I saw Neko Case at the Rio Theatre in 2023. It was an awesome show, but the last time Neko Case came thru town (a few months ago), her appearance at the Rio was sponsored by Bookshop Santa Cruz and it was a book tour for this book. I didn't attend, but I put a request for the book at the library and it came in last week.
It's a well written, easy read. As a skilled songcrafter, she dropped in little bits, like some Seattle area serial murderer, that she pulls in later to connect the whole narrative together. It's not too heavy handed, but I noticed it. She's of a similar age, so her world growing up resonates a bit.
Her story is pretty rough, and the first half of the book is dedicated to her childhood, mostly in the Pacific Northwest. Eventually she talks a little about music, but those early mentions are mostly asides...like she played drums in this band or that, like the path to getting the drums and learning them, and meeting other people to play with was skipped over...but then the tone of the book switches over to her solo career, being on the road, living in different places. She talks about how she got into playing tenor guitars (a 4-string guitar, just like a 6-string minus the 2 heaviest gauge strings).
She talks a bit about feminism, but it's not overly. She talks about horses...overly, but it's ok.
I wanted more about the music and that path. For example, the inner sleeve bio thoughts that she's one of the founding members of The New Pornographers (a name I know, but I'm not familiar with their music). TNP gets about 1 or 2 paragraphs later in the book... but it's her memoir and music is just a piece...
I enjoyed it and read it in a few days...
Recommended if you like music bios and/or Neko Case.
--tg
It's a well written, easy read. As a skilled songcrafter, she dropped in little bits, like some Seattle area serial murderer, that she pulls in later to connect the whole narrative together. It's not too heavy handed, but I noticed it. She's of a similar age, so her world growing up resonates a bit.
Her story is pretty rough, and the first half of the book is dedicated to her childhood, mostly in the Pacific Northwest. Eventually she talks a little about music, but those early mentions are mostly asides...like she played drums in this band or that, like the path to getting the drums and learning them, and meeting other people to play with was skipped over...but then the tone of the book switches over to her solo career, being on the road, living in different places. She talks about how she got into playing tenor guitars (a 4-string guitar, just like a 6-string minus the 2 heaviest gauge strings).
She talks a bit about feminism, but it's not overly. She talks about horses...overly, but it's ok.
I wanted more about the music and that path. For example, the inner sleeve bio thoughts that she's one of the founding members of The New Pornographers (a name I know, but I'm not familiar with their music). TNP gets about 1 or 2 paragraphs later in the book... but it's her memoir and music is just a piece...
I enjoyed it and read it in a few days...
Recommended if you like music bios and/or Neko Case.
--tg