Peter Case - Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John
List Price:
Our Price: $9.00
You Save: $7.98 (47%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.72 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more new music releases
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Music CD Cover
Artist: Peter CaseEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2007-08-07
Music Label: Yep Roc Records
Soundtracks:
- Every 24 Hours
- Million Dollars Bail
- Underneath the Stars
- Just Hangin' On
- Ain't Gonna Worry No More
- Palookaville
- Get Away Blues
- The Open Road Sons
- Some Bright Mornin Blues
- I'm Gonna Change My Ways
- That Soul Twist
Free Music Notes for Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John
Free Music Review: The One We've Been Waiting For
Hit: 5 Stars
I read somewhere that Lester Bangs used to listen to an album beginning to end in one sitting and sometimes over and over beginning to end in one sitting before even thinking about writing a review. I used to do that all the time (the listening-all-the-way-through part, not the review writing). It's hard for me to find time to do that one-sitting thing anymore. But I did it one early morning with Peter Case's new album `Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John' -- 'Every 24 Hours' through 'Palookaville' at about 5:30 or so ... then 'Get Away Blues' through 'That Soul Twist' on the drive in to work (with a little sitting in the parking garage to get it all in).
This album begins with Case "driving" down the road, a place with which he is intimately familiar (having left his childhood home at 15 and traveled through the Northeast and Midwest with his guitar on his way to the West Coast, where he was a street singer in San Francisco in the early 70s and became the singer-songwriter icon he is now, living in Los Angeles). The album ends in the same place (albeit further down the line) as its final song 'That Soul Twist' saunters leisurely on until it's just out of sight, the notes dissipating just over the horizon. Indeed, the road is central to this album's genius. Case himself refers to the road possessively on this album as `my highway' ... and the truth is we all benefit from joining him on his journey through this collection of songs.
With `Sleepy John,' Case continues (as with all his albums) to capture the pivotal themes of life -- every life is as valuable as the next ...every life is made up of experiences that are as real as the next ... no one is a label or should be labeled ... justice, grace, compassion and, above all, Love are essential ... we all face the `fork in the road' referenced in the classic Peter Case song `Beyond the Blues' (recorded on `Six Pack of Love' and done compellingly live by Case on the recent tribute to his music `A Case for Case') ... and, in the end, as Case sings on this new album, `it's how you live and why.'
I once read about Case's `Beyond the Blues,' "... i love the way he does it in performance (especially when he unplugs his guitar so that it sounds like a guitar!!!! and sings off mike so his voice sounds like a voice!!!! ...)." My dearest friend, who I introduced to Case's music almost 20 years ago, says that "anything peter does acoustically and any song he sings about love and any song LIVE makes me fall in love with the entire world, during those songs everything is beautiful, even the sh***y stuff [in life]...." These observations could not be more accurate. And this album is presented in just that fashion ... pure, honest, essential.
Case's `Sleepy John' album is required listening. It is the Peter Case album we've been waiting for.
Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John Poster
Peter Case is back with Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John, his most raw, direct work in nearly a decade. This album of politically fueled songs finds America's golden troubadour in his finest form, laying down sparse, busker-style guitar work over his uniquely delivered dusty road-poetry. Now Let Us Praise Sleepy John is yet another volume in the career of one of the most storied singer/songwriters of his generation. Standard Jewel Case.Since his street-corner-playing days in Buffalo and on through nearly 30 years of making music, Peter Case always seemed to find time for a cover of Sleepy John Estes. Case's first album since 2002's Beeline actually goes one better, interpreting the legendary wailing blues master by stripping away adjunct instruments and pining for the carefree busking days where all that mattered were a guitar and a song to sing. And in this setting, not many can write them or sing them like Case. There are flat-picking observations on "two kinds of justice" in "Million Dollar Bail," recollections of Telly Savalas in the small-town predicaments of "Palookaville," and duets with both buddies (Carlos Guitarlos on "Underneath the Stars") and heroes (Richard Thompson on "Every 24 Hours"). There are no Estes covers, but acclimating Robert Wilkins's 80-year-old "Get Away Blues" is expressively close, as every pluck of the 12-string and lyrical tug from deep inside Case's gut does justice to the late Sleepy John. --Scott Holter
Alternative Rock Music CDs
Music Genres
Top music charts in Alternative Rock Music CDs
Bouncing Souls - Maniacal LaughterRelease date: 1996-01-26; Music CD
Best price: $30.00
Blondie - Parallel LinesRelease date: 1994-07-29; Music CD
Best price: $397.77
Doors - L.A. WomanRelease date: 1993-04-09; Music CD
Best price: $199.99
Amon Duul - Phallus DeiRelease date: 1997-04-08; Music CD
Price in other shops:
Tangerine Dream - MelroseRelease date: 1990-10-02; Music CD
Best price: $74.98
Tangerine Dream - Private Music of Tangerine DreamRelease date: 1992-11-10; Music CD
Best price: $9.50
Price in other shops:
![Ska Explosion [VHS] Image](/images/Ska-Explosion-VHS-6303381014-X.jpg){kind=small}
Ska Explosion [VHS]Cleopatra; Release date: 1995-02-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
![Little Earthquakes [VHS] Image](/images/Little-Earthquakes-VHS-6302488664-X.jpg){kind=small}
Little Earthquakes [VHS]Atlantic / Wea; Release date: 1992-11-10; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops:
Exileby Geoffrey Oryema
Music CD
Best price: $4.95
![Louder Than Live [VHS] Image](/images/Louder-Than-Live-VHS-6301627865-X.jpg){kind=small}
Soundgarden - Louder Than Live [VHS]A&M Video; Release date: 1991-07-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Top Rated Albums
Wilco - The Whole LoveRelease date: 2011-09-27; Music CD
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
Peter Case - BeelineRelease date: 2002-09-17; Music CD
Best price: $2.89
Price in other shops:
Peter Case - Thank You St. JudeRelease date: 2004-05-04; Music CD
Best price: $14.50
Price in other shops:
Peter Case - Man With Blue Post-Modern Fragmented Neo-TraditionRelease date: 2006-11-03; Music CD
Best price: $10.47
Price in other shops:
Peter Case - Torn AgainRelease date: 1995-05-01; Music CD
Best price: $6.89
Price in other shops:
Peter Case - Sings Like HellRelease date: 1994-04-01; Music CD
Best price: $11.75
Price in other shops:
Peter Case - The Case FilesRelease date: 2011-05-10; Music CD
Best price: $10.44
Price in other shops:
Peter Case - Wig!Release date: 2010-06-29; Music CD
Best price: $9.70
Price in other shops:
Peter Case - Full Service No WaitingRelease date: 1998-02-17; Music CD
Best price: $3.95
Price in other shops:
Peter Case - Who's Gonna Go Your Crooked MileRelease date: 2004-09-14; Music CD
Best price: $3.29
Price in other shops: