A Case Of Woo!

It's official. I am in love with Neko Case.

But then I always did have a thing for redheads.

Neko was simply brilliant Thursday night at The Phoenix. Took the stage with just two of her "boyfriends"; an upright bass player, who may have been Tom V. Ray, who played on the album, and a pedal steel, banjo, guitar and hot-rodded dulcimer player, who may have been Jon Rauhouse. Neko played only tenor guitars (4-string-ed things)óan acoustic and two electrics.

But man, did her singing ever bowl me over, and pretty much everybody else there. I think the only other times I had seen her were once at the Horseshoe as half of The Corn Sisters with Carolyn Mark. That was a NxNE set, and at the time I just wan't up for that much corn and twang, so I ran off to see some rock bands. The other time was at a NxNE songwriters' session (same year?), held at the crack of noon when Neko apparently had been up very late the previous night. She wasn't in the best form, and I think she was also just then learning the guitar, so she was a bit uncertain. Her voice was impressive in its impact, but her singing wasn't as powerful as it could have been. She also had the misfortune of being on the panel next to Sarah Harmer, who was so riveting, especially when she sang "Oleander". I think it was my first encounter with Ms. Harmer's talent. Oh my. What a sweet voice, and what great songs. What an unusually beautiful woman. Neko who?

Anyway, Thursday night was all Neko, and she was fantastic. I don't know if it was the natural acoustics of the big room at The Phoenix, or the soundman's expertise, but there was just the right amount of reverb on her voice. And when a voice as strong as hers hits a powerful note and then drops away, and you hear that reverb... oooh, chills! With the minimal (and brilliant) accompaniment, her voice had lots of room. But it wasn't just the strength of her voice; not mere power that held us in sway. She sang with vigor, with emotion, with personality. I couldn't help but bring to mind the spectres of great singers like Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn. Well-deserved comparisons. No stretch.

She did a lot of the songs off her great new CD, Blacklisted, plus a couple from Furnace Room Lullaby and one or two from her debut The Virgian (hear clips here).

Throughout the evening, Neko was such a wonderful combination of sweetness and sexiness and charm and goofiness and fun. "Thank you all so much for coming here", she must have repeated at least four times. She said she had never played a room that big before, except when she was opening for someone else. What she meant was, she had never filled a room that large before on her own. People didn't even seem to mind when she took a rather prolonged time to retune her guitar before the encores.

And speaking of the encores, 100 bonus points for almost completely trashing the "oh let's wait 5 minutes before we come out for the encores" crap. After the last song of the main set, she and her guys exited through a door at the back of the stage, and then she immediately spun on her heel and came right back out again for the encores. They didn't even close the door. It was like there was a clause that says you have to have both feet off the stage proper before the encores can begin, and she honoured the clause, but no more than that. Kudos Neko! (hmmm, that last phrase is an odd one, in'it? Repeat that twelve times fast and it starts to sound like the name of some small island nation off the coast of Africa.)

As for covers, she performed an absolutely charming version of Dylan's "Buckets Of Rain", and ended the evening gracefully and romantically with her grandmother's favourite song, the Patsy Cline/Jim Reeves chestnut "You Belong To Me".

And we did.