Peter Case: Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John

Posted by Williamson in Reviews on 02 11th, 2008 | no responses |

Peter Case
Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John
Produced by Ian Brennan
Mastered by Gavin Lurssen
Yep Rock Records – 2007

Now in his 50’s, Peter Case has made the perfect album. It sings because he sings. It breathes as he breathes. How pure it is. This isn’t a stretch for the well-traveled Case, whose live shows are the best solo shows of any singer out there. It’s a matter of having put the right songs down in the right order. Case’s wizened voice and guitar is the central thread of the album. This is rugged, stark and windswept music. Monument Valley for the mind. Here a question from the epic homeless ballad of the album:

“Underneath the stars
who will crack the seal?”

17 years ago, I remember listening to tapes of Case performing on the radio (Snap was the show with the late Deidre O’Donohue on KCRW, Santa Monica) with just a guitar. It may have been a 12-string. It definitely was a Gibson acoustic. Those recordings were treasures. My friends and I loved them because they were tangible and the essence of what Case was as a performer and singer. The album that Case was then recording came out as a pastiche of derivative music; it was the stinker of Mitchell Froom’s production career, Six Pack of Love. Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John is a Case of Case doing everything right and making a better album than he probably would have made during those years.

The songs on Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John (including the sole cover, Robert Wilkin’s “Get Away Blues”) are stunning compositions to be savored and enjoyed. The tasteful accompaniment comes along in the manner of a duo train with seasoned, complementary backing by Richard Thompson (singing and guitar), Carlos Guitarlos (singing and guitar), Stranger Norm Hamlet (on pedal steel), Lysa Flores (singing), and Duane Jarvis (on guitar and percussion). What we have here is the anti-computer-virus, the kind of album that trumps all of Case’s other magnificent work (such as The Man with the Blue Post Modern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar) and sets a new standard for music. I will listen to this album as I do Bach’s Goldberg variations, with peace, intention, and pleasure.

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