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.