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| Featured Artist Link REALLYMUSICRADIO presentsPETER CASE
It's been 30 years since Peter Case left Buffalo, New York, to begin his journey as a traveling light troubadour, laying down the miles and playing the songs that critics have called "honest," "searing" and "essential." Songs that are "intensely visual," and with an "uncanny instinct for detail," "Nobody of Case's generation writes better songs or does better work in the tradition of Woody Guthrie," writes Blues Revue. The Los Angeles Times calls him "One of LA's indispensable musical forces."
What these listeners hear in Case's voice is that all-too-rare quality of commitment; it sings out in his work, it resonates through the hundreds of songs he's written and rings through every note he plays. After all these years, he's still playing; committed ("let's face it, over-committed," he says) to mining the heart of the city and the outskirts of town, seeking some clues toward survival, and passing on what he's learned. This year marks Case coming full circle as a singer-songwriter-guitarist-performer as he celebrates his 50th birthday, his 20th anniversary as a solo artist and his 10th anniversary recording for Vanguard. To mark the auspicious year, Case collected 14 of his personal favorite recordings and cut two new ones, "Wake Up Call" and "My Generation's Golden Handcuff Blues" for Who's Gonna Go Your Crooked Mile? Selected Tracks 1994-2004. It's an essential collection: Delivered by a songwriter in powerful mid-career stage, it is a true testament to Case's ability to stick with his vision and yet expand into territories perhaps even he didn't know he'd grow into. In the singer-songwriter tradition, Case has traveled a million miles since "I left my mother's house at 15 with a dime and a suit of clothes.," as he sings in "Who's Gonna Go Your Crooked Mile?" "It's a picaresque road flash, my story in a singing telegram," he says of the title song, recorded for Full Service No Waiting in 1997. The version of "Crooked Mile" included here was recorded live on January 9, 2004 at the legendary folk club, McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, California. The gig was a celebration of his first-ever solo acoustic show there, 20 years ago; Steve Hochman of the Los Angeles Times called the night "time transcendent." From his beginnings as a street singer in San Francisco, during his time in the '77 power-pop icons, the Nerves, and through his years as bandleader of the soul-punk Plimsouls, Case has lived many lives. But none of his guises have proved as enduring as his career as a solo artist. Known as a voice of conscience among his generation of songwriters, Case sings for everyday people, the ones who are trying not to be swallowed by life. He reaches out to touch hearts with his songs of love and spiritual transformation as he sings about society's forgotten men and women, the downhearted and those disillusioned with the culture built for "winners" that's ready to cast them off. From the lost souls of "Walk in the Woods," and the war veteran "Poor Old Tom" (from his early Geffen recordings), to the kids on the run in "Spell of Wheels" and the outlaw in "Blind Luck," Case writes about people on the verge of redemption. |
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