Early in November, I flew to Nashville from Philadelphia for a documentary video job. On the plane I noticed a woman with distinctive tattoos on her arms. After we landed and got to the hotel downtown, the same woman was checking in just ahead of us. I heard the reservation clerk refer to a suite for Neko Case, and I realized that was who I was standing next to.
Later that evening at the hotel, I searched through my laptop iTunes music collection, since I knew I had an album by Neko Case. When I did the search, sure enough her album “Middle Cyclone” showed up. My playback settings were set to random, and the first song that played was “Prison Girls.”
The coincidence? We were in town to film at the Tennessee Prison for Women the very next morning.
Neko Case was in Nashville on that date as part of The New Pornographers, touring in support of their excellent new release Brill Bruisers.