The striking red hair is part of the pull, as is Case's cool-as-ice gaze. But more than anything, it's a voice that seems to come from a place generations previous to the 35-year-old's lifetime. That voice is a clarion call to music fans, announcing something authentic in an era packed with overprocessed, overproduced starlets more concerned with choreography than poetry, and commerce over art.

Case's songs could only come from someone who's lived a bit. She left home at 15, bouncing throughout the Pacific Northwest, playing in punk bands and paying the bills by working in rock clubs until she landed in art school in Vancouver, British Columbia. That experience led her to explore art forms beyond music, and was where she started singing. It's also where Case stumbled across an album by Bessie Smith and Her Gospel Pearls, showing her an old woman singing about religion can be as powerful and passionate as a screaming rock singer.

"I wanted to be able to sing like that," said Case, who's spent several exceptional albums - including "Furnace Room Lullaby," "Blacklisted" and the new "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood" - honing a vocal instrument that might inspire future generations to feel the same.

Unlike Case's past albums, typically recorded in quick bursts, "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood" was created over the course of about two years, in between recording and touring stints with the New Pornographers and her solo tour for the live album "The Tigers Have Spoken."

"I think it was easier to make this record over a longer period of time because I didn't have to submerge myself in it so hard," Case said. "I could do it for a couple of weeks and then leave, so my perspective was a lot fresher a lot of the time. And you go away and you have experiences and you get new ideas and write more songs."

The songs on "Fox Confessor" support Case's more methodical approach. Her own songs like "Hold On, Hold On," "Margaret Vs. Pauline" and the title track are among the finest of her career, and her cover of an old spiritual, "John Saw That Number," is a highlight. Garth Hudson from The Band plays on that tune, and elsewhere members of Calexico, Visqueen and the Flat Duo Jets lend their help to the proceedings.

Case's songwriting has always been strong, but has deepened since she debuted in 1997 with "The Virginian," recorded as Neko Case and Her Boyfriends. The growth from "The Virginian" to "Fox Confessor" isn't easy to see from her own perspective, Case said, "but I've made a better record and I really really worked hard on it and didn't finish it until it was done." She does see some ways her writing has evolved as she's moved into her 30s, though.

"It might just get more specific, and less specific at the same time," Case said. "I know that doesn't make any sense and seems evasive and hippie. I write songs from a nonspecific perspective, but the things that influence me are very specific: nature, literature, cinema, things like that. And you just become a better editor over the years."

nailen@sltrib.com or via his blog "Urban Spelunker" at http://www.sltrib.com/blogs. His phone number is 801-257-8613. Send comments about this story to livingeditor@sltrib.com.

Neko Case snapshots

A few things you learn about Neko Case in a 15-minute conversation: