Neko Case

Emerging as a distinctive new country voice with the release of The Virginian in 1997, Neko Case has evolved into a genre-eluding force of nature known for a mythic outlook and semi-feral tendency toward self-revelation. Born in Alexandria, VA, in 1970, she played drums in various mid-’90s Pacific Northwest punk groups, including Maow, before launching the country project Neko Case & Her Boyfriends. While the 2000 release of her second album, Furnace Room Lullaby, pitched her squarely in country-noir territory, her ongoing relationship with Vancouver power poppers The New Pornographers helped make her an indie icon. (Her collaborative enthusiasm extended to a 2000 album with Carolyn Mark as The Corn Sisters and a 2016 release with k.d. lang and Laura Veirs as case/lang/veirs.) Case began edging toward the autobiographical in 2002 with Blacklisted and initiated a string of intriguingly arranged, poetically allusive albums with 2006's Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. She’s transformed personal loss and emotional challenges into increasingly ambitious releases, including the richly orchestrated feminist fantasia that she unfolds on 2018’s Hell - On with collaborators like Swedish pop producer Björn Yttling, Seattle alt-rocker Mark Lanegan and, once again, k.d. lang.