You've probably already read about the rest of The New Frontier's stacked Friday night line-up, but attention should also be paid to opening act Case Studies, the solo project of Jesse Lortz, a grounded, restless creative who hails from Seattle (fun fact: he once worked in Tacoma as a printing-press operator). Lortz's previous band, the Dutchess and the Duke, earned him and collaborator Kimberly Morrison far-reaching acclaim and high-profile gigs like a stint touring with downy-voiced sextet Fleet Foxes. In the tradition of the Dutchess and the Duke's headlong notoriety, one of Case Studies' first shows was opening for Galaxie 500's Dean Wareham. In spite of this, one of Lortz's goals with the stripped-down Case Studies is to keep it small and manageable.

In his words, the Dutchess and the Duke disbanded because, "It just got to the point where it was a drag ... we just got stuck in that cycle of touring and not having human lives."

Now that the young, beard-rocking father has restored his individual and domestic equilibrium, he's penning devastating, beautifully-articulated acoustic ballads and exploring a variety of interesting artistic avenues.

"(Case Studies) is kind of an ambitious project in that it involves a lot of collaboration and art projects and things like that," Lortz says. He stresses that it's also "going to be more an interactive experience," since part of his dissatisfaction with the Dutchess and the Duke's brusque brush with fame stemmed from the awkwardness of performer/audience dynamics.

"Not to disrespect the role of performers or anything, but I don't like being up on stage and presented as anything different than anybody else. I'm not interested in being in a f***ing rock star, or having people not like me because of whatever I project during the 45 minutes of a show," Lortz says.

To that end, Lortz has devised an offbeat scheme for touring - one that will bridge the performer/audience divide in a canny, creative way. He'll launch a website with tutorials for all the different parts of his songs so fans can learn the various parts and register to be "in the band," and then Lortz will route a tour based on what cities have interested, prepared musicians. He'll play with a different band every night, perforate the boozy monotony of touring and encourage creative liberties (why not play that bass part on saxophone?).

On top of this, he's just finished a children's book called The Longest Eyelashes in the World, records a new free jam every Wednesday and continues to spin his slice-of-life heartache into romanticized, archetypal songs. He's keeping busy, and while people are already buzzing about Case Studies' sound, he's still able to keep a relatively low profile, which is exactly how he wants it.

[The New Frontier, Case Studies with the Cave Singers, Whalebones, Friday, Feb. 11, 7 p.m., $12, 301 E. 25th St., Tacoma, 253.572.4020]