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 After
disbanding the Los Angeles new wave/power-pop group the
Plimsouls, Peter
Case launched a career as an important American
singer/songwriter, specializing in the flat-pick guitar style and
semi-autobiographical stories of drifters delivered in narrative
style. Born in the '50s and growing up in upstate New York, Case
was inspired, like any number of young men of his generation, by Elvis
Presley and the
Beatles. He was also a fan of the folk and blues of
Mississippi John
Hurt, Leadbelly
and Woody
Guthrie and as a teenager took to the troubadour's life,
playing coffeehouses and busking. He was discovered on the streets
of San Francisco in 1976 by songwriter Jack
Lee, with whom he collaborated in the
Nerves, a short-lived but influential power-pop act. The
meeting led to a move to L.A. and the formation of the
Plimsouls in 1980. After the group found success with the
power-pop standard "A Million Miles Away," they called
it quits and Case
debuted with Peter
Case for Geffen in 1986. It was a collection of hard folk
songs produced by T-Bone
Burnett, and included co-writes with Burnett
and Case's
first wife, Victoria
Williams, along with performances by John
Hiatt and Roger
McGuinn. Case
was among a handful of rockers who had been honing his acoustic
songs in clubs, helping to launch the so-called
"unplugged" movement. In 1989, he released The
Man With the Blue Post-Modern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar,
again with the help of choice musicians like David
Hidalgo, Ry
Cooder and Benmont
Tench. In a Rolling Stone interview that year, Bruce
Springsteen cited Case
as the songwriter he was listening to most at the time. For 1992's
Six-Pack
of Love, Case
chucked the folk aesthetic for something more rock-oriented, but
the collection flopped, as did his liaison with Geffen. He
regrouped and self-released Peter
Case Sings Like Hell, recorded with Marvin
Etzioni in a Los Angeles living room, in 1993. The strength of
that release earned him a new recording contract with Vanguard in
1995 and Case
came on strong for Torn
Again, his best set of spare songs about lonesome losers
since Blue
Guitar. In 1996, the
Plimsouls reformed for some reunion shows and recording; Case
continues to tour as a solo act. In 1997, he was hosting a weekly
evening for songwriters at Santa Monica's revived Ash Grove folk
club. Flying
Saucer Blues followed in the spring of 2000.
In 1996, the
Plimsouls reformed for some reunion shows and a recording
session at the Epitaph Records studios; Kool
Trash (Shaky City) eventually saw release in 1998 while Case
continued to tour and record as a solo act. In 1997, he hosted a
weekly evening for songwriters at Santa Monica's revived Ash Grove
folk club. In between releasing two more records for Vanguard, Full
Service No Waiting (1997) and Flying
Saucer Blues (2000), Case
curated a musical program for the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and
performed Beatles
songs at the Hollywood Bowl with Sir
George Martin. In spring of 2000, he was compiling a tribute
for to his hero, Mississippi
John Hurt, featuring contributions by Lucinda
Williams, Dave
Alvin and John
Sebastian for Vanguard. — Denise
Sullivan, All Music Guide
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