I'm not much of a fan of tribute albums. If I like an artist enough to be curious about 'em, chances are I won't like the songs as much as the originals. What got my attention to this though is that as much as I was a plimsouls fan back in the day, I've never paid much attention to Case as a solo artist. Perhaps, I should have paid more attention.

On Feb 7th, "A Case For Case" - a THREE! disc tribute album to Peter Case hits stores.

Here's the track listing:

Disc One
1. Hayes Carll - Beyond the Blues
2. Maura O’Connell - Blue Distance
3. Lester Chambers - Walking Home Late
4. Tom Russell - A Little Wind (Could Blow Me Away)
5. Sam Baker - Still Playin’
6. Chuck Prophet - Three Days Straight
7.Jackie Greene - Ice Water
8. Susan Cowsill - Honeychild
9. Mark Winsick Band - Rise and Shine
10. Chris Smither - Cold Trail Blues
11. Jode Manross & Laith Keilany - Green Blanket
12. Bob Neuwirth - Power, Lust, & Money
12. Richard Buckner - Poor Old Tom
13. Kim Richey - First Light
14. Timothy Bracken - Turnin’ Blue
15. Victoria Williams - Drunkard’s Harmony

Disc Two
1. Dave Alvin - On My Way Downtown
2. Joe Ely - Put Down the Gun
3. Todd Snider - Travelin’ Light
4. James McMurtry - Old Part of Town
5. Ronny Elliott - Horse and Crow
6. Mary Battiata - Paradise, etc
7. Last Train Home - Baltimore
8. Amy Rigby - Beautiful Grind
9. Will Kimbrough - Moves Me Deeply
10. Pieta Brown - Spell of Wheels
11. Gurf Morlix - Evening Raga
12. Amilia K Spicer - Never Coming Home
13. Jesse DeNatale - I Hear Your Voice
14. Claire Holley - Two Angels
15. Peter Mulvey - Hidden Love
16. Gary Heffern - I Shook His Hand

Disc Three
1.Timothy Bracken Three-Way - Everyday Things
2. The Kennedy’s - Great Big World
3. Chris Gaffney - Zero Hour
4. Western Electric - When You Find Out
5. Brindley Brothers - Oldest Story in the World
6. Steve Wynn - Million Miles Away
7. Brad Rice - Something’s Coming
8. Mark Mulcahy - Small Town Spree
9. John Prine - Space Monkey
10. Steven Jackson - Crooked Mile
11. Bill Kirchen - This Town’s a Riot
12. Mike Martt - Wake-up Call
13. Kevn Kinney - Walk in the Woods
14. Marvin Etzioni - Old Blue Car
15. Jeffrey Foucault - Entella Hotel
BONUS:
16. Peter Case - Beyond the Blues (live)

And here's a quote from Dave Alvin from an ad for it:



Some pretty impressive artists on the roster, although I'm sure that the fact that all the proceeds going to charity helped in the recruitment. So opinions on Case as a solo artist and songwriter? And Where would one start on his solo work? Radcliffe? MCaputo? Others?

Wow, alot of artists from the Signature Sounds roster... i might have to pick it up on good faith alone.

In my opinion, Case went downhill ever since he caught the christ. I prefer his early solo stuff to the later - his self-titled debut or, better yet, The Man With The Blue Fragmented Post-Modern Neo-Traditionalist Guitar (aka The Blue Guitar) are my faves. Six Pack Of Love was his attempt to return to a light bit of Plimsouls-style rocking, and about half of it is worthwhile. Peter Case Sings Like Hell is an album of acoustic blues covers. Torn Again was the last album of his I bought, and it's a strong collection of folk rock songs (with very little to differentiate it from any other collection of folk rock songs).

That tribute could be good. Case has an excellent ear for melody, so the songs will all be uniformly strong. If there's anything that makes me hesitant about it it's the fact that it's entirely a singer/songwriter tribute. It would've been cool (to me, anyway) to hear all his 20 years of low-key folk songs performed by a bunch of punk and pop and power pop bands. Or reggae bands. Or noise bands. Or something, anything, different than a bunch of readings that'll pretty much mimic Case's own performances.

I thought of you when I saw Peter Mulvey did a song on it.

When are you coming out here already? Wanda Jackson is playing a "Tribute to Elvis" show at a small venue and its pissing me off to no end that I can't think of any of my LA friends that would be into it.

I get your point Rads and I'm not planning to buy it myself. I was more surprised that anyone thought a THREE disc tribute album to Case would sell and that enough highly respectable artists wanted to contribute -- shows respect. I dl'ed one of his albums -- Six pack of love (I think) -- off of emusic back in their unlimited dl days and it didn't do much for me. But I very well might of dl'ed 100 other things in a short period and not really given it the attention it merits. You seem a bit lukewarm on the solo stuff yourself though?

no shit. I would totally check that out...

Here's the plan. Check out L.A. over spring break which is in april this year, figure out where I want to live, and hopefully interview for some teaching gigs, or look for other jobs and try and get some kind of representation to help me get auditions. The album we're doing for Telarc will come out in april or may, so i'll have that in hand along with an edited reel of other stuff I've done. Then the move will commence in June, especially if I've got a job lined up.

Yeh, lukewarm about covers it. After the Plimsouls initially broke up I had high hopes for Case's solo career. I think he's got a great voice - Lennon-esque in the same way as Britt Daniel, able to effortlessly conjure melodic hooks - and he's always been a good songwriter, but his solo career just lacks (for want of a better word) energy. It's as if he aspired to become a journeyman folkie, and that's what he became.

I once saw him do a show with Dave Alvin and Tom Russell, and Case's approach was very similar to Russell's (ie: it was all about swallowing any sort of personality and merely showcasing the song itself), whereas Alvin could showcase the song but also project humor and personality and energy into the venue. The comparison seemed to pinpoint what I found so disappointing in solo Case.

Case's early solo stuff is strong. I guess I missed his transformation, but I am still very interested in this.

My only exposure to Case is a couple of comps I was sent a few months ago- it all sounded fine to me, if a bit plain vanilla. The artist list on this tribute is definitely an attention getter, though.