Alt-country artist Neko Case enjoys sweet welcome home

Tacoma-bred Neko Case got a sweet welcome home Saturday night from the sold-out crowd at the Moore Theatre. Case, whose latest CD, "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood," has made her the toast of the alt-country circuit, drank in the noisy affection and gave it back, sharing tales of her "drunken youth, getting in fights" at "17 million shows at the Moore."

But the polished, almost ethereal Case is a few worlds removed from her early punk persona. On Saturday, she belted, crooned, whispered and yearned through her set of folky-bluegrassy-country tunes, with just enough atonal harmonies (some provided by the talented Kelly Hogan) to keep things off-kilter.

Case, dressed in slinky black and teetering on stilettos, opened with the melancholy "A Widow's Toast," from the new CD. "Specters move like pilot flames / Their widows' toast at St. Angel / Better times collide with now / The tears were warm, I feel them still."

Review

Neko Case, Moore Theatre, Seattle, Saturday night

She followed it with an earlier song, "Favorite," that had started to chart her course toward gospel.

But there were plenty of lighter, snarkier moments too. "Here's a bitchy song about a chick stealing your man," she said cheerily before launching into "If You Knew."

Case has honed her vocals and it showed in torchy performances on songs like "Set Out Running," with some verses sung a cappella. In her higher note ranges, Case echoes the young Loretta Lynn — there's more than a hint of Butcher Holler in that Tacoma twang.

And there was more than a hint of sex in her gentle, longing-in-the-loins cover of Bob Dylan's "Buckets of Rain," with a sweet melodic foundation laid by her capable band. Another highlight was "Maybe Sparrow," a bittersweet hymn to nature and death, downbeat and otherworldly.

Anne Hurley: ahurley@seattletimes.com