Case Oats

Last Missouri Exit (Merge Records)
by Scott Deckman

Case Oats is a multi-member alt-country band with lived-in songs featuring singer/guitarist Casey Gomez Walker (and fiancé Spencer Tweedy, Jeff’s son, on drums), who sing-songs in a way that marks her indie right out of the gate. It’s like Rosanne Cash once said about her father when answering a journalist (not sure who): it’s the way she can’t sing. And that’s a compliment. 

The record’s production is very immediate yet sophisticated, and an album highlight (earphones are recommended). Gomez Walker’s lyrics are personal: character sketches and downhome tales of love and loss. “Nora” sounds like it was raised on the Breeders’ cover of “Drivin’ on 9.” A wry take on personal growth, it’s “a love song for the woman your boyfriend left you for.” The track’s catchy chorus and bridge are drenched in just enough reverb, adding to the track’s overall presentation. Sung in first person, “Bitter Root Lake” tells of a foolish stolen plane plan gone terribly. “Buick Door,” “Kentucky Cave,” and single “Seventeen” explore Christian/and or spiritual themes, if tangentially, telling formative tales of adolescence from an adult perch. “In a Bungalow” is a wistful story of lost love and bounces along nicely.

The band itself is accomplished, with guitars — pedal steel and non, fiddle, and piano. There is an ease here, music for those with a hankering for rootsy alt-country. These are disarming, quaint songs. 

Auspicious debut.

Links:
Instagram