This came out in 2000 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Sadly, most folks’ idea of a female country singer these days is probably Shania — bared belly button, Def Leppard tunes and all.
Thank heavens, then, for the likes of Neko Case and Kelly Hogan, two songbirds whose new albums will put you in mind of the names of the real first ladies of country: Patsy, Loretta, Tammy and Wanda. You can hear a little of each in Case’s brassy, sassy twang, which she unleashes on her stunning sophomore disc Furnace Room Lullaby. Blacked by her authentically ragged all-star outfit The Boyfriends — who include Ron Sexsmith, members of 54•40, The Sadies, Spirit Of The West and Grapes Of Wrath — former Maow drummer and current Vancouverite Case swoons and croons through a dozen original shots of straight self-pity with a misery chaser. Melancholia never sounded so magnificent.
Chicago’s Hogan, meanwhile, strikes a sometimes rockier pose on Beneath The Country Underdog, her first full-fledged recording in three years. Aided and abetted by Mekons guitarist and insurgent country potentate Jon Langford and his Pine Valley Cosmonauts, Hogan wraps her haunting, fallen-angel voice around inspired covers (Willie Nelson’s I Still Can’t Believe You’re Gone, The Band’s Whispering Pines, Magnetic Fields’ Papa Was A Rodeo), and originals well-crated enough to hold their own. if you want bare bellies and bad ballads, stick with Shania. If it’s the real country deal you’re after, either of these women will do the trick.
