[.ca] Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John

From Amazon.com:
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

The One We've Been Waiting For ...:
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 \oin life\c...." 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.

The real stuff:
Almost 30 years ago Peter Case and the Plimsouls first came to many people's attention in a now famous scene in the Nicholas Cage vehicle "Valley Girl," in which Cage takes his girlfriend to a club to hear the Plimsouls, telling her "this is real music, not that techno (stuff) you listen to." Today the Valley Girl fad is, fortunately, long forgotten, but Peter Case, now usually a solo performer, is still mining musical gold. Here he performs mostly solo, but with well-chosen collaborators on several tracks, including "Every 24 Hours," which features some characteristically brilliant playing (and backing vocals) by British songwriter and guitar wiz Richard Thompson. The title alludes to the great bluesman Sleepy John Estes, who serves as a kind of presiding spirit. But it's not a "tribute record," and in fact there's only one blues cover here (not a Sleepy John song). Instead you get Case at top form as singer, songwriter, and guitarist. There's a unity to these songs, most of which return to the same group of themes: justice, faith, life on the road, looking back at your own past, looking around you at how the world is. "Every 24 Hours," "Ain't Gonna Worry No More," and "I'm Gonna Change My Ways" are as good as anything Peter has ever written, and the rest aren't far behind. And since it's mostly Case and his guitar you really get a chance to hear his abilities as a player. Case has reportedly said that this is the record he's always wanted to make. His fans are likely to agree that it's also the record they've always wanted to hear. And if you're not a fan yet you're likely to be one once you give this record a listen or two.

• Every 24 Hours
• Million Dollars Bail
• Underneath the Stars
• Just Hangin' On
• Ain't Gonna Worry No More
• Palookaville
• Get Away Blues
• Open Road Song
• Some Bright Mornin' Blues
• I'm Gonna Change My Ways
• That Soul Twist