Peter Case

Peter Case (born April 5, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. His career is wide-ranging, from rock n' roll and blues, to folk rock and solo acoustic performance.

Biography

Early career

Case was born in Buffalo, New York and lived in nearby Hamburg, New York. He wrote his first song "Stay Away," in 1965, at the age of eleven. A veteran of several rock bands and the local bar scene as a teenager, Case dropped out of high school when he was fifteen (he would later earn a GED), and after several years of traveling arrived in 1973 in San Francisco, where he performed as a street musician. During this period a documentary about the local music scene, Nightshift, directed by Bert Deivert, captured the young Case on film. In 1976, he teamed up with Jack Lee and Paul Collins in to form the early punk-era band The Nerves in San Francisco. The group's 1976 ep track, "Hanging on the Telephone", was later recorded by Blondie.

Peter Case (album)

Peter Case was the debut album by American power pop singer-songwriter Peter Case, released in 1986 on Geffen Records.

History

Peter Case was a member of Los Angeles power pop group The Nerves along with Paul Collins (later of The Beat), and Jack Lee. After the breakup of the Nerves, Case made several albums in the early 1980s with The Plimsouls. This is his first solo album after the breakup of the Plimsouls.

Case was accompanied by 20 other musicians including T-Bone Burnett and Mitchell Froom, guitarist Mike Campbell, John Hiatt, drummers Jim Keltner and Jerry Marotta, Roger McGuinn, Van Dyke Parks, and his then-wife Victoria Williams, among others. Case wrote five of the songs on the LP, and co-wrote six others including three with Burnett, one with Burnett and Marotta, and one with Williams. One song features lyrics by Case with music originally written by Lightnin' Hopkins. The album closes with a cover of Shane MacGowan's "Pair of Brown Eyes", originally performed by MacGowan's band The Pogues. The song "I Shook His Hand" was originally performed live in a harder-rocking version with the Plimsouls. A promo-only release from the album included a fully acoustic version of "I Shook His Hand."