Peter Case - Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John
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Free Music Notes for Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John
Free Music Review: Natural, understated, genuine
Hit: 4 Stars
You can tell a great singer-songwriter if they're able to strip the songs down to just guitar (or piano) & vocal and make them work as good, if not better, than they would if they were fully-produced with drums, keyboards, bass, etc.
Peter Case is one of those singer-songwriters. This album is as free-flowing and natural as a conversation with the man himself. I wish more accomplished songwriters would make genuine, no-frills records like this instead of hiding behind contemporary (over)production values (a la Springsteen's latest).
Evocative of the spirit of the great bluesmen, with traces of Plastic Ono Band-era John Lennon in it's off-hand honesty and immediacy, albeit less wrenching than Lennon.
This album is timeless, while at the same time belonging unmistakably to the right here, and right now.
Free Music Review: Alive Right Now
Hit: 5 Stars
Peter Case's new CD "Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John" is an excellent acoustic folk set. Case shines with urgent vocals, acoustic guitar, great melodies & lyrics. Richard Thompson guests on vocals & guitar on the bright opener "Every 24 Hours," "I should've called home fore she went to sleep; I pray the Lord for her soul to keep; Tomorrow will tell who's been tending the sheep." "Million Dollars Bail" tells a sad story of how money may purchase justice but cannot buy happiness, "She dialed 911, but the cops didn't come on time; They found her on the marble with a bullet through her eye. ... There's two kinds of justice, everybody knows, one for folks up on the hill, the others down below." Case's music is deceptively simple such as on the lovely "Ain't Gonna Worry No More" with it's lulling guitar and lyrics busting with memory, "Fourteen dressed in his father's hat, even had a little mustache just like that; Told the crazy lady at the corner shop, 'I'll take a pack of Camels and bottle of Schnapps.'" "Forget tomorrow & that jam you're in; You're alive right now as you ever been," Peter sings on the losers' lament "That Soul Twist." Case's new CD is an excellent folk set from one of our most consistent artists. Enjoy! Free Music Review: Another Fine Work from Mr. Case
Hit: 4 Stars
It's hard to think of many others who are still putting out such amazing stuff after so long a career. Peter Case hasn't traveled a straight line by any means, but there is in fact a line somehow from his astonishing 1986 debut to today. This album is more Icewater, say, than Steel Strings, but as the man himself sang in Hidden Love, in these empty rooms a guitar makes a band.
Peter Case is an American treasure. Please, I urge you to give this one, to give this man, a listen.
Free Music Review: +1/2 -- Folk-blues troubadour on top of his game
Hit: 4 Stars
Case's credentials as a street-savvy folk troubadour have long since eclipsed his previous power pop identity with the Nerves and Plimsouls. Still, his well-traveled, socially observant lyrics draw upon the same well of honesty and directness as his earlier work, but without the electric guitars and drums. Case sings to his own strummed and picked accompaniment supplemented by an occasional guest guitarist or vocalist, performing on a small scale that opens a window on his intimate live performances.
The life of a touring musician is a central theme in Case's songwriting, reporting from the road on "24 Hours" and "The Open Road Song," and considering the philosophical and social issues that present themselves in the rush of every day life. Songs of social inequity ("Million Dollars Bail"), humanity gripped in the crush of homelessness ("Underneath the Stars"), and faded glory ("Palookaville") are startling in their detail. Even when writing in a third person narrative, Case writes with first person experience.
In addition to nine new titles, Case revives one of his earliest compositions, 1970's "Just Hangin' On," and covers the traditional "Get Away Blues." He's augmented by Richard Thompson's guitar and voice on "Every 24 Hours," vocalist Lysa Flores on "Some Bright Mornin' Blues," Norm Hamlet (of Merle Haggard's Strangers) on pedal steel for "That Soul Twist," and singer/guitarist Carlos Guitarlos on "Underneath the Stars." Case continues to develop and refine his considerable craft, deepening the experience and wisdom of his songs and performances. 4-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [?2007 redtunictroll at hotmail dot com]
Free Music Review: "There are Two Kinds of Justice..."
Hit: 5 Stars
...as Peter Case reminds us on "Million Dollars Bail", one of eleven reasons to lay your hat on the table and stay awhile. While Case is painting a picture of injustice as it relates to the haves and have nots, he could just as easily be referring to the vagaries of the music world - where an artist of Cases' stature is left to paint his passionate songs of love, loss, pain, and hope in the shadows of an increasingly complacent universe.
Singing in his clear passionate tenor, mostly alone with his guitar, Case mourns the loss of the dream in "Palookaville", at the same time he champions the Terry Malloy's of the land - those who are still fighting in a world that has forgotten them.
Richard Thompson shows up on "Every 24 Hours" to lend a hand on vocals and guitar. The line "who moved the furniture, who turned out the lights" is the cry of everyman, and everywoman, amazed and dazed at how difficult it is to maneuver in a world that changes so quickly. Where is the ground to stand on? Thankfully, Case offers some suggestions - love and hope are just around the corner.
"Underneath the Stars" could be just another token song for the homeless in the hands of a songwriter with less experience and insight than Case. Here he sings the plight of the "new face" seen on the streets, under the bridges, and alleyways of your hometown, and challenges the listener to count their blessings - it just might be you who wears "the pauper's crown" one day.
In "Ain't Gonna Worry No More" all the skills that make Peter Case one of the true great songwriters operating in the world today are at their peak - the lyrical eye of the poet, the passionate cry of the rocker, the emotional vulnerability of the `bluesman', the clarity and closeness of the story-teller. This is a true folk epic. From desert flowers to crazy store clerks, from nightmare warlike visions and puppet governments to Lightnin' Hopkins playin' somewhere, sometime, USA, Case cries "We seen a lot of troubles now the Ghost is gone."
Thankfully, the ghost of Sleepy John, Lightnin' Hopkins and other greats is here, in the voice and songs of Peter Case. The love affair starts here. "Come on Down..."
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