Tash Neal has released his hard-hitting and even harder-grooving debut solo album Charge It To The Game via Black Hill Records.
Charge It To The Game is all power and propulsion, grit and grime. It consists of eleven high-energy, high-stakes rock-blues-funk-psych-r&b-pop workouts that slam, slide, swagger, and strut with relentless passion and unshakeable soul.
Neal says,
“It’s a celebration of life and a celebration of getting over sh*t. That’s what I love about the album and the album title—it’s such a statement. Whatever you have to face, it’s like, charge it to the game, man. I’m still here. I’m still living.”
Celebrating life is especially meaningful to Neal after being involved in a horrific car accident in 2012 in his hometown of New York City that came very close to turning tragic. After spending the evening at a friend’s downtown studio, Neal was heading home in a taxi when it was broadsided by an out-of-control drag racer. As a crowd of onlookers gathered, the singer and guitarist’s limp body was pulled from the totalled vehicle by medics using the Jaws of Life. Neal underwent brain surgery and had a piece of his skull removed before being placed in a medically-induced coma.
Friends and family were warned that Neal’s mental and physical capacities, not to mention his musical abilities, might be forever compromised—indeed, at one point he came out of the coma paralyzed over half his body, only to be put back under again. But not long after waking up for good,
Neal recalls looking over at his father, who had been keeping vigil by his bedside, and gesturing to an acoustic he had with him.
“My dad gave me the guitar and I played a couple chords,” Neal says. “And I was like, ‘All right, I’m good.’ For the first time since the accident I felt like myself again.”
Neal has released three singles from his new album including ‘Like A Glove’ which was produced by Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach, his debut solo single ‘Something Ain’t Right’, a song that chronicles the injustice and inhumanity that prevails in society today and his most recent ‘All I See Is Blood’, a song inspired by his accident after awakening from the coma with dried blood in his cornea from the blood crushing his brain due to the impact.
As a musician, Neal has been running this game for a decade now, with most of that time spent fronting New York City duo The London Souls and making a name for himself amongst fans and peers as one of rock’s most exciting and explosive singers and guitarists. Neal has critically-acclaimed albums and appearances at festivals like Bonnaroo and Austin City Limits under his belt and has performed with the likes of Lenny Kravitz, Slash, Tedeschi Trucks Band, the Black Crowes and many others.
Listen to his new album below.
Cover photo by: Thomas Falcone
