The Tigers Have Spoken

Certain Songs #1300: Neko Case – “The Tigers Have Spoken (Live)”

August 22, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Tigers Have Spoken
Year: 2004

Celebrating the latest big round number with my very favorite Neko Case song, and a song that’s on the short list of Prettiest Songs Ever Recorded, Alt-Country division.

With Dallas & Travis Good — guitarists of co-writers/backing band The Sadies — jingling and jangling their guitars around chord changes that came from the beginning of the universe and will outlast the the final star, “The Tigers Have Spoken” is simultaneously anthemic and bittersweet.

Certain Songs #1299: Neko Case – “The Train From Kansas City (Live)”

August 21, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Tigers Have Spoken
Year: 2004

Because it it’s always been seen as a stopgap between Blacklisted and the leveling-up of Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, Neko Case’s 2004 live album, The Tigers Have Spoken has always been kind of underrated.

But to me, it’s an absolutely essential record. Not only does it have many songs that aren’t on any of her other albums, it also contains my favorite Neko Case original — which we’ll talk about tomorrow — and my favorite Neko Case cover, her take on The Shangri-Las “The Train From Kansas City,” which is one of the greatest songs ever written.