Neko Case, The Tigers Have Spoken
The Canadian singer Neko Case was born far too late to be a Nashville star in the '60s, but that's not going to stop her: she loves the emotive force and glamour of old Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn records. But she's actually an indie-rock star — she also sings with the New Pornographers — and often far more charismatic and connected with songs on stage than in the studio. So collaborating with the Sadies and others on this live album of vintage country covers, like-minded originals ("If You Knew" could pass for an oldie) and a few ringers (like Boston garage band the Nervous Eaters '"Loretta"), heavily dosed with reverb and pedal steel guitar, is as close as she's gotten to that ideal.
The Tigers Have Spoken could almost be a 40-year-old recording of some forgotten country singer, ostracized by the Grand Ole Opry for hewing too close to the rock & roll. Ostracism, actually, is Case's favorite subject to sing about here — as she interprets both Lynn's divorcée's-lament "Rated X" and the traditional gospel song "Wayfaring Stranger," they're pointedly about being exiled from where she wants to be. The album's high point is a great crossover moment: a cover of the Shirelles '"Train from Kansas City," sung as a full-throated, heart-ripping country song about heartache and inevitability.
