At times as smooth as the Danube at dusk or as ragged as a flag after battle, Neil Howard’s voice carries within it the histories of the characters it portrays. From the bar-room intervention of 'Daylight' to the bedroom blasphemy of 'We Can't Be Long,' Howard's avatars know whereof they speak. The reluctant suitor of "All the One" can barely summon the anger anymore as he whispers, "the harder that you fall, the softer you become/the more you love them all, the more they're all the one."
Trying to write monologues in three minute form is Howard's creative "therapy," he says. "It's the frustrated playwright in me, writing little short-attention span operas..." Howard's early years as a stage actor helped him, he thinks, in casting off self-consciousness and allowing a song it's full dynamic.
Neil Howard was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, the youngest of three first-generation sons born to an Irish mother and an Australian father. Neil's first love was the theatre and he grew up acting in various productions all over Northern California. Music came late to him, sometime during college, where he discovered a love of writing and singing music. He took up the guitar and began recording his various ramblings on the first of what would become thousands of cassettes. Over time, he developed his retro-tinged style, and a unique tone and texture in his singing. Still, many years of theatre, travel, heartache and odd-jobbery passed by before he came to perform his music publicly or record it for release to the public. It was a warm, encouraging welcome at hallowed Bay Area open mics such as San Francisco’s Hotel Utah and Berkeley’s Starry Plough that gave Neil the impetus to persevere and furthur develop his style. Along with upright bassist Roy Elder and drummer Joey “Sunset” Gusich, both also singer-songwriters from the Hotel Utah fold, Neil formed "The New Black Trio,” playing clubs and recording a series of live tracks at Alex Muscat’s Last Stop Records. Soon after losing Gusich back to his own project, Neil began working with recent NYC-transplant, drummer/producer Jamie Moore on breaking down a selection of songs and working them up for a record. Neil moved to NYC shortly after recording Moore’s drum tracks and Elder’s bass parts with Alex Muscat at his Last Stop studio. In New York, Moore introduced Neil to producer Dan Stein, whose King Kuts studio in Brooklyn became home to the ongoing project. Many months later, after working with stellar musicians such as Steve Walsh (ERASURE) and Jamie Fox (JEN CHAPIN), the record known as “BOTTLE LETTER” was completed. It was mastered by Scott Hull (JOHN MAYER, ELVIS COSTELLO) and is officially slated for release April 1, 2007, with pre-promotion currently underway. |
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