Public Servant Lifestyle

Neko Case returns with the follow-up to her alt. country masterpiece Furnace Room Lullaby.

Blacklisted by Neko Case

The enigmatic Neko Case returns with Blacklisted, the follow-up to 2000's critically acclaimed Furnace Room Lullaby.

On this, her third album, Neko gracefully adds to her repertoire, taking on the roles of songwriter and musician, in addition to vocalist, with an intuitive ease. The haunting, lush layers of Blacklisted serve as a showcase for Neko's formidable vocal strengths and her talent for creating this intensely intimate work.

Neko Case was born in Alexandria, Virginia and grew up all over North America, spending enough time in Tacoma, Washington to consider it her hometown. Having left home at 15, she was already very much on her own when - at 18 - she began playing drums in punk rock bands such as Cub.

Vancouver

It wasn’t until she joined Vancouver trio Maow in 1994 that she started singing in addition to playing drums. While living in Vancouver she attended the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, and in 1998 she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Although this meant that her student visa ran out and she had to leave Maow, before leaving Canada as a resident Neko received six award nominations, two from the British Columbia Country Music Association and four from the Georgia Straight.

In 1997, Case recorded her solo debut, The Virginian, a traditional country album that revealed the voice her fans would soon come to know so well - rough around the edges, but possessing a vulnerable strength and a range that would cause pundits and punters alike to take notice.

Her second album, Furnace Room Lullaby, was released in 2000 under the name ‘Neko Case and Her Boyfriends’ and garnered countless accolades in publications like; The New York Times, GQ, Esquire, Interview, People, and Time magazine.

London listings magazine Time Out spoke of the new albums' "Cascading emotion, purity and depth". The Observer said it was "Rich in tradition but timeless in passion" and Uncut has praised it as "Mesmerising and haunting".

Touring

Since her earliest successes, Neko Case has been hard at work, touring non-stop on her own and opening for folks like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Anyone lucky enough to catch any of her rare live appearances in the UK – in particular her all-too-brief two dates in Manchester or London earlier this year or her last tour with Kelly Hogan - will know that her stripped down live show cannot fail to impress.

But Case is not simply a solo artist; she delves into any opportunity to work with other musicians. Among her other projects is the beautiful old-time country she sings with Carolyn Mark as the Corn Sisters. She also records and performs as one of The New Pornographers, who released an album of rollicking guitar pop at the end of 2000 to their own fair share of glowing press and a Juno Award for ‘Best Alternative Album’.

Between all of her tours and projects (and a move to Chicago), Neko made time to go back into the studio at the end of 2001. It was there that she recorded and co-produced Blacklisted. There in Tucson, Arizona's Wavelab Studios with producers Darryl Neudorf and Craig Schumacher she found that they were both open to her desire to be "really adventurous and always ready to try something new."

Collaborators

Once again, Case cast a wide net among her talented friends for musicians to play on her new album. Joining her are long-time Neko collaborators Jon Rauhouse and Tom V. Ray, and Dallas Good (of The Sadies).

She also asked Joey Burns and John Convertino (of Calexico), Giant Sand frontman Howe Gelb, Brian Connelly (of Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet and Atomic 7), Kelly Hogan (of Kelly Hogan and The Pine Valley Cosmonauts fame - who contributes ‘sexy backing vocals’ to a great cover of Running Out of Fools) and Mary Margaret O'Hara, to lend their talents and exuberantly describes the recording process as "the best time in the studio ever."

Instruments

Unlike her previous releases, Case wrote most of the songs and played a wide variety of the instruments on Blacklisted including regular guitars and tenor guitars, piano, saw and even drums.

On first listen the album seems to lack an immediate crowd pleaser (of which the previous Loose album had at least two – John Peel favourite Set Out Running and the sublime Guided By Wire - but the whole mellow selection of tracks is a real grower and rewards repeated listening.

Her cover of I’ll Be Around on the album has to rank among the best recordings Neko has so far made. Blacklisted seems slightly short for a modern album, at just under 40 minutes - something it shares with the last two releases – but what it lacks in quantity the album more than makes up for in quality. Blacklisted is a little gem that should appeal to fans of great tunes and acts as diverse as Mazzy Star, Neil Young, The Handsome Family and many more.

The Virginian, Furnace Room Lullaby and Canadian Amp are all still available – although the latter, a collection of home recordings of covers, save for two new songs, is especially hard to find - but worth the effort. Blacklisted is available now, from Matador.

More information available in Music