photo: GAPD I’m coming to one of my favorite clubs anywhere, Rancho Nicasio on November 8. Tickets are available through www.petercase.com/gigs. Last night I had a realization, and a big moment of gratitude for the path I’ve able to take in music. I’m going to try and express it. This is a long number, sort of like a late night conversation, so take what you want from it or set it down…there will be some who find it interesting from a musician how thew sounds and styles come together. I’m going to post it in pieces over the next few says When I started out my dream was to play piano harp guitar and sing–just to be doing it–and to write songs–I couldn’t do any of these things worth a damn when I was thirteen or so–just had the desire–my heroes on the piano were Little Richard, and a local Buffalo rock’n roll piano player named Jimmy Calire who was completely fantastic and exciting, and I especially loved whoever played piano on Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited album…I later found out his name was Paul Griffin, and that he’d come up with the keyboard work on many incredible hits and
[Rancho Nicasio rescheduled for February 2, 2025] I’ve been writing during this period, since I returned from Europe, and finished out the Norcal dates with Albert Lee. It’s an intense time we’re all going through, but I need to keep playing and listening. I’m not going to let it drop…songwriting was a life choice I made decades ago..and I’m sticking with it. Rancho Nicasio is one of my favorite spots. The sound is good, the food is great, and there’s something about the people and the atmosphere that’s very welcoming and also, timeless. I love playimg there, and i hope to see my Norcal friends. Below is just a page from a note book, from a few months back, recalling an intense moment of youth. Something like that! I was overcome by the flood–saw the stars during daylight–the mask–the mirror–of the blue sky fell off and I stood with you–on a whirling ball of stone and fire in the immensity the madness the illusion the immodesty the aardvark of space– what IS space? It is SPACE–lit by a star itself–my eyes–my hair–my teeth–terrified me–I’m made of stone and water–flesh on a stick–stranded in the shadow of my imagination–“stranded on
Hello folks, I’ll be at the SF festival on Sunday October 6 in the afternoon, hosting a Songwriters in the Round session with Melissa Carper Teddy Thompson, Carsie Blanton and performing myself. On the evening of September 30 I’ll be interviewing author and world music producer Ian Brennan at City Lights Books in San Francisco, regarding his new book Missing! Music. The playlist is of songs I’ve covered on mostly tribute albums, including songs by Alejandro Escovedo, Kevn Kinney (Drivin” and Cryin’,) Chris Gaffney (with Dave Alvin) Joey Spampinato, Bob Dylan, Chris Smither, Mose Allison, John Fahey, The Rolling Stones, Del Shannon, and others.
[please click on ‘read more’ for the full view] Here’s the link to the film: Peter Case: A Million Miles Awa by director Fred Parnes https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0C54CQZKW/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r\ Below is a spotify list with my new recording of Kevn Kinney’s (Drivin’ and Cryin’) great song Preapproved, Predenied; and a half hour set of some of my more rocking solo material, including a live “Crooked Mile) from McCabe’s…. And here’s a link to the new song in a ton of different platforms: https://soulspazm.ffm.to/preapprovedpredenied
https://linktr.ee/petercase111 (There are sme NorCal gigs coming up at the end of July, check out the listings) Half-way through a very strange year. I’ve been laying low over here at the site, not even sure why, but it has something to do with craving some resistance to the daily log/chatter of social media. Sometimes I just have to be quiet and listen a bit–listen to other people and also just to my own heart and mind, without jumping in to promote Promote PROMOTE my own endeavors. While the world is going crazy…even crazier than usual maybe? There were two tours of around 25 shows each…and I love playing for people in person. It’s what I’m best at, I think–and satisfying–to look and see the faces and watch and feel the vibrations in the room transform as the show progresses. And so much fun. The traveling, though hard hours are kept etc… is fine because I’ve had the fortune of some great traveling and performing companions: Sid Griffin over seas and Ben De La Cour in the states. Here’s something I dashed off about Sid at the request of the booking agent, who is setting us up on a
For MLK Day: Len Chandler’s Shadow Dream – in memory of a singer, a movement & its leader
Late night DJ: (voices in the dark: Dewey, Nordine, Eastwood on Misty, the General, etc whatever) “Ok you just heard Mammoth Clary with a Sebastion Cabot take on the Old Whompers number Goin’ Down Slow, and that’s for all the boys and girls out there on ship-to-shore radio, digging’ their Zenith with a map, a year-long cruise—that’s nothing for a whaleman, pestilential material, and before that was—On the Western Plains—that’s East Saint Louis, a case of mixed idemnification, you know what I mean, and by now you know why I mean it, but no ones talking right are they? GEE—Haw…it’s 159 degrees outside right now on Jupiter and before that were the Yoho Sink-tea Singers with Stormalong John. Chance of precipitation tonight, 100 percent I mean its raining cats and dodgies out there, decapitation zero, palpitations, even odds and ends, if you’re doin’ it right…Scary Day Blues—if ya did it right you wouldn’t have a problem—I mean—right in the first place—“ “…and that was the new thing from The Mouth, on Odyssey Sync Travelogue Tapes, the Grey Funnel Line. You heard it here first tell Neptune Ahab sent ya—“ “Charlie James you call that GONE—come in here all sideways!—stand out
Jail When the door clanks shut that’s jail—in the dark body boiling heart beating fast—trapped in anxiety—the bench is a bed there’s no one through the bars—nowhere to go—waiting is all—the concrete—hard & cold—the door is solid wood with a little window that slides back to reveal eyes the sink & toilet unused five feet to pace in the vibrating memory of all who’ve stood here in guilt and fear—my frail flesh contained by steel—anger directed by dead eyes—my voice surprises me & no one hears it—I’m a mystery to myself—and there’s no one else in sight—listening waiting & reading the nothing scratched on the wall—talk outside approaching steps echo in the hall key in the back with a hollow ring.
a beat up building on Folsom Street cars rush by late for the freeway late for the bridge trash in the street cracks in the window & every player in the band lives on a separate floor aligned by the window well A bass amp on the floor pressed into service as a coffee table linoleum asbestos & an old junk tv tuned to the all night movies (movies ’til dawn) a beat up record player & speakers & kitty cats torment the puppy (who howls when they slap him with their claws out stretched) someone upstairs is yelling again fighting again round & round shouts down the well I had an onion Paul had a spud & we fried ‘em up in oil with catsup borrowed from Clown Alley San Francisco—the ’70’s—a city of outlaws the West—drifters & outsiders rents are cheap & we’re passing the days in a basement hours of rehearsal while the clock tower on a downtown bank ticking the hours by ten or sixteen nothing in the fridge nothing in the cupboard no books on the shelf no money but time dreaming up songs that somehow limp back we laugh together it works sometimes working
6 comments
this is great! I really like how you write- I can HEAR you!- and your excitement comes through…
Thanks Debbie. I’ll be putting more of this every couple days… glad you dig it!
These are great posts, Peter. Thanks! Gratitude is a good thing, something to be grateful for. Watched the doc again, now that it’s streaming on Prime. So good to see a light shone where it should be!
And here’s a thing I’m reminded of over and over again: your songs transcend you. The covers of your work are out of this world. Anyone who hasn’t listened to the A Case for Case collection, go get a copy or find the songs! And Lady Blackbird’s performance in the doc…UNBELIEVABLE! Literally!
Art
Thanks Art. Thanks for reminding me…
Thanks for continuing to tune in with me Art it means a lot… Lady Blackbird is a great talent. I played with her and Chris last week and they were very powerful just in a duet format. The songs and singing…wow!
Ah, Peter. I’ll never tune out. (:
Anyway, are any of those performances online?
Art