A few years back, Kelly Hogan tried to quit music and it did not go well. By her own admission, she "went insane" very quickly. So she gave up the cold-turkey route and resumed singing, and it's a good thing, too -- her new album, "I Like To Keep Myself in Pain," is a spectacular piece of work. Still, if Hogan really, truly had to do something else...what would it be?

"Something with dogs," she said in a recent interview. "After singing, dogs give me the most joy. I've had dogs live to be a bajillion, where you think they're dead but they're only asleep. So I can work with senior dogs, the ones with cataracts and bad breath. I have two dogs now. I wish I could have 202. They're both shelter rejects, little Boston mixes -- Tennessee Ernie and Eddie Spaghetti. They're like two model kits where a normal person put Ernie together and a drunk did Eddie. He looks like a vampire bat or a chicken, which I think is awesome. I gravitate toward that. So Eddie's my little flower, and Ernie's my little meatloaf. I'd be very content working with dogs, singing to them."

Hogan will be onstage singing to humans, opening for (and then backing up) Neko Case in Raleigh on Saturday. For more about the show and "Pain," see the preview in Friday's paper.

Neko Case was scheduled to play Raleigh's NC Museum of Art in two weeks, but the date is off. Citing exhaustion from an overextended work schedule (namely lots and lots of touring on her own as well as with New Pornographers since January 2009), Case has pulled the plug on her August live dates -- including Aug. 19 at the NCMA.

Venue management hopes to have her there sometime next year. Meantime, here's the word about refunds for ticket-holders:
 

The North Carolina Museum of Art will refund all tickets purchased for the Neko Case concert at full price including the processing fee. Ticket holders must return the physical tickets to the NCMA Box Office to receive a refund.

Tickets may be mailed to the address below or returned in person at the Box Office during regular business hours. Refunds will be issued according to the original method of payment: credit cards will be credited the full refund amount; cash orders will be refunded by an NCMA check mailed to the ticket buyer. Cash refunds are not available. For tickets returned in person that were originally paid for with cash, an NCMA check will be issued and mailed to the ticket buyer.

If tickets are currently being held at Will Call, ticket buyers should call the Box Office for a refund to be issued. Questions or concerns about refunds may be directed to the NCMA Box Office at 919/715-5923.

NCMA Box Office
4630 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-4630

Location:
The Museum Box Office is located in the lobby of East Building.

Hours:
Tuesday–Thursday: 10 am–5 pm
Friday: 10 am–9 pm
Saturday–Sunday: 10 am–5 pm
Closed Mondays

Apparently, Neko Case likes it here in the Triangle. She's in Chapel Hill tonight to sing with the pop ensemble New Pornographers at UNC's Memorial Hall. And she'll be back in less than two months, in her solo-chanteuse incarnation for an Aug. 19 performance at the NC Museum of Art in Raleigh. Tickets go on sale Tuesday.

We may be in the grip of a crushing recession, but good roadshows keep turning up on the schedule. The latest is the versatile pop/country siren Neko Case, who Frank Heath has booked into Raleigh's Meymandi Hall on April 7.

Also on the bill, Crooked Fingers, the band led by Chapel Hill expatriate Eric Bachmann. Tickets go on sale Friday.