A ballad of Neko Case (memoirs vs biographies)

A beautiful new book by Case — indie rock hero, Broadway-ish composer, Substacker — made me reconsider how artists' stories get told. Plus: a career-spanning playlist stream.

This is the first in a series of newsletters about new books (and a podcast) that approach the art of musician biography & autobiography from different angles. Next up: Stuart Murdoch (Belle and Sebastian) and Joni Mitchell. If you like these posts & playlist streams and want to receive ‘em all, consider a paid subscription.

The Thelma & Louise musical now being polished for Broadway will have music by Neko Case. I can’t think of a more perfect match.

Callie Khouri, the film’s screenwriter and the musical’s librettist, told the New York Times’ Lindsay Zoladz that she’d always had Case in mind for the stage version. “Her music has such scope, sonically and lyrically,” Khouri said. “She’s such a righteous, true-north artist and person.”

Neko Case. Photo: Ebru Yildiz

True words from someone who clearly has excellent taste in music (fun fact: Khouri’s husband is T Bone Burnett).

Case is a punk rocker turned alt-country/indie-rock lodestar with a huge, clarion call voice who, nowadays, neatly dodges genre tags. Lately she’s been bouncing between her Vermont home and New York City, where she’s workshopping the T&L musical; it may land on Broadway next year or the following.