Greasy Neale
For a year where nothing went down as planned, the Margo Price crew was remarkably productive. Price’s long-awaited third LP That’s How Rumors Get Started, co-produced with Sturgill Simpson and David R. Ferguson, finally arrived in July. Husband and bandmate Jeremy Ivey’s second album in as many years, Waiting Out the Storm, followed in October. Longtime Pricetag pedal-steel player Luke Schneider went solo with the masterful Altar of Harmony. Now keyboardist Micah Hulscher is getting in on the fun with Greasy Neale, which inaugurated The 5 Spot’s pay-per-view streaming system in September. A Seattle native and baseball fan, Hulscher says that he named the project after an obscure Cincinnati Reds outfielder from the early 20th century: “I heard his name mentioned on a broadcast and was like ‘Oh my God, that’s the greatest name ever.’ ”
Greasy Neale, Hulscher explains, is both his instrumental three-piece with bassist Alec Newnam and drummer Nate Felty, who anchor country ace Kelsey Waldon’s band, and alias for home-recorded experiments like the one we’re premiering today, “L’Arrière Cour.” You can check that out below (or via Spotify), and see the band live at 1 p.m. via YouTube, also below, and on the Greasy Neale Facebook page. Hulscher, Newnam and Felty will perform a set from Sid Gold’s Request Room, the just-opened Inglewood outpost of an NYC piano bar. In December, the trio will enter the studio with songwriter, producer and Raconteur Brendan Benson to track its debut EP. The Scene caught up with Hulscher to get the lowdown on the band and banter about baseball, bossa nova and more.
How long has Greasy Neale existed?
It started as a larger band in 2017. I’m really into 1960s Chicago soul jazz — Dorothy Ashby, Jack McDuff, Ramsey Lewis, groups like The Dells and Chi-Lites … the Cadet and Brunswick labels … the arranger Richard Evans, who was just phenomenal. We transcribed some arrangements from those records for an ensemble with sax, pedal steel, keys, guitar and a rhythm section, [and] did some residencies at Vinyl Tap.
The next year I met Nate and Alec on the Cayamo Cruise. They were playing with Kelsey, I was there with Margo and they had a jam room on the ship with a piano, so we spent a lot of time in there playing jazz standards. When quarantine started I began doing more recording with my mid-’80s Yamaha RX-11 drum machine and vintage keyboards. Then we started rehearsing in Nate’s garage where we could set up at a distance, and really went at it. That was when I decided to apply the Greasy Neale name to whatever instrumental music I’m putting out.
How did you get into Brazilian music, like the work of Antonio Carlos Jobim?
It’s resonated with me since I first heard it as a teenager. The melody, the harmony, the sexiness, the transporting [qualities]. It’s smooth and comfortable, but it also has attitude.
Tell me a bit about “L’Arrière Cour.”
The title is French for “The Backyard” — I’ve been trying to learn French during quarantine. I wrote it at home in April and recorded it on an eight-track digital TASCAM. Evan Donohue mixed it, John Baldwin mastered it and Ethan McCracken did the cover art. It’s the first of a few tributes to my pitbull, Diesel.
Micah Hulscher and Diesel
What can viewers expect from the upcoming Sid Gold’s livestream?
It’ll be a straight-up piano trio because that’s what they have, as opposed to our 5 Spot set, where I brought synths and pedals and got more psychedelic with it. It’s free to tune in, but any Venmo or PayPal proceeds (micah45456 [at] hotmail [dot] com) will go to Music City PrEP Clinic.
Your sets mix in some standards with Greasy Neale originals, and bossa nova covers. Are these meant to give audiences something familiar to latch onto, between the more esoteric moments?
Yes, although I’m trying to write strong enough melodies that they’ll latch onto those. Obviously I could never put myself next to Burt Bacharach or Henry Mancini, but [both] wrote incredible melodies. Put on a Bacharach or Mancini instrumental record and it’ll get stuck in your head. We try to bring in other influences, too. We’ve been jamming on “Cherry-Coloured Funk” by Cocteau Twins. I love that textural 4AD shoegaze stuff. There’s a lot there that I think can fuse with some of [our] jazz, funk, Latin elements.
It seems like Margo, Jeremy and the rest of the band have made the most of a bad situation in 2020.
Yeah, we’ve kept ourselves entertained. We’ve missed [touring] so much, but if not for the pandemic Alec, Nate and I also wouldn't have been able to hone in on this the way we did. We’ve gotten [Greasy Neale] to a point where I really want to push it. When things do come back, we’ll be ready to go.
Did you enjoy this bizarro baseball season?
Yes, because there was baseball! I’m glad your Dodgers won — honestly, I was rooting for the Rays, but anybody but Houston. The best two teams were in the World Series, which was nice. And my Mariners have a solid young core. [Top rookie] Kyle Lewis, he’s a damn good player. The Astros are going to have to sell off a bunch of players, Billy Beane’s leaving the A’s, the Angels aren’t good and Texas is in shambles, so maybe our time is coming. I think they should go out and get [Rays ace] Blake Snell. He’s from Seattle. Pulling him from Game 6 of the World Series in the sixth inning was the worst managing decision I’ve ever seen in my life.
