Neko Case III

Held at the Right Angle

Neko Case's New Album is More About Words Than Vocals

By Andrew Clayman
Published in The Nashville Scene, October 2013

 
It's a bit perplexing to think that Neko Case — the preferred "chanteuse" and/or "siren" of the NPR demographic — began her musical career not as a singer, but as a drummer, shy behind her cymbals for a series of '90s punk bands in the Pacific Northwest. In retrospect, Case's greatest talent was somehow going wholly unnoticed. And in a strange twist — some 20 years later — the same thing might be happening again.

After a four-year break following the highest charting album of her career (2009's Middle Cyclone hit No. 3 on the Billboard chart), Case released her sixth full-length solo LP in September. Titled The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You, it loosely chronicles the singer-songwriter's struggles with depression and loss following the deaths of several family members and friends during her recording hiatus. At 43, Case's much-celebrated pipes remain as pure as the driven snow — which she presumably sees plenty of on the quiet Vermont farm she calls home. It's her skills as a wordsmith, however, that demand attention like never before.

"[Writing this record] was more like emotional stomach flu," Case tells the Scene. "I was having a hard time with loss, and it's not what I wanted to be writing about at all. I wanted to write stories. But it was just all I was capable of at the time. In hindsight, I like the work, but trying to unite the songs for the record was a real chore. I don't regret it, though."

In terms of tone, The Worse Things Get is a far cry from early Case albums, like 1997's The Virginian (1997) and 2000's Furnace Room Lullaby, when her Patsy Cline-caliber croon first starting earning admirers. Back then, Case was belting "Oh my darlin'!" in a dressed-up drawl, eliciting hoots and hollers from barroom onlookers. The power of her voice was undeniable, but it wasn't entirely her own yet. To Case's credit, she still records with many of the same talented musicians from that era, including vocalist Kelly Hogan, guitarist Jon Rauhouse, bassist Tom Ray and Calexico's Joey Burns and John Convertino.

"I just picked the right people the first time," Case says. "You know what they say — if it ain't broke ..."

Cast of characters aside, though, the Neko Case playbook has gradually been completely rewritten over the years — starting with 2002's Blacklisted — as she's learned to mine and refine the full spectrum of her voice, not to mention the words it communicates and scenes it paints. On The Worse Things Get, it's reached the point that it may be the lyrics — perhaps even more than how they're sung — that really resonate.

"Lines often enter my head and yell themselves at me until I use them," Case says. "They can be quite bossy! I really like it. They usually are so demanding you just build the song around them."

One example Case mentions is the cryptic but oddly weight-bearing chorus of the new track "Night Still Comes," in which she mournfully but defiantly tells a former friend/lover, "You never held it at the right angle."

From there, the second verse unwinds like this:

"Did they poison my food? Is it 'cause I'm a girl? / If I puked up some sonnets, would you call me a miracle? / I'm gonna go where my urge leads no more. / Swallowed, waist-deep, in the gore of the forest / A boreal feast, let it finish me, please. / 'Cause I revenge myself all over myself. / There's nothing you can do to me."

As has been her calling card for some time, Case doesn't lob softballs in her lyric writing. But while such dense wordplay is often lauded and deeply analyzed when it comes from the likes of John Darnielle or Jeff Mangum, it seems to be perceived more as an afterthought in the general critical assessment of Case — which still usually focuses on a description of her crystalline voice and some inevitable toss-in comments on her status as a "sultry redhead." Is the lack of love for Case's songwriting putting her back behind the metaphorical drum kit again? Is it the result of a gender bias against the same woman whose latest single starts with the line, "I'm a man"? Basically, is it 'cause she's a girl?

"I can only change people's minds or perspective by being the thing I want them to see," Case says, subtly acknowledging the occasional double standards that come her way. "If they can't see it, then I accept it. And if it's helpful to anyone, I actually feel wonderful about it. If I find it obstructive in a situation directly, I move it by whatever means necessary. I use politeness and reason first — most of the time, anyway. I'm not perfect."

See Also: 2007 Neko Case Interview

The New Pornographers

Happy Together
Cool or Not, New Pornographers Stay Catchy on Fifth Album
By Andrew Clayman
Published in The Nashville Scene, June 2010

Patience. Precision. Polish. These are not favorable words in the indie-rock lexicon. In fact, more often than not, they’re just code language for “older,” “duller,” and “uncool.” That the New Pornographers are encountering such snarky criticisms of their fifth album, Together, should come as little surprise. Among the mostly Canadian group’s core members, Carl Newman is now 42, Neko Case, 39, and Dan Bejar, 38—making them all roughly twice the age of Brooklyn’s various bourgeois hipster rockers of the moment. Toss in the Pornographers’ shared admiration for the slickly produced sounds of the ‘70s (Newman cites both Led Zeppelin and ABBA as key influences on his new material), and the disconnect becomes clearer. Despite the Matador label and cameo appearances from the likes of Annie Clark (St. Vincent) and Zach Condon (Beirut), Together is really an indie-rock album in name only. This, more accurately, is pop music—in the most unapologetic, Fleetwood Mac-ian expression of the term.

The press materials that Matador Records is bundling with Together describe the record as a combination of “the freewheeling, glammy spirit of Mass Romantic” and “the very personal, emotional songwriting of the NPs’ most recent material.” While this is genius, grab-all marketing copy, the nod to the New Pornographers’ beloved 2000 debut album is a bit of a reach.

Like many near-perfect albums, Mass Romantic was the result of a lot of young, budding talent collaborating without pretense—or even a plan—in the right time and place. Carl Newman, on what would prove to be a permanent hiatus from his Sub Pop band Zumpano, basically spent a couple years jamming with his fellow Vancouver-based friends, including John Collins of Thee Evaporators, Bejar from Destroyer, Kurt Dahle of Limblifter, and eventually, the American transplant and upstart country crooner Neko Case. On a low budget, with more adrenalin than studio tricks, they managed to make a killer power-pop album, elevated quickly into cult classic status by the subsequent blossoming of Bejar, Newman, and particularly Case’s solo careers. In an odd way, the New Pornographers had become a supergroup sort of retroactively.

By contrast, Together (which charted at a career-best #18 on the Billboard Top 200) is the full realization of the NPs as a collection of noted and respected stars—rather than a rag tag gang of Canucks on their way to greater heights. Even in comparison to the band’s gradually more refined middle albums—Electric Version (2003), Twin Cinema (2005), and the sometimes-meandering Challengers (2007)—this is their most “adult” affair. And no, that’s not a bad thing. Just a different thing.

“Crash Years,” for example, is a damn catchy song, but it’s very much in the vein of a George Harrison single circa 1987. “Daughters of Sorrow,” with Bejar at the helm, has a definite 5th Dimension vibe to it. And then there’s arguably the best song on the album, the Case-sung “My Shepherd.” It’s a slow-burning anthem not too dissimilar from past NP classics like “The Bleeding Heart Show,” and like so many of Newman’s compositions, it’s structurally flawless. There is a sort of formality to it, though, that might just be an unavoidable consequence of becoming too good at what you do—too refined, too spot-on.

Once upon a time, “Letter from an Occupant” was the New Pornographers’ trademark track— a 3-minute, super-up-tempo joyride penned by Newman, sung by Case, and played with enough exuberance to make it sound like the song’s seams were going to burst. It was far from pretentious or experimental, but it did have a rawness and immediacy to it than won the hearts of hipsters and pop kids alike. Together doesn’t offer anything like that, but it would probably be unfair and silly to expect it to. Matador could have simply said, “the New Pornographers won’t be making Mass Romantic again, but they have recorded 12 more really good pop songs that pretty much nobody could dislike, so, enjoy!”

See Also: 2008 New Pornographers Feature & Interview with John Collins.

Kathleen Edwards

Kathleen Edwards
Americana from a Girl From the North Country
By Andrew Clayman
Published in The Knoxville Metro Pulse, March 2009



She could have passed herself off as Lucinda Williams’ long lost daughter or Tift Merritt’s second cousin. No one would have doubted it. But Kathleen Edwards has no interest in hiding her true identity. In one pedal steel laden tune, she name-checks defamed hockey player Marty McSorley. In another, she criticizes the racial biases of the Canadian news media. These are not traditional themes of “Americana” music, and Kathleen Edwards, as you might have guessed, is not an American.

“I played in Charlotte, North Carolina, last night,” says Edwards, a native of Ottawa, Ontario. “I’d never played there before, and when I got on stage, I was just thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m in North Carolina.’ You know, this is the birthplace of so many of my contemporaries— people like Ryan Adams and Tift Merritt. It’s always been a hot bed of Americana and alt-country, which is something I consider myself a part of. And yet, yeah, I’m Canadian, and I don’t know North Carolina very well. But all you can do is just say, ‘Hey, I do what I do and I love what I love, and it’s genuine. And I think the people at the show are there because they know that.”

Assuming Shania Twain didn’t demolish the work Neil Young did in legitimizing Canadian country-rock, there is no reason to question Edwards’ musical sincerity. In fact, she proudly proclaims, “Neil is one of my heroes. He kind of encompasses everything that I love about music.”

To assume that Kathleen Edwards is a Neil Young disciple is to miss the point a bit, though. What she admires most about Young is his consistent refusal to be pigeonholed or let his music be dictated by other people’s expectations. And so, fittingly, Edwards goes her own way, too. Now 30, she’s released three engaging, well-rounded albums, each earning more praise and moving more units than its predecessor. Her latest effort, Asking For Flowers, hit the top of the Billboard Heatseekers chart in the U.S., her biggest stateside success. The album revealed tighter melodies and lyrical leaps forward into serious social commentary, but it also set the bar even higher for whatever comes next.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Edwards acknowledges. “Obviously, I have a musical agenda and a feeling of wanting to succeed at what I do. You know, you always kind of want to step it up another notch, so there’s some pressure involved in that. I think I feel less pressure now, though, in that I feel much more comfortable listening to my instinct and knowing that that’s a really good thing to do.”

Edwards learned a lot about trusting her guts by taking lessons from one of her notable 2008 tour partners, punk luminary John Doe.

“John taught me how to sort of step back a little bit and not be such a control freak about certain things,” she says. “He’s a really hard worker and an amazing guy. But at the heart of it, he’s also a punk rocker. He comes from the old school of punk rock, which is basically, ‘you don’t like it? Fuck you!’ It’s pretty cool and in your face, but at the same time, it’s helped me learn to let things happen musically and not always have an expectation of things fitting into certain boxes.”

Like so many artists under the so-called alt-country umbrella, Edwards seems very at home with the punk aesthetic. But she’s not a clear-cut converted punk like Neko Case or Jeff Tweedy, either. As usual, Edwards has surprises up her sleeve.

“I really love the philosophy of punk,” she says. “But I think I’m a bit of a contradiction, because I also grew up playing classical music.” To be specific, Edwards spent her entire childhood, from kindergarten through high school, training as a classical violinist. “Classical music is very regimented and rigid and disciplined, whereas punk is almost the opposite of that. You know, the ideology is just to follow your instinct and not let anyone tell you what’s right for you. You respect yourself and act as your own guide.”

Fortunately, with her unique background, Edwards tends to lead herself in exciting new directions, borrowing little nooks from Neil Young, John Doe, or J.S. Bach along the way. Whether or not she winds up taking the wild stylistic left turns of former alt-country acts like Wilco and My Morning Jacket, however, remains to be seen.

“When I’m making a record, I’m not really thinking about what genre it’s going to fit into,” she says. “I’m always feeling like I’m ready to do something different, so even if it doesn’t seem like a big change to some people, I’m moving at a pace I feel is really good. …Artists that are interesting and talented are always going to change and develop over time. It’s impossible to stay where you started. So I look forward to finding out where that takes me. I’m sure it’ll be very rewarding wherever it is.”

Neko Case (Talkin Dogs)

Tattle Tails: Neko Case
A Special Interview for Tails Pet Magazine
By Andrew Clayman
Published in Tails Pet Magazine, December 2008

Neko Case has widely been hailed as one of America’s finest singer-songwriters— a Patsy Cline caliber crooner with a Dylanesque knack for twisting a phrase. Her latest album, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, was named 2006 Album of the Year by the music editors at Amazon.com, and was ranked #2 that year by National Public Radio’s All Songs Considered. Since moving from Chicago to Tucson, AZ, Neko has also become one of the most prominent advocates for the Greyhound Adoption League and the Greyhound Project, Inc.—groups that work to find loving homes for retired racing dogs. Tails caught up with Neko—in the midst of recording her new album—to talk about her love of greyhounds, the influence of animals on her music, and the ways in which anyone can follow Homer Simpson’s lead and rescue their own “Santa’s Little Helper” this holiday season.

What do you like in particular about the greyhound breed?
Their sense of humor. I know that sounds weird, but they are the Bob Newhart of dogs. They are so funny; you sometimes forget how beautiful they are. They are also very gentle and loving. I'm no breed snob-- I have a pound mutt, too-- but Tucson is a dog-racing town, so they are a very available breed. And by available, I mean thrown away by the dog racing industry.

How did you get involved with the Greyhound Adoption League?
I adopted my first greyhound Lloyd from them. We've just become close over the years. My vet is involved in G.A.L., too.

You recently did a benefit concert for the group, as well?
Yes, it was a really great event. I had a LOT of help, so it went very smoothly. I love charity shows. We have done a lot this year-- community centers, ALS, college funds, and of course, animals. That's probably the coolest thing about being in a band.

Many fans will remember your late greyhound Lloyd (see picture). What was special about him as a dog and as a companion?
He was the first dog I adopted since I was a kid-- when I always had a trillion dogs and cats-- and he was just a magical guy. He taught me a lot about being patient, and not because he was a trying dog. He just didn't respond to me being agitated. He was a “convince-me-to-walk-up-those-stairs-with-a-hug” kind of guy. He had WAY more friends than me, too! He was a star all over the neighborhood. I still think about him every day.

Tell us about your current four-legged family.
There are three greyhounds (Travis, Guy, and Swan-y), a black shepherd-chow mix (Liza), a girl kitty named Rhoda, and a grey, squishy tomcat named Ira. I like to adopt the older ones that people overlook. I love them like crazy.

On tour, how do you cope with those long stretches of time apart from your pets?
I am lucky to have very dedicated friends who house-sit for me while I'm gone, so my pets are okay with it, but I miss them terribly.

In your songs, you’ve sung about everything from foxes and tigers to sparrows and ferrets. What’s most appealing to you about animals as artistic subjects?
We understand them less, so they have the capacity to be so much more in our imaginations.

What advice would you give people on ways they can help greyhounds and other former racing dogs in their community?
Never gamble on or patronize dog tracks of any kind. Dog racing needs to end. The dogs are used, abused and thrown away by the tens of thousands every year. There are the rare exceptions, but breeders and racers don't think of them as pets, or even as livestock. They are subject to incredibly inhumane situations. 23 hours a day in a cage is just the beginning. Adopting is a GREAT way to help them and you'll find it helps you, too! Who doesn't need unconditional love and devotion!

Finally, when can we ‘adopt’ your new album?
It's adoptable around March 2009. There are lots of upbeat songs and of course...animals!

Neko Case (2)

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.

New Pornographers

Sum of Their Parts
The New Pornographers Try to Keep a Loaded Roster on the Same Page
By Andrew Clayman
Published in The Cleveland Scene (Village Voice), April 2008



For a man who supposedly hates hearing his band referred to as a “supergroup,” Carl Newman certainly has a super-caliber flair for the dramatic. Last fall, the New Pornographers’ frontman made an aesthetic decision worthy of Audioslave, equipping the backdrop of each stage show with a giant, flashing sign bearing his band’s not-so-PC moniker. It wasn’t exactly the sort of eye-popping prop one typically expects to see at an indie rock concert.

“Yeah, there was no stopping Carl about that sign,” says John Collins, the New Pornographers’ long-time bassist. “I mean, there’s definitely no way that a somewhat ‘with it’ band, in this day and age, can have a huge, flashing neon lights sign behind them and not have a bit of a gag going, you know? But I think it might have actually helped us play with a bit more energy,” he laughs. “I mean, it’s a big sign that says ‘New Pornographers!’ It’s like pyro, you know? It’s simple and hilarious. Nickelback has its fancy explosions and we have our big sign.”

Collins isn’t sure if the big sign will be making the trip this time around, as the Pornographers start the latest leg of the tour in support of their fourth album, Challengers. However, the contents of the band’s tour bus is always pretty unpredictable, especially where it concerns the human passengers.

Somewhat like the Canadian indie-rock equivalent of the Wu Tang Clan, the New Pornographers are a conglomerate of talented individual artists who aren’t always easy to gather into one place at one time. Newman, a former member of defunct Vancouver pop band Zumpano, started the band in the late ‘90s as a collaborative experiment of sorts, eventually roping in Dan Bejar from Destroyer, Collins from the Evaporators, Todd Fancey and Kurt Dahle from Limblifter, keyboardist/filmmaker Blaine Thurier, and the then relatively unknown country crooner Neko Case, who was an American transplant going to art school in Vancouver.

Dubbed The New Pornographers, the new band went to work on a slew of up-tempo, high energy power-pop songs that would eventually become their acclaimed 2000 debut, Mass Romantic. It was around this time that the term “supergroup” first started floating around the band’s periphery.

“Well, I’ve always thought it was hilarious to call ourselves a supergroup,” Collins says. “I think it was mostly just pure hype when we were starting out. I might have mentioned or suggested to one or two people that we were a supergroup, in jest, and it took off from there. This was when Dan (Bejar) had like two records out, and Neko (Case) had maybe one solo record, and we weren’t even on a label yet.

“But, over time, it’s kind of manifested itself a bit, where it actually seems true now—the supergroup thing-- even though it still feels like kind of a joke to me. Carl hates the concept, but I think it’s funny that it keeps coming around.”

As Collins suggests, the New Pornographers’ status as a rock supergroup—whether Newman agrees or not—has become pretty darn legitimate in recent years. Like any purist knows, a true supergroup consists of members who have generated equal or greater standing from their work in other projects (see Blind Faith, Traveling Wilburys, or if you must, Asia). This definition certainly applies in the case of the New Pornographers, a band that’s found its own success rivaled only by that of some of its individual components.

During the past seven years, after signing to the mighty American indie label Matador, the NP’s have steadily grown into one of indie rock’s most popular and critically lauded acts, earning practically unanimous kudos for their combination of ‘70s power-pop, ‘80s New Wave, and Brian Wilson-like, mad-genius production stylings. During these same years, band members Bejar and Case have seen their own profiles rise exponentially, too, becoming darlings of indie music in their own right.

The trouble is, as success spreads, a loss of focus often follows. In the past month, Bejar’s band Destroyer released a new album, and Case has been at work developing songs for the follow-up to her 2006 hit, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. As a result, getting the full Pornographers line-up together for a tour, as they did much of last year—isn’t getting any easier.

“I think we’re going to have Neko on this leg, but no Dan,” Collins says, noting that the band is equipped to make up for anyone’s absence, particularly since singer/keyboardist Kathryn Calder joined the fold a couple years ago.

“We’ve kind of got it down now,” he says. “We cross our fingers and hope that Neko will come, and we don’t even bother crossing our fingers for Dan most of the time, but occasionally he comes. And everyone else just gets together.

“I think Carl has mentioned on at least one occasion that he’s the only Pornographer that’s played every show. So, every one of us has either not been in the band at one time or another, or been sick, or away on tour. So we just kind of make do.”

Unfortunately, due to the complex, multi-layered nature of most of the band’s catalog, “making do” often means having to get very creative, re-assigning various parts to translate a song to the stage.

“We always kind of worry about that stuff a little bit when we’re recording,” admits Collins, who co-produced Challengers. “Sometimes it’s like, ‘Oh, shit, how are we going to do this?’ But we always pull it off. There are a lot of us in the band who can pull off whatever’s needed instrumentally. So there are songs we play live where I’ll play Carl’s acoustic part or Blaine will play my bass part on his keyboard—we cover all the bases, let’s put it that way.”

Collins occasionally sounds like he’s tiptoeing, less than gingerly, around some bitterness, particularly when it comes to Bejar. Not surprisingly, some journalists have gone digging for more of this inner-band dissension, assuming that the clash of egos could create some nice soap opera turmoil for bored indie kids to read about. When given the opportunity to laugh off the rumors as pure silliness, however, Collins doesn’t completely bite.

“Well, we’ve had our moments,” he says dryly. “It happens, you know? The band hasn’t always been a bunch of levelheaded adults. But for the most part, it’s been pretty smooth sailing and not a lot of drama.”

Neko Case

The In-Between Girl
Neko Case Talks Nostalgia, Banter & Beards
By Andrew Clayman
Published in The Metro Pulse, April 2007


She is the indie scene’s omnipresent anti-diva— the punk rock tomboy turned alt-country temptress. One week, she’s in New York recording a new album with her Canadian power-pop buddies The New Pornographers, and the next, she’s back in Chicago playing the sold-out opening dates of her own spring tour. At this moment, however, Neko Case is in her new adopted home of Tucson, AZ, stirring a cup of tea and describing what might happen if her bandmate Jon Rauhouse ever battled Calexico’s similarly named Paul Niehaus in a pay-per-view, steel guitarist showdown.

“I think it would just end up being a massive fist fight,” she laughs, then quickly reconsiders. “Actually, they’re both so nice, they’d just be saying, You go ahead. No, after you! Nooo, you! They would eventually wear each other out and retire exhausted, embracing on the stage. It would be adorable.”

The same could be said of Case herself. Even on the phone, her sweet, congenial speaking voice sounds more like it belongs to your hip kid sister than a 36 year-old, Patsy Cline caliber torch singer. It’s a charming characteristic that Case has famously utilized on stage, often juxtaposing a wicked murder ballad with some witty, self-deprecating banter before crooning into the stratosphere once more.

“It’s not something I do on purpose, really,” she says. “I know the reason I talked to the audience, originally, was because I was nervous. And I am not good at pretending or hiding things, so I figured it’d be a lot easier if I just told them as much. From then, it became kind of funny, you know, and I realized that the audience really responds if you talk to them that way. It’s not the same every night, but I do like to talk to everybody, because I hope-- and this is my aim— that it makes the audience feel like it’s their Friday night, too. They don’t have to just stand there silent while we play music. That’s a real drag. I want everyone to feel that good time feeling, because I spent my whole childhood, from about 12 on, going to shows. It was what made me feel good. It was my favorite thing. So I want other people to have that feeling, too.”

In Neko’s case, that good time feeling provided both a stabilizing force and an escape route during her rebellious teen years in Tacoma, WA. Every bit the punk rock girl of Dead Milkmen lore, she left home at 15, played the drums for a string of local bands, and eventually traveled across the border to Vancouver to attend art school in the early 90’s. It was in Canada where Case’s unparalleled pipes were finally heard-- singing and drumming with the girl-punk outfit Maow, becoming the secret weapon in The New Pornographers, and perhaps most importantly, embracing her budding passion for classic country music on her 1997 solo debut, The Virginian. It may have seemed like a bit of a leap to some, but for Case herself, the worlds of punk and country never felt too far apart.

“Looking at it from the inside of the two, I don’t know that there’s much of a difference, actually,” she explains, “except for some stylistic things here or there. They’re both kind of dissatisfied and passionate forms of music. It’s not as much a difference of being punk rock or country as it is the difference of being an independent musician to being a musician on a major label from the time you’re young. Those are the two different worlds more than anything.”

Case’s own musical worlds collided in 2000, when The New Pornographers’ Mass Romantic and her own Furnace Room Lullaby garnered a heap of praise from separate ends of the indie spectrum. Riding that wave, she bolted Vancouver for the deserts of Tucson, enlisting the aid of Southwestern stalwarts Howe Gelb (Giant Sand) and Joey Burns and John Convertino (Calexico) for her 2002 country-noir triumph, Blacklisted.

It was on the Blacklisted tour in 2003 that Case and her then touring band of Jon Rauhouse (guitar, banjo, pedal steel), Tom V. Ray (upright bass), and guest vocalist Kelly Hogan recorded a live set for the Austin City Limits TV program— an appearance that was finally released on DVD last fall.

“It was such a fun time,” Case recalls. “I’m really glad that there’s an artifact out there of when we were a three piece. Of course, we had Kelly Hogan in the set, too. But we used to just travel all the time as a three piece-- Jon and Tom and I-- so I’m really glad there’s an artifact of that.” Case pauses for a moment. “And also, I’m glad there’s an artifact of Tom’s beard,” she laughs, referring to her bassist’s formerly shoulder-length chin-locks. “It’s more for Tommy’s beard than anyone!”

Both Rauhouse and Ray are back in the fold for the current tour, which is the latest in support of 2006’s complex and gorgeous Fox Confessor Brings the Flood— a wildly acclaimed album that has earned Case as much respect for her inventive songwriting as her canyon wide vocal range. Guitarist Paul Rigby and drummer Barry Mirochnick have been brought on to add a new dynamic to the band’s live sound, and Neko Case’s “favorite singer in the world,” Kelly Hogan, is now a permanent member of the family, as well. Adds Case, “Kelly’s pretty much the most badass rock n’ roll assassin of all-time!”

She may have a point, too. When Case and Hogan activate their wonder twin powers for the ghostly, heart-wrenching harmonies on Fox Confessor tracks like “Hold On, Hold On” and “Maybe Sparrow,” the songs’ deeper meanings seem to unfold in spite of their somewhat cryptic lyrics. Casting herself as “the mean girl, or somebody’s in-between girl,” Neko Case is being more wistful than cynical— more reflective than declarative.

“Oh yeah, I’m horribly nostalgic and romantic and all those things,” she admits. “But for my general outlook on life, I think it’s an incredibly positive thing. I still feel like I’m 19 years-old and all the possibilities of the world are open to me. But sometimes in making pragmatic adult decisions,” she laughs, “that may not be the greatest thing in the world. But as you get older, it becomes an art form— balancing your romantic side with your logical side.”

Or your punk side with your country side. Your American with your Canadian. Your present with your past. Whatever it takes to find that good time feeling.

SEE ALSO: Neko Case Special Interview for Tails Pet Magazine. December, 2008.