News and Record du lieu suivant : Greensboro, North Carolina • 34

FOR MORE ON WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE TRIAD, VISIT GREENSBORO.COM/GOTRIAD Neko Case performance ce is a A COURTESY OF NEKO CASE Neko Case will perform Jan. 23 at The Carolina Theatre. Wanda Jackson for some on it. Case either wrote or hardcore inspiration while co-wrote all the material, covering Ernest Tubb's saying of the title cut that "Thanks a Lot," whooping she wanted to write a mur- it up with twangy, rockabilly gusto, Wanda-izing Loretta Lynn's "Somebody Led Me Away" with coal miner's daughter diction and verve. Her sophomore album, 2000's "Furnace Room Lullaby," was also country, but this time it got an alt-country label slapped is a moment BY GRANT BRITT Special to Go Triad She can break your heart while she's whippin' your butt and make you like it.

It's up close sleight of hand, right in your face, but done so cleverly it's nearly impossible to figure out. Neko Case's career path from punk percussionist to twangy Patsy Jackson hybrid to smooth pop chanteuse to up and coming arena worthy alt rock anthem icon doesn't follow any set patterns or music biz guidelines. Case got her musical start playing drums for female pop punker trio Maow in the mid '90s, sounding like a sassier version of the Go-Gos. But even though her voice was being heard, her heart was elsewhere. A friend in her hometown of Takoma, had turned her on to gospel, exposing her to Bessie Griffin and her Gospel Pearls.

A blend of Aretha Franklin gospel soul and Koko Taylor bombast sweetened by a dash of Mahalia Jackson glory, Griffin's voice and glorious uplifting message made Case realize that there was more to life and music than just rebellion. But she never attempted gospel as a career move, turning lonesome, ornery and mean instead with old-school country on her '97 debut, "The Virginian," as Neko Case and her Boyfriends. Case hit up denouncing a description of her as a "honky-tonk wolverine" that was circulating at the time as "grossly inaccurate. I'm just a singer." She also refused to be drawn into a debate about new country versus the old-school variety. Some assumed that like various and sundry would-be rebels who declared their country to be of the alternative persuasion, she would be at war with Nashville's attitude on what was trendy in their circles.

"They don't vex my existence," Case said. don't have a problem with Nashville. I just like to play country music." It also was the first in a series of unusual, stark album covers, with a leather jacket-clad Case sprawled awkwardly on the concrete looking like a homicide victim with her red hair spread out around her like a pool of congealing blood. Case does her own artwork and exhibited her photos, taken to "remember the places I was traveling through that I never really got to know" for National Geographic Live's "Music On Photography" exhibit in D.C. in 2010.

Her photo on the cover of '02's "Blacklisted" shows her barefoot, rolled up underneath a van full of household possessions, amp lying in the street beside her. She's still sounding country, but beginning to discover her chanteuse chops a bit. She tackles Aretha Franklin's "Running Out Of Fools," sounding more like Patsy Cline than the Queen of soul. The 2006 recording "Fox Confessor Brings The Flood" is Case's most acclaimed and most convoluted work to date. Case's stark tales of heartbreak, madness and oldtime religion seem to have been culled from clippings from News of the Weird.

The lyrics, part Faulkner, part Stephen King, are so arty one longs for footnotes to help decipher them. The cover on the "Middle Cyclone," is her most intimidating Case crouching atop the hood of a '70s muscle car, sword in hand, looking ready to take on all comers. Case is a fullblown crooner by now with blast furnace bombast, her songwriting skills as powerful as her vocals. 2013's "The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You" was a healing exercise for Case, who had recently lost her beloved grandmother and both parents, retreating to her farm in Vermont, suffering from acute depression. Therapy, and music, in the form of ragtime jazz, helped heal her.

Cage pays homage to that genre in "Ragtime," revealing that "Ragtime turning out the sun and moon it winds me in a sleep cocoon Want to go? What: Neko Case in concert When: 8 p.m. Jan. 23 Where: Carolina Theatre, 310 S. Greene Greensboro Tickets: at the box office, by phone at 336-333-2605 or online at carolinatheatre.com Information: carolina theatre.com or nekocase.com It says, 'Don't you worry, kid, We'll see you when you're ready." Her latest, 2016's is a collaboration with kd lang and Laura Viers, featuring lush arrangements and familystyle harmony. But live for those Case attending does 2018 her shows, come with a warning label.

18, When she announces that it, and has cut a show short ing is allowed, she means no audio or video recordJanuary OK when visual wouldn't to an revel glory, stop in audience but her if filming. you aural member It's need and Thursday, more tangible takeaways, hit the merchandise table on your way out. mance, you're requested to For a Neko Case perfor- TRIAD live solely in the moment. GO der ballad like the Louvin Brothers. Case didn't agree with the alt-country label, saying in an interview shortly after the album came out that journalists were responsible for the altsticker.

"I sure didn't put it on there," she said, calling her music "just country," Contact Grant Britt at triad.rr.com..