Hear Neko Case, KD Lang and Laura Veirs’ Enchanting ‘Delirium’
The three distinct musical worlds of singer-songwriters Neko Case, k.d. lang and Laura Veirs collide with shimmering precision on the trio’s debut release case/lang/veirs. The 14 songs on the collaborative LP, produced by Veirs’ husband Tucker Martine and due out June 17th, blend Americana folk with Phil Spector-inspired splashes of girl-group pop as the three singers share lead vocal duties and layer the entire album with lush, colorful harmonies.
After her 2011 LP Sing It Loud, lang found herself inspired to pursue something a little different. Drafting an email to Case and Veirs, who were both merely acquaintances at the time, her message read: “I think we should make a record together.” Case and Veirs were both on board immediately, and the three met in Portland to write together, with the dreamy “Delirium” emerging early on.
“At first we thought what can we possibly write about, we don’t even know each other, there were no themes,” Veirs tells Rolling Stone Country. “So k.d. and I were having trouble writing and went on a walk. We saw this firework stand and we started looking at the names of the different fireworks, and one of them was called ‘Delirium.’ We were like, ‘that’s a good song title,’ and we started building. [Neko] came in and, of course, [she] has a way of making everything great. She can even use one word to totally transform a song. We were writing things like ‘the walls are falling in,’ you know, trying to find a way of saying this person is in a delirious state. She said ‘kaleidoscoping in,’ and I was like, that’s it! One word and the chorus went from cliché to magical.”
That enchanting spirit is evident throughout the LP, with the trio drawing inspiration from everything from the periodic table to the tragic story of underappreciated folk singer Judee Sill.
The trio will kick off an extensive tour in support of the LP in San Diego on June 22nd, with stops at the Newport Folk Festival and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park on the summer. Pre-order case/lang/veirs and check out ticket information at the trio’s official site.