Baseball caps and horsetails, porch swings and “all else that fails”—these are the lyrical stomping grounds of Case Oats, the group led by Casey Walker and Spencer Tweedy. Transplanted from Missouri to Chicago, Walker has a knack for getting to the “gooey heart” of relationships and experience, of bringing a city-dwelling life back down to earth. With an unadorned delivery and an unflinching eye, Walker relates songs about moving on, about growing up in the Midwest, and about loyalty to desperately flawed people and gratitude for pain, for the way things end up.
Case Oats’ yet-to-be-announced debut album is a well-defined, inviting labor of love. Light on pastiche and heavy on intention, their arrangements, backed by a group of longtime collaborators, put Case Oats on a continuum of porch-sitting, familiar songwriters.
