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 US tour for next spring:
“Sid Griffin has boundless energy, and he’s one of the funniest and most talented people I know, two reasons why he’s swell to be on the road with. We’ve toured a good bit now–across the UK, Ireland and Northern Europe. But we met in 1978 at the infamous and legendary Los Angeles punk hangout the Masque. We hit it off because we both grew up on and loved the same music and musicians–we were fans of Doug Sam, The Byrds, the Lovin’ Spoonful…both played harmonica and guitar, and each of us had the ambition to twist those musical roots into new sounds and directions . I left the Nerves and started the Plimsouls and wrote A Million Miles Away, Sid used to come and sit in with us at gigs on twelve string–you can hear him on the Plimsouls live album Beachtown Confidential. Then he started the genre-defining psychedelic country-rock band the Long Ryders.
He’s a dynamic performer, songwriter and personality, and a crack guitarist, banjo man and mandolinist.. His shows are moving and entertaining like the work of all those aforementioned influences. We approach music from complimentary angles, so the team up works like crazy. And we push each other rise to new levels, similar I think, to the way Guy and Townes used to do when they toured together.
It just works, beside the fact that we’ve had a million adventures together and know so many friends and fans in common, it’s a lot of fun. I’m really looking forward to getting on tour with him again.”
It’s not hype, Sid’s the greatest. Check out his new sole release or the latest Long Ryders album…
I’ll tell you about Ben too…he’s a younger songwriter trying to make his name. He has a great talent for writing songs, and he’s a far out guy…his stories about boxing in Havana are pretty amazing. Do you know anybody else who’s done that? He’s been around a bit… and he brings a lot of musical suss to his great lyrics. Great darkness is expressed in his work, but coming up in these days, how could there not be? Check out his records…my favorite is the latest, Sweet Anhedonia. He’s best live, but his new record in progress is astounding…guess we’ll be hearing about that soon.
It’s a bitch moving forward. Everything in the world is threatened, up for grabs. I’ve never felt this jammed by world events. Though maybe the Kennedy and King assassinations, the Nixon presidency, the Viet Nam disaster, the corporate take over of the 70’s, the jerk to the right of the 80’s, government sponsored crack epidemic, then the “war on drugs “etc… leading to the incarceration of two million americans…Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, Gaza–I’m not sure what kind of songs can be written and sung in the face of this now. Protest? Blakean reclamation of our inner dimensions? Rock ‘n Roll?
I’ve been listening to John Coltrane.
to be continued…