Neko Case@ Beachland Ballroom, September 23
by Andrew Clayman
Published in The Cleveland Scene, September 2008
When she released her debut album The Virginian in 1997, Neko Case had the pipes and sex appeal to become a breakout country star, but her brains and background would lead her in a less commercial, far more creative direction.
With each subsequent record, Case has sharpened her craft and infused more of her musical influences, trimming off a good deal of the twang from her early work and embracing her inner art-school punk. The culmination seemed to be 2006’s Fox Confessor Brings the Flood—a brilliant, haunting record in which Case’s lyrical chops finally matched the much-ballyhooed canyon-wide range of her voice. Her least country record to date, Fox Confessor also appealed to many fans who had known Neko better for her spunky vocals with the Canadian power-pop outfit the New Pornographers.
For much of the past year, Case has been touring alternately as a solo act and with the aforementioned New Pornographers, who released their fourth LP last summer. Case herself has the much-anticipated follow-up to Fox Confessor on tap for 2009, so fans can expect to hear sneak previews of many of those new songs during her latest swing through the Beachland. As a special bonus, Neko’s opening act is Giant Sand, the band that essentially started the Arizona alt-country scene to which Case now ostensibly belongs.
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