Neko Case doesn’t think of her music as Americana, despite having pedal steel wizard Jon Rauhouse and Chicago’s Kelly Hogan in her band, and, well, covering Bob Dylan. I get it. Her art may not communicate as easily as Lucinda Williams, but Case and Williams have artistically reached beyond the genre that birthed them and struck out into less charted territories. That doesn’t mean there aren’t Appalachian roots in her music, only that it isn’t defined by them. The lyrics are more private, and the songs fold in bits of everybody from the Velvet Underground to the Shangri-Las. Channeled through her stunning voice, the combination was pretty powerful live (if a little echo-drenched for my taste). Like Williams, her music is now a personal hybrid that’s mandatory listening, even if it can be a tad insular.

Case also gets credit for dedicating “Buckets of Rain” to New Orleans, then having the taste and intelligence not to talk about it. It isn’t a flood song and it wasn’t apropos of anything. It was simply a cool cover, and that was as nice a thing to do for us as any number of more “meaningful” covers.

My one caveat: Case made everything sound effortless, but it never sounded like she reached for anything either. It made me wonder what she can do when or if she ever broke a sweat.