This compelling live album — taken from an August 2003 appearance on TV’s Austin City Limits — captures Neko Case in as unadorned a setting as any fan could ask for. After three studio albums, Case was beginning to move beyond the boundaries of alt-country. She comes across here as poised, even commanding, yet the hints of yearning and desperation running through her best performances are rarely absent. Her debt to the folk ballad tradition is evident in her stark renditions of “Behind the House,” “Alone and Forsaken,” and the archetypal “Wayfaring Stranger.” She pays homage to the modern folk movement with a sensitive reading of Bob Dylan’s “Buckets of Rain.” The rollicking side of Case’s music is downplayed in favor of brooding laments like “In California,” “Hex,” and “Maybe Sparrow,” and her supple, full-bodied voice squeezes every dark implication out of “Knock Loud” and “Look for Me (I’ll Be Around)." There are transcendent moments as well, especially in her mystically tinged “Deep Red Bells.” Her backup combo shines, with Jon Rauhouse’s guitar and banjo adding just the right high ‘n’ lonesome touches.