NEKO CASE'S TIGERS HAVE SPOKEN

I'm rarely at a loss for words during an interview, but when Neko Case told me she can't sing that well, I didn't know how to respond. This from the woman who, in many folks' opinion, is the greatest country voice of her generation. Deep, powerful, lush and increasingly multifaceted, it is truly an instrument to behold.

"My voice isn't really that great," she said by phone from Tucson, where she is working on a new studio record. "I happen to be loud and confident. I really mean it, and that's what's important. But in the realm of the great singers, I don't really have a place."

Case is deluding herself.

Over the course of four studio records under her own name-the Chicago-based artist also sings with indie pop group New Pornographers and as half of the campy country duo the Corn Sisters-each has been a big step forward aesthetically, professionally and in terms of Case's ability to wield her voice in ways that inject subtle character into a song. By the time 2002's Blacklisted (Mint/Bloodshot) hit the racks, Case had curbed her urge to belt it out as loud as she could as often as she could. Her vocal swagger is tempered with softness and nuance where appropriate. The music press responded accordingly. Time, Esquire, GQ and virtually all the major music press felt it necessary to weigh in on the woman who had become country music's most interesting young voice.

"I was one of those people who didn't think it was possible to [make music]. I didn't think I was good enough," said Case. "But I wanted it so bad. It makes you feel all achy to do it."

Raised in the Northwest, a stronghold for indie bands and labels, for years Case played drums in punk groups, but didn't give singing a try until she joined the Vancouver-based trio Maow in 1994. Three years later, Case recorded her solo debut, The Virginian (Mint), a so-so traditional country record in which her voice far outshines most of the material. Furnace Room Lullaby (2000, Bloodshot) and the impressive Blacklisted were vast improvements. All the while she's been touring almost nonstop, and her reputation has grown among both the indie rock and traditional country audiences.

The last few months of Case's life have been consumed with The Tigers Have Spoken (due out in November on Mint/Anti), her first-ever live record. A straightforward collection of performances recorded over a week's time at clubs in Chicago and Toronto, Case enlisted the help of her longtime band (led by steel guitarist Jon Rauhouse) as well as The Sadies, Kelly Hogan, Carolyn Mark (the other half of the Corn Sisters) and others.

Easily her most upbeat project to date, Tigers features two new songs (the rock-oriented "If You Knew" and the title track), two songs from her back catalogue (including a gorgeous stripped-down version of "Favorite," the first and best song she ever penned) and a large number of standards and covers such as Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Soulful Shade of Blue," Loretta Lynn's "Rated X" and the Shangri-Las' "Train From Kansas City."

"They were just songs that we all liked," said Case, whose country fare has always had an indie edge, the result of so many years playing in punk bands. "I've loved the Sadies for so long, they're the greatest live band in North America. And we all liked girl songs like Buffy Sainte-Marie."

Case, who claims to hate live records that consist entirely of songs that have already been released, is proud of the fact that nearly all the songs on Tiger are previously unreleased. And there's virtually no overdubbing or computer-enhanced studio "trickery" slicking up the record.

"I never wanted to hear my own voice again," chuckled Case, who spent endless hours on the road in between gigs, or sitting in her hotel room, listening to hundreds of versions of live cuts, narrowing it down to 11 that boasted a strong performance as well as a decent live mix. "I thought it was gonna be easy [to make a live record], but it was really really hard."

On two cuts-the traditional "Wayfaring Stranger" and the outtro to the title track-Case used an amateur choir made up of folks who took her workshop at Toronto's multimedia ideaCity Conference. On the spur of the moment, she led them through the songs' choruses, taped the proceedings, and played it back for them.

"I wanted the audience to see how easy the creative process could be," said Case. "Three hundred people singing at the same time is pretty amazing, even if they're out of tune..." She liked the result so much that she decided to include it on the disc.

Tigers is Case's last record for Canada's Mint Records. She's currently in negotiations with Anti (home to Tom Waits and Merle Haggard, and the American distributor of Tigers) for her next studio release, due out next Spring.