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Jan.9, 2005 -Jan.16, 2005 |
Feline charms of Case
Country songstress Neko launches her first live album
By Kerry Doole
In what may well be the first great concert in Toronto in 2005, much-acclaimed songstress Neko Case will perform at The Phoenix on January 16. A show she gave there a couple of years back enthralled those in attendance, and her new live album, The Tigers Have Spoken, confirms that she is a totally riveting live performer.
Neko certainly has an eclectic musical pedigree. American-born, she moved to Vancouver to study at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree there, but her passion for music took over. She started out playing drums in well-known Vancouver punk bands Maow and Cub, gradually discovering she had a penchant for both singing and songwriting.
Case's love for traditional country music asserted itself, and her 1997 solo debut, The Virginian, showed her flair for the form. A second album, 2000's Furnace Room Lullaby, was even stronger, and it received rave reviews in such publications as The New York Times, Esquire, People, and Time.
Neko's musical range was also strikingly demonstrated in The New Pornographers, a Vancouver-based collective of prominent musicians that delivered a brilliant Juno-winning guitar-pop album, Mass Romantic, in 2000. She then returned to the studio to work on a third solo album. 2002's Blacklisted showed yet more creative progress, as Case wrote most of the songs, played multiple instruments, and co-produced. It was another critical favourite, firmly establishing her as one of the most potent talents in the whole Americana/roots music scene.
Even though she has recorded for noted Chicago-based alt-country label Bloodshot Records, Case intensely loathes the label 'alt-country.' She once told this writer that "my music is country to me. The media doesn't get to choose what it is called. I do not call my music alt-country because it seems like some temporary fashion phase."
There is nothing trendy or faddish or ironic about Neko's love of traditional country music. She grew up in Washington listening to those sounds, and she is inspired by such great country singers as Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn. Like them, she is a tough and courageous artist, one unwilling to play by the rules of the staid Nashville country music establishment. Her maverick stance has helped Case win a sizeable following amongst those who wouldn't be caught dead listening to Faith Hill or Toby Keith.
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