Three time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Peter Case is preparing to release his 16th solo album Doctor Moan. The album is largely performed on piano, including his first solo recorded instrumental. The album will be released by Sunset Blvd Records on March 31, 2023. The track “Downtown Nowhere’s Blues” is out now.
Case talks about his formative musical years:
I grew up on 1950s and ‘60s rock & roll, jazz, classical and folk. I learned how to play blues as a kid, street singing in San Francisco and then was part of the punk rock movement. It’s all still in there; it’s my musical DNA.
In addition to Case on piano, harmonica, mellotron and guitar, the record features Jonny Flaugher (Lady Blackbird, Pokey LaFarge) on electric and acoustic bass, and Chris Joyner (Rickie Lee Jones, Ben Harper) on B-3 organ.
As a lifelong touring artist, Case, like so many others during the pandemic, found himself with a wide open schedule, but he turned to the piano in his living room.
He explains:
It was great to be able to write and complete an album without interruption. I didn’t have to jump up in the middle of things and go off on the road. I can’t remember another example of when I’ve been able to just complete a whole record like that.
The album was recorded and mixed by Ryan McCaffrey at The Sun Machine in Novato, California. The studio’s centerpiece for Case was its restored 1905 Steinway piano.
Case grew up in Hamburg, New York and left home at 16 to begin his voyage of musical discovery, an odyssey chronicled in the 2022 documentary feature film, A Million Miles Away.
As a founding member of the early Punk era trio The Nerves, in 1977 Case toured the nation sharing bills with The Ramones, Mink DeVille, Pere Ubu, and Devo. Their independent single, “A Million Miles Away,” entered the Billboard charts and remains a Garage Rock standard, performed by bands around the world.
Case has released albums such asThe Man With The Blue Postmodern Fragmented Neo- Traditionalist Guitar, featuring Ry Cooder, Jim Keltner and David Hidalgo; his Folk Blues collection Peter Case Sings Like Hell; the recently reissued and Grammy-nominated Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John (featuring Richard Thompson) and HWY 62 (with Ben Harper).
