Neko Case

Neko Case's voice is the first thing most listeners notice, and critics have reached for violent images to describe it: a flamethrower, a vocal tornado, a fastball clocking 120 mph. The American singer-songwriter, born in Alexandria, Virginia, is also a member of the Canadian indie rock group the New Pornographers. Her lyrics are cryptic and imagistic, and she is credited as a significant figure in the early twenty-first-century American revival of the tenor guitar. Her work draws on country, folk, art rock, indie rock and pop, and resists easy classification.

Case grew up moving around and counts Tacoma, Washington, as her hometown. By eighteen she was drumming in punk bands, and in 1994 she moved to Vancouver. Her country leanings surfaced on The Virginian in 1997, and Furnace Room Lullaby followed in 2000. Mass Romantic, the New Pornographers' debut released that November, became a surprise success. More than two decades on, the band released its ninth album in 2023.