Eric Krasno Joins Circles Around The Sun For Fall Tour 2019

Circles Around The Sun recruited guitarist Eric Krasno for their upcoming fall tour. The band is moving forward with the tour in the wake of founding member Neal Casal’s death and will release both the Circles Around The Sun Meets Joe Russo EP on October 18 and a new LP in 2020.

Keyboardist Adam MacDougall revealed the news of Krasno’s participation in a new interview with Relix. “It’s nice to have someone we trust to step in,” MacDougall explained. “We’ll play this memorial for Neal at the Capitol Theatre. And there’s another memorial out here in California on the 30th. Eric is going to do the Capitol memorial and be a part of our shows this fall.”

MacDougall confirmed Neal expressed wishes that CATS continue on without him. Here’s the keyboardist’s response to being asked about how he is feeling about the group moving forward:

It’s definitely a process, but we love this music. The three of us- (bassist) Dan (Horne), (drummer) Mark (Levy), and myself- we really love it and really don’t want to stop playing it. I don’t want [our decision] to come off in any other way than based on the fact we really, really love this band so much. We had done sideman gigs for a long time- especially Neal and I had. We would always sit around and talk about the dream: the feeling of what it was like to be a teenager and start your own band. It’s your band, with everyone pulling their own weight, doing their part. It’s yours. But, then you have to make a living and that feeling goes away. You do learn a lot from playing other people’s music. It’s great. It’s amazing. But, this band felt like being in high school again.

Neal Casal, who initially formed Circles Around The Sun to provide music played during the intermissions of 2015’s Fare Thee Well – Celebrating 50 Years Of Grateful Dead, died by suicide on August 26. When asked by Relix about those confused by Neal’s death, MacDougall provided the following response:

I think everybody’s confused. I’m equally as confused. I don’t think there is anyone out there saying it makes sense. A lot of people are in pain over it. People get down. You can see it. You can feel it. Everyone’s just confused as to the extent of what happened. I don’t think I’ll ever have an answer for that one. I’ll miss him every day and I don’t think I’ll ever know why this happened.

MacDougall also discussed performing recently with Chris Robinson during a Green Leaf Rustlers gig. Adam departed the Chris Robinson Brotherhood earlier this year. Read Adam’s take on playing music with Robinson in the wake of Casal’s death below:

We played together and everything’s great with us. I love the guy. It was a terrible way (for us) to come close, but, yes, that was nice to play with him. It was nice to be around the members of CRB that were there during those shows. I hadn’t seen (CRB drummer) Tony (Leone) in a while, and it’s terrible circumstances to see him. For people who really understand having those connections, us hanging out together- to be around people who lived with Neal in a bus for close to a decade- it’s good to be with people that were close with him. That was nice, and helpful. I really felt terribly for the people that knew him well and were out-of-state or in places where they couldn’t be with someone that also knew him. It’s very lonely to go through that by yourself. My heart went out to those who were alone.

Head to Relix for more from Adam MacDougall. Circles Around The Sun featuring Eric Krasno will perform tomorrow (Wednesday, September 25) as part of a Neal Casal tribute at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York. A free live stream is available.