If there is such a thing as a quintessential Midwestern record, Case Oats has crafted a solid one with “Last Missouri Exit,” her debut album out Friday.
The Chicago musician’s record offers 10 tracks that bask under that familiar front porch glow where pedal steel, fiddle and acoustic come alive. The lyrics, too, carry the same deep storytelling and small town lore that could earn the album a spot on the shelf next to Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” or John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Scarecrow.” Yet, as bandleader and principal songwriter Casey Gomez Walker tells it, the record happened by accident.
“It’s kind of the joke now. I wanted to write a novel, but I accidentally made an album,” said the 30-year-old during a chat over coffee at the North Side’s Hexe. She has a nonchalant tone like someone might recall when accidentally making a wrong turn or burning a pizza – not making one of the standout albums of 2025.
“Last Missouri Exit” has been years in the making and began when the Wildwood, Missouri transplant was enrolled in creative writing and journalism classes at Columbia College Chicago. “I was trying to write a novel that was kind of coming-of-age with the same themes that are in the record,” she said.
The main narrative revolves around a harrowing month-long road trip she and a former boyfriend took to Utah and the state parks, with roundabout stops at the Kentucky Caves and Mammoth Caves. Ohio, Tennessee, Michigan and, of course, Missouri make cameos in songs, too. Yet, it wasn’t exactly the road log Johnny Cash sang about. The boyfriend was “having a mental break,” says Gomez Walker. “I was driving the whole time and in charge because he couldn’t drive. It was a very odd, weird experience, especially at 21.”
The album tells of other journeys, too, like taking long rides on country roads in her high school boyfriend’s car (“Buick Door”), looking back on the drama of being young and in love (“Seventeen”) and the drama of “Bitter Root Lake,” inspired by the case of Canadian teen Dianne Babcock. In 1982, she died in a crash onboard a rented plane steered by her boyfriend en route to America. “I’m a huge true crime fan,” said Gomez Walker.. “I listened to the ‘Dateline’ [podcast] and wrote the song.”
But the most significant journey on the album is the bandleader’s decision to leave home and explore a new beginning. The album’s name refers to a road sign she’d often see driving out of Saint Louis on her way to Chicago. “My sister went to Loyola, so I visited her a lot when I was in high school, and I loved it,” said Gomez Walker, who now lives in Albany Park.
Music wasn’t part of her original post-Columbia plan, but Gomez Walker long had growing pangs to be part of the Chicago music scene, recalling the folklore of tracks like “Love Song for a Schubas Bartender” by Margot & The Nuclear So and So’s that drew her in. “I knew some musicians on the periphery and ended up at weird early Whitney shows,” she remembered.
One pivotal musician was Spencer Tweedy, a frequent collaborator of his father, Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, as well as the singer-songwriter Waxahatchee and Chicago icon Mavis Staples. Tweedy is also a producer and the drummer of Case Oats and, as of a few months ago, Gomez Walker’s fiancé. “When I met Spencer, I started songwriting more and realized I could write songs. … It happened really naturally,” Gomez Walker said. “I’m not a super good guitar player or anything, and I have ideas in my head that I only can describe in weird words. Thankfully he gets it.”
Tweedy said that Gomez Walker’s writing drew him in. “There was this directness and tenderness and also offbeat-ness. The first song she ever showed me was ‘Bluff’ … which starts off with an apology: ‘Sorry I talked about hockey too much.’ It’s like who does that? Who starts a story there? That was really interesting.”
To round out the album, the couple brought in additional local talents like Max Subar (guitar, pedal steel), Jason Ashworth (bass), Scott Daniel (fiddle), and Nolan Chin (piano, organ) as well as guitarist Chet Zenor who often joins live. “Last Missouri Exit” was partially tracked in Ashworth’s basement before moving over to The Pocket, the Jefferson Park recording studio Ashworth and Tweedy now run together in the old headquarters of WCPT Progressive Talk Radio.
Tweedy’s intention with the production was “just to not get in the way … I think [Casey’s] voice is the most important part of it,” he said, sharing that the two share a love of “straightforward” albums such as Neil Young’s “Harvest” and “The Basement Tapes” by Bob Dylan and The Band. His favorite moment comes on the song “In A Bungalow” where there’s a bubbling-over point. “Scott’s fiddle and really the whole band is in unison releasing all that tension that Casey had been building, it’s a very satisfying release of energy.”
That potent mix will come live as the band debuts the material at a record release show at Hideout on Friday. It will be followed by a tour this fall that includes stops at Americana Fest and opening gigs for Lucius and Superchunk, putting Gomez Walker back on the open road where she belongs.