Poetry Out Loud: Neko Case edition


by Josephine Reed and Adam Kampe
Neko Case. (Photo by Guus Krol)
Neko Case. (Photo by Guus Krol)
Singer and songwriter Neko Case performs as a solo artist and with the Canadian-bred rock band The New Pornographers. Her music is an eclectic mix of country, gospel, torch, and pop: always original and compellingly lyrical.(Her latest CD---currently named The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight.The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You.---is due to be released later this year.) Case refers to herself as “a shy poetry lover” who “never made it through English 101” but who discovered literature and poetry on her own. And it’s literature and poetry that she turns to when she creates her own music, for example, dipping into Titus Andronicus or Moby Dick for inspiration, or Lynda Barry or Sherman Alexie for comfort. Her reading is like her music---wide and broad, it doesn’t fit neatly in any box. Take, for instance, her attachment to “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir Walter Raleigh. [2:00] Music credit: Instrumental excerpt of Neko Case's original song, “Magpie to the Morning” from the album,Middle Cyclone, used courtesy of Anti-.

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