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Peter Case

I was born in Buffalo, New York in 1954, the youngest child in a family with two teenage sisters. The house was filled with music:  Rock ‘n’ roll, Rhythm & Blues, jazz and folk; Elvis, the Everly Brothers, Ray Charles, and as the Sixties got underway, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and that gang.

As a little kid I played piano, ukulele, and harmonica; I took up saxophone in school, began playing guitar in 1965, and wrote my first song, “Stay Away.” I continued writing songs and playing in rock ‘n roll combos at dances in the area while listening to Dylan and the Rolling Stones and following the roots of their country, blues, and early rock ‘n’ roll origins.  In 1968 I started playing coffeehouses while also continuing to perform with dance bands: this went on for a number of years.

At the beginning of my 16th year, I left home, moved in with musicians, and began to travel – New York, Washington, Boston – still listening to music and playing, learning from the musicians I met along the way.

In 1973, I left Buffalo in a blizzard on a midnight bus heading west.  That spring in San Francisco I became a street musician, playing solo and busking with different players, including blues and rock ‘n’ roll hero, Mike Wilhelm of the Charlatans, and folk guitarist Tom Hobson. I was the main subject of a film that year, Night Shift, about SF street music, directed by Bert Deivert. I wrote about this period in detail in my book, As Far As You Can Get Without A Passport, which tells the story of a street-singing trip from Northern California to Mexico.

After beginning a collaboration with Jack Lee, a songwriter who’d just landed in California from Alaska, the Nerves were born in late 1974. The following year, Paul Collins joined the band; we played locally and recorded the “Hanging on the Telephone” EP, which was released in 1976. On the first day of 1977, the band relocated to Los Angeles and began performing and promoting LA’s first punk rock shows – including Hollywood’s Punk Rock Invasion featuring the the Weirdos, the Zeros, the Dils, and the Germs in their debut appearances. The Nerves were the first independent unsigned band to go on a national independent tour of the USA (plus Toronto) in the spring and summer of 1977. Playing our own brand of stripped-down, driving, melodic teenage rock’n’roll, touring with the Ramones, and sharing bills with Devo, Pere Ubu, and Mink DeVille during the first wave of American punk, we returned to LA to perform at the newly opened Masque. After racking up 28,000 miles on our Ford LTD, in early 1978, after playing one final show at the Whisky a Go Go, we broke up to pursue different directions.

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1
Film Review

Peter Case: A Million Miles Away - Take Yes For An Answer (DVD)

Read "Peter Case: A Million Miles Away - Take Yes For An Answer (DVD)" reviewed by Doug Collette


Peter Case A Million Miles Way -Take Yes For An Answer Passport 2020 Productions 2023 The dilettante music lover might wonder why there's a biopic/documentary available devoted to a living musician named Peter Case. Yet fans of the man have long known what a cursory glance at his Wikipedia page reveals: the Buffalo-born musician/songwriter boasts a résumé so expansive it might be refused as implausible if tendered as a film treatment. Born ...

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Album Review

The Paul Collins Beat: Another World: The Best of the Archives

Read "Another World: The Best of the Archives" reviewed by Doug Collette


One of the most enduring power-popsters of our era, no one has been more loyal to the style than Paul Collins. Yet no contemporaries of comparable devotion, including Shoes, Matthew Sweet and the late Tommy Keene, have struggled in quite the same relative anonymity. Still, the native New Yorker has remained both prolific and proud over the years, sans much high profile critical recognition or commercial success, and has now seen fit to compile and present a cross section of ...

2
Album Review

Peter Case: On The Way Downtown: Recorded Live On FolkScene

Read "On The Way Downtown: Recorded Live On FolkScene" reviewed by Doug Collette


Peter Case's On the Way Downtownreminds how prolific the once and future frontman of the Plimsouls has been during the course of his solo career. Recorded Live On FolkScene captures Case just as he was gaining traction during that phase of his career and offers keen insight into both his writing and performing. What's most noticeable right away is the ease with which the man sings. Always fluent with his vocal delivery and perhaps never more so than ...

1
Extended Analysis

Peter Case: Peter Case

Read "Peter Case: Peter Case" reviewed by Doug Collette


The music on Peter Case's debut solo album is as pure and straightforward as the title of this eponymous work. And that's even taking into account the layered approach T Bone Burnett applied in one of his earliest production jobs. The seven bonus tracks illustrate how both this original material of Case's stands strong on its own terms, especially in his authoritative performances, as a foundation for a brilliant all-around collaborative work. Peter Case devotees as well as ...

3
Extended Analysis

Peter Case: Hwy 62

Read "Peter Case: Hwy 62" reviewed by Doug Collette


With his walrus-like goatee, dark glasses and a fedora knocked back over a straggly haircut, Peter Case looks like the devoted road warrior and musical explorer that he is on the cover of the aptly-titled Hwy 62. And the recordings inside bear out the wisdom he's gained over the years as a songwriter and musician, these eleven vivid tunes bearing witness to his insights and observations as brought to kinetic life by the presence of a single set of musicians ...

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111

Event

L.A. Music Scene Vets Turn out for Peter Case Benefit Salute

L.A. Music Scene Vets Turn out for Peter Case Benefit Salute

Source: Michael Ricci

A raft of stalwarts from L.A.s Americana music scene, including but not limited to those who started their careers at local clubs during the 1980s, turned up over the weekend at McCabes in Santa Monica.

During three nights of shows to salute the music of Peter Case and help him pay down the bills from his double bypass heart surgery in January.

T-Bone Burnett, Dave Alvin, Carla Olson, Stan Ridgway, Syd Straw and Phranc appeared along with such friends and ...

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Another World: The...

Alive Naturalsound Records
2020

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On The Way Downtown:...

Omnivore Recordings
2017

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Peter Case (eponymous)

Omnivore Recordings
2016

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Peter Case: Peter Case

Omnivore Recordings
2016

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Peter Case: Hwy 62

Omnivore Recordings
2015

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Videos

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