Neko Case's Non-Threatening Cyclone

Neko Case achieved wider commercial success with 2006's Fox Confessor Brings The Flood. If brisk ticket sales and the positive reception to her "People Got A Lotta Nerve" single is a proper indicator, her star should continue to rise following Anti- Records' March 3 release of Middle Cyclone.

The album was recorded with many friends and former collaborators in different yet familiar stompin' grounds. It reinforces Case's place as one of the great singers of the past 10 years, and continues her development as a songwriter, co-producer and earth mother.

Case admits to not being "prolific" or "fast," but with all her solo touring, combined with her live and studio commitments with The New Pornographers, she says the three years between Fox Confessor and Middle Cyclone still seemed "really crammed together."

That was exacerbated somewhat by Case's preference for recording at different times and places.

Most of Middle Cyclone's bed tracks were recorded at Wavelab Studio in Case's latest hometown of Tucson, Ariz. Turkey bacon-fuelled vocal sessions were done at The Seaside Lounge Recording Studios in Brooklyn, N.Y. Backing vocalist Kelly Hogan did some remote recording at Chicago's Wall2Wall Recording. Case also came north to record at Middle Cyclone producer Darryl Neudorf's Operation Northwoods studio in rural Mono, Ont. and at Blue Rodeo's Wood Shed Recording in Toronto.

"I break it up on purpose because I don't like to stay in one place for too long because I get kind of batty," says Case. "It's good to not do it in one run.

"You've got to break it up, or otherwise you lose your focus, and it's really difficult to make good choices about ideas and which ones to follow at that point because you're kind of ground down. It's good to step away and get a new perspective and return with your enthusiasm."

Case, Paul Rigby, The Band's Garth Hudson and The New Pornographers' Kathryn Calder, Blaine Thurier and John Collins also formed a "piano orchestra" that was recorded in an old barn on a former dairy farm that Case owns in Vermont.

"I noticed that there were so many pianos on Craigslist that I thought it would be funny to see how many pianos I could get," explains Case. "I came out with eight, and six were playable, so six were used in the piano orchestra."

Wind was blowing through the barn and a robin can be heard on "Polar Nettles," while the 37-minute, album-closing "Marais La Nuit" features a repeated four-minute loop of night peeper frogs croaking at a pond at the bottom of a hill on Case's farm. This all fits perfectly with the album's predominant themes of wind, nature and animals, though Case insists she didn't have this in mind from the outset.

"I never have a game plan at the beginning of the writing process. I'm just clutching the sides of the cliffs going, 'Oh, God, please let there be songs.' And then about halfway through, I sort of figure out what the themes are."

Caged animals get revenge on their keepers in "People Got A Lotta Nerve." Case's passion for animal welfare was exemplified by her pledge with Anti- to make a five-dollar donation to the Best Friends Animal Society every time someone posted the song on their blog, or to donate a buck each time an iLike user added it to their profile.

Anti- chose the single and also persuaded Case to appear on the album cover, which she was initially hesitant about before consenting.

"They never force me to do anything, so I thought to myself, 'You know, this is the time when you suck it up, and you make a compromise and do something that's good for both of you.' So I said I'd do it, but I didn't want to take it too seriously, like, 'Here's my serious face on my album cover.'

"I thought the best way to go about it would be to do it from the point of view of an 11-year-old boy. If I was an 11-year-old boy, what would I think was awesome? And I thought an awesome car and a sword. So that's what I did. It was pretty fun."

Case will tour for much of the year in support of Middle Cyclone. Here are her confirmed dates:

March 3 San Diego, CA @ The Casbah
March 31 Austin, TX @ Stubb's
April 2 Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse w/Crooked Fingers
April 3 Savannah, GA @ Trustees Theatre (Savannah College Of Art & Design) w/Crooked Fingers
April 4 Birmingham, AL @ Workplay Theatre w/Crooked Fingers
April 6 Richmond, VA @ Toad's Place w/Crooked Fingers
April 7 Raleigh, NC @ Progress Energy Center Meymandi Concert Hall w/Crooked Fingers
April 8-9 Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club w/Crooked Fingers
April 10 Glenside, PA @ Keswick Theatre
April 11 Boston, MA @ Berklee Performance Center w/Crooked Fingers
April 13 New York, NY @ Nokia Theatre Times Square w/Crooked Fingers
April 14 New York, NY @ Nokia Theatre Times Square
April 16 Montreal, QC @ Le National
April 17 Toronto, ON @ Trinity St. Paul's United Church w/Crooked Fingers
April 18 Toronto, ON @ Trinity St. Paul's United Church
April 20 Ithaca, NY @ State Theatre Of Ithaca w/Crooked Fingers
April 21 Cleveland, OH @ Allen Theatre w/Crooked Fingers
April 22 Charleston, WV @ Charleston Civic Center Little Theatre w/Crooked Fingers
April 23 Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall w/Crooked Fingers
April 24 Chicago, IL @ The Chicago Theatre w/Crooked Fingers
April 25 Milwaukee, WI @ Riverside Theatre w/Crooked Fingers
April 26 Minneapolis, MN @ State Theatre w/Crooked Fingers
June 11 Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival