The phrase "down to earth" comes to mind the minute you see or hear Neko Case [ tickets ] live. Case lives on a farm in Vermont--and, in fact, recorded her brand new album, "Middle Cyclone," in her barn.

During an interview with PBS's Tavis Smiley on Monday (3/9), Neko talked about some unexpected collaboration with the local fauna.

"We kinda had to let go during the recording," she said. "There's no soundproofing, so if there's a big gust of wind or baby birds talking, you kinda have to say, 'Well, there's birds on it; what are we gonna do?'"

As for the album's last track--32 minutes of frogs singing--she
explained, "That's my most asked question: 'Why the frogs?!' ... They were present on a lot of the songs," she said while comparing them to Barry White, "they were talking about gettin' down all the time; that's what they were singing about constantly, and it was lovely."

Neko Case will be touring this spring and summer across the US and Canada. Two years ago, LiveDaily's Tim Mosenfelder attended the Stagecoach Music Festival in Indio, CA, and took these photos of her set.