Country music’s bad rap is, for the most part, well deserved: Nashville has been quite content to churn out soulless, formulaic twang for many years now, all but completely ignoring anything that doesn’t sound like a Chevy truck commercial. But slough off this layer of faux-honky tonk, and you’ll discover the heart-tugging pleasure of true country music and the treasure of Neko Case. Her stirring voice unmatched in this current alt-country frontier, Case is the best reason yet to yell “Hee Haw!” without smirking ironically. She’s the real deal, known to astonish even the most ardent country-bashers.

A recent warm Sunday night found her at Philadelphia’s Tin Angel, a cozy upstairs space that books singer/songwriter types in front of polite, earnest audiences. Case took to the tiny stage with a couple of her Boyfriends, Jon Rauhouse (pedal steel, banjo and guitar) and Bottle Rockets member Tom Ray (stand-up bass). Dressed in warm-up pants and an unzipped sweatshirt, Case looked liked she was off to the gym. Instead, she strapped on a six-string and belted out “Set Out Running” from 2000’s acclaimed Furnace Room Lullaby as her backing boys accented this heartbreaker with soft, unobtrusive bass lines and plinking banjo chords. Clear and striking, Case’s voice shined and sent shivers crawling down my spine.

In addition to choice cuts from Furnace Room Lullaby—in particular, the pleading “Twist The Knife” and the slow-burning title track—Case road-tested material from the forthcoming Blacklisted (due in late August). Case wrapped her haunting voice around tales of stalkers and plane crashes, two Blacklisted song subjects, on “Things That Scare Me” and “Ladypilot,” respectively.

Of the material written by Canadian artists and found on Case’s recent kitchen-recorded EP, Canadian Amp, the Tin Angel received “Knock Loud” (which featured Rauhouse’s intricate pedal-steel playing and Ray’s percussive thwaps to the side of his bass) and the beautiful, sparse “In California.” The quiet, enraptured crowd flustered Case a bit, causing her somewhat awkward stage demeanor (she didn’t seem to know what to do with herself when she wasn’t singing) to be more pronounced. “You guys can talk,” she offered sweetly. “At least shift around in your chairs a bit to make some noise!” The crowd loosened up a little, but you can’t fault them for being left speechless by Case’s performance.

The evening wound down with a cover of country standard “You Belong To Me” and the encore featured Bob Dylan’s “Buckets Of Rain.” It’ll take a lot to save country music, but as the final ring of Case’s country-fire voice faded out, it seemed that if anyone could convey the sensual sadness of its true form, it was Neko Case. Hee Haw.

—Doug Sell