Kevin Burke, Cal Scott and Casey Neill bring New York and Ireland a bit closer

CORVALLIS - Concertgoers get a bit of a stylistic two-for-one Saturday night, when instrumental Celtic fiddle-and-guitar duo Kevin Burke and Cal Scott join forces with singer-songwriter Casey Neill for a night of category-crossing music at The Majestic.

While Burke and Scott might be the official headliners, Casey Neill just might be the homestate favorite, writing his imagistic tales of the streets of America from Portland. For this concert, he'll also be joined by Decemberists pianist and accordionist Jennie Conlee, making it as much a showcase for the Portland music scene as it is for the sounds of Ireland Burke and Scott are peddling.

This will be at least Neill's fourth trip here, following a bar gig, a show five years ago opening for country/folk artist Iris Dement, also at the Majestic, and even a performance at the Benton County Courthouse.

Neill's most recent album, "Brooklyn Bridge," was actually recorded between Portland and New York, where he laid down the basis of many of the tracks with the late fiddler and his close friend, Johnny Cunningham.

If those cities sound like disparate influences to reconcile, Neill can just add them to the list. Born in New Haven Conn., he moved to Olympia, Wash., in 1989 to attend Evergreen State College. Home of Northwest indie rock mainstay K Records, Olympia would hold sway over the course of Neill's career.

"Having it be all ages, and having local bands play was something I hadn't really experienced before," he recalls. "Certainly culturally, and in many other ways, it was an influence."

"The level of alternative politics there is through the roof, so that was a huge influence on my life personally," he says. "Musically, Evergreen at the time was the kind of place where all the hippies would show up from their high school and within a year would have died black bobs and facial piercings, and all the punks would show up to go to school and end up doing yoga. There was a lot of cross-pollination, for sure."

Neill started out playing music in political and environmental circles, but soon found his way to the Portland rock and folk scene. In 1995, he released his debut CD "Riffraff," an album that mixed punk and folk together into a rousing call to arms. He followed that in 1998 with a self-titled CD, then "Skree" in '99 and a live album in 2001. The albums mixed together traditional folk, Americana, Celtic and even bluegrass influences.

Shortly thereafter, his friend Cunningham convinced him to come to New York to record some sessions that drew on his love of big rock sounds. The resulting "Brooklyn Bridge," which was completed after Cunningham's death with the help of members of The Decemberists, John Wesley Harding and Erin McKeown, not to mention his own band, The Norway Rats, marks yet another departure for Neill.

While past albums have ranged wildly from style to style, "Brooklyn Bridge" shows an artist with the songwriting chops of Bob Dylan, a voice like a young Bruce Springsteen and the consistency of both artists' early outputs.

"It became emotionally charged for me," Neill says of both the album and the sessions that yielded it, citing his closeness with Cunningham and obsession with seeing the album through to the conclusion he thought Cunningham would have wanted.

The title track of "Brooklyn Bridge" is a loping mixture of soulful organ and swelling pedal steel that recreates the flow of the water past the shore. In it, he sings:

"You and I go walking/ hand in hand, we're talking/ down along the waterfront docks/ Smell of fish it lingers/ from the midnight market/ we're quiet in the way new lovers talk/ On that dirty river, we will be delivered, across the Brooklyn Bridge."

At once capturing Springsteen's focus on travel and the contrast between urban and rural, as well as the workingman's politics of early Dylan, Neill sounds assured far beyond his 36 years. Throw into that mix the pull of artists such as The Pogues, Joe Strummer and R.E.M., and you begin to get a picture of the mixture that is the album's sound.

"These days I'm more concerned with the image than with the message," Neill says. "When you start out with an agenda for a song and try to put a message to it, it makes it really hard to write a good song."

Neill is looking forward to playing these songs Saturday night, when he opens for Scott and Burke, who he's played with in the past.

"He was also a dear friend of Johnny Cunningham's," Neill says. "After Johnny died, we did a number of tribute shows to him. We've known each other a long time, and it will be really nice to do this."

To complement the instrumental duo's set, Neill is planning on playing some ballads and some traditional pieces, making use of the Majestic's baby grand piano. "I think it will be a nice fit," he says.

Check It Out

What: Kevin Burke with Cal Scott, Casey Neill with Jennie Conlee (of The Decemberists)

When: 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 26

Where: The Majestic Theatre, 115 S.W. Second St., Corvallis

Cost: $19.50 in advance, $22 at the door

Tickets: Available at Gracewinds Music, www.majestic.org