Case/Lang/Veirs make beautiful music together at Winspear Opera House

So much of the music business is bound up in the mundane and irritating: carving ideas out of inspiration; weeks away from home on tour; putting up with the press; eking out a living in an industry turned upside down by technology.

It is easy to forget that, somewhere amid all the responsibility, there can be — and should be — unfettered joy in the act of making music.

Case/Lang/Viers, the trifecta of talent better known individually as Neko Case, k.d. lang and Laura Veirs, reinforced that truism several times over Thursday night, spending 90 minutes before a rapt audience inside the Winspear Opera House.

It was, by turns, buoyant, poignant and ridiculously fun. The chemistry shared by the three artists, who were backed by a crack quartet, was evident not only in the music, but the dryly funny banter between the luminous songs.

“We are the sister-wives,” lang began, by way of introduction.

“We have illegitimate children all over the country, so we have to tour,” Case continued, eliciting guffaws from the crowd. “We got illegitties in all the major cities!”

(An aside: A city such as Dallas, which often prides itself on being artistically inclined, should be ashamed of itself for so many seats sitting empty at a show like this. You want to know why DFW sometimes gets passed over? Forget radius clauses — it’s because so-called arts patrons are AWOL for worthy performances such as this one.)

The three women, who collaborated more or less on a lark — in brief, lang emailed Case and Veirs several years back, saying simply that the musicians should work together some day; “Thank you for the email!” an audience member cried out Thursday — pulled from the result of that long-ago missive, this year’s sumptuous, self-titled debut, and reveled in the intoxicating blend of their voices.

Apart, any one of these women is more than capable of delivering a masterful evening of music, but when their powers are combined, everything rises to another level.

The early part of the briskly paced set leaned heavily on Case/Lang/Veirs, opening with the same one-two punch as the record: Atomic Number and Honey and Smoke.

From there, it was off through much of the album, and Case, lang and Veirs taking turns with their own solo material. Each singer was as generous and democratic with one another’s songs as they were the group’s.

When all three voices aligned — as during the haunting Blue Fires — the effect was almost enough to stop your heart. Time and again, the Winspear was filled with a gorgeous smear of sound, almost suspended in the restless lights illuminating the spartan stage. (For the goose-bump moments all three women created, it was lang who provided the showstopper: Her rendition of Neil Young’s Helpless was shattering, earning her a spontaneous standing ovation.)

Whether Case/Lang/Veirs endures, or merely serves as a one-off distraction from the grind of the singer-songwriters’ individual career pursuits, there is selfish hope that this successful chemistry experiment is attempted again, somewhere down the line. Such a mutual (and mutually beneficial) admiration society shouldn’t be shuttered so soon.

After all, the world — and the music business — can be such a grinding, grueling place. Why should these women deny themselves, or enthusiastic audiences, a much needed dose of joy?

This story was originally published August 4, 2016 at 11:36 PM with the headline "Case/Lang/Veirs make beautiful music together at Winspear Opera House."