreed to keep it going.
Let It Wander signals a new beginning for the band as they move beyond their original musical mandate of evoking the spirit of the Dead and fully embrace their own personality. “More than anything, what you hear on this album is a band growing into its own sound,” Casal says.
The songs on Let It Wander are focused and filled with imaginative musical turns. Horne and Levy form a veritable groove machine that knows intuitively when to tighten up and when to stretch out. They expand and collapse the rhythmic pocket around Casal and MacDougall, who pass melodies back and forth in an elaborate game of musical tag as they take turns adding color and shade from a seemingly endless kaleidoscope of cosmic sounds.
Among the album’s highlights is “One For Chuck” featuring a surprise cameo by Chuck D. The charismatic leader of legendary hip-hop pioneers Public Enemy happened to stop by the studio while the band was listening to a song they’d just recorded. He raved to the band how much he loved the music, so they asked him to record an intro. He obliged, and they dedicated the song to him.
LET IT WANDER
Track Listing
1. “On My Mind”
2. “One For Chuck”
3. “Immovable Object”
4. “Halicarnassus”
5. “Tacoma Narrows”
6. “Electric Chair (Don’t Sit There)”
7. “Ticket To Helix NGC 7293”
Immovable Object is available on Amazon or your favorite digital music outlet!
Sunday, January 22, 2017 Terrapin Family Band
– Phil Lesh, Grahame Lesh, Ross James,
and Alex Koford – with Neal Casal and Adam MacDougall –
Brooklyn Bowl
Las Vegas, NV
Help on the Way > (GL)
Slipknot! >
Fire on the Mountain > (AK)
Slipknot! >
Franklin’s Tower (NC, RJ)
Never Been to Spain (NC)
Bird Song > (PL)
Jack Straw > (AK, GL, NC)
Like a Rolling Stone (RJ)
Lady with a Fan > (PL)
Terrapin Station > (AK, GL, NC)
I Know You Rider (all)
Phil Lesh and Friends
– Chris Robinson, Neal Casal,
Tony Leone, Adam MacDougall, and Ross James –
Saturday January 21, 2017
Brooklyn Bowl
Las Vegas, NV
Set I
Shakedown Street >cr
They Love Each Other cr
Stagger Lee nc
Deal cr
Mr Charlie cr
New Minglewood Blues rj
Bertha cr
Set II
Playin’ In The Band nc >
Here Comes Sunshine nc >
Unbroken Chain pl >
Dark Star nc (cr pl) >
Comes A Time cr >
Dark Star v2 pl nc cr >
Samson & Delilah rmfj >
Caution (Do Not Stop On The Tracks) cr>
Turn On Your Love Light cr
Phil Lesh & Friend’s, ft. Jackie Greene, Neal Casal, Adam MacDougall, Mark Levy, Cass McCombs #philleshandfriends #grateroom #TxR #tuesday #darkness Grate Room Terrapin Crossroads, San Rafael California July 5, 2016
this show had a theme of “darkness” . The next night, the theme was “light”.
Jam > Dark Star v1 cm > Eclipse all > Mountains of the Moon pl > Bad Moon Rising cm jg > Paint It Black nc Comfortably Numb am nc jg Never Asked To Be Your Mountain nc > (Jeff Buckley) Hurricane jg (Dylan) Black Peter cm Darkness jg China Doll cm Terrapin Station pl Black Muddy River jg Who Knows Where The Time Goes nc
Encore set A sing-a-long at the fire pit in the Terrapin Backyard
Box of Rain pl all I Shall Be Released jgre nc all Bird Song pl all Uncle John’s Band all
This post was updated on September 24, 2019, mostly adding videos.