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Hi Brian,
The last Neko Case album is wonderful. We can be surprised at first by the sound of her record, with much echo, but we are used to after several listens. Her voice is fantastic. But she's really different from Kasey Chambers. Kasey is amazing and I her fans should appreciate Dolly Parton as well (the same kind of voice), the more so as I'm sure the last Dolly's albums are great from the few songs I have heard ("Hungry Again", "The Grass Is Blue", "Little Sparrow").
Back to Neko: "Blacklisted" is to me one of the records of the year. She wrote and sang better than ever. For the lyrics (not printed in the booklet), you can read them on the fans site: http://porchlight.viachicago.org
What Neko makes is so special and personal... I don't have a country culture (since I'm french) and don't know some musical references I have read - Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn - but I really doubt that the kind of music she does has been done before. What she makes sound rather fresh and new to my ears, even if we hear some (tasty) influences. I really love her voice. It's more crystalline than before, and totally haunting.
Kasey is far more traditional musically, but I love her music as much, in another way. I doubt we'll find many female performers as good in the genre.
It's curious to compare different musics we love as much. Laura Cantrell makes another kind of music, very traditional too; she hasn't a strong voice, but I'd say she has the best songs (3/4 of them being covers - Joe Flood, Dan Prater, Amy Rigby, Amy Allison, etc - Amy Rigby and Amy Allison are two other great female artists!)
Laura Cantrell's "When The Roses Bloom Again" is, to me, also one of the records of the year... (very similar to her first, "Not The Tremblin' Kind").
Mary Gauthier is great! Her best record remains "Drag Queens In Limousines" to me.
Sorry for the chat, when I speak about music, I sometimes can't stop :o)
Cheers,
Hugues
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