Storyteller: Peter Case at Houston’s Cactus Music

 by Paul T. Mueller

Singer-songwriter Peter Case did more talking than singing during his November 7 in-store performance at Houston’s Cactus Music. But that was just fine with the several dozen fans in attendance, as much of the talking consisted of funny anecdotes from a career spent on the road. And there were a few songs thrown in as well.

Case was accompanied onstage by author David Ensminger, whose latest book, Left of the Dial: Conversations with Punk Icons, includes an interview with Case. Ensminger acted as an informal moderator, prompting Case to relate stories from his long career, which included membership in The Plimsouls and The Nerves as well as many years of performing solo and with other musicians.

And very entertaining stories they were, albeit delivered in Case’s matter-of-fact style:

Peter Case at Cactus Music

–  Hitchhiking hundreds of miles in a blizzard at age 16 to see Texas bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins perform in the Boston area (and ending up in a women’s dorm in Boston with a couple of newfound friends.)

–  Playing several gigs in Australia as part of a package tour that also included Blue Oyster Cult, the Hoodoo Guru, and Buzzcocks, among other bands

–  Being enlisted by producer T-Bone Burnett to contribute to a Robert Randolph recording session, only to find that he was expected to come up with lyrics to already-written music during the session

-Interspersed with the stories were a few songs: “Icewater,” based on a Lightnin’ Hopkins guitar riff; “Poor Old Tom,” about a homeless veteran, and “A Walk in the Woods,” a chilling tale of missing children that Case said was the first song he wrote for his first solo album.

A question-and-answer session ensued, during which Case revealed, among things, that:

–   He gets tired of the day-to-day grind of life on the road, but never gets tired of seeing the world, writing songs and performing for people

–   His all-time favorite musician is Jimi Hendrix

– The musician he’d most like to record with (but can’t afford to) is jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders

– He thinks Coldplay is “U2 without the edge,” and

– He believes the Internet has pretty much destroyed the old business model of the music industry, but that there will always be a music business in some form

After teasing the room with a promise of a Bob Dylan song, Case closed with an energetic rendition of his own “House Rent Party” before adjourning to the front of the store, where he and Ensminger signed CDs, books and other items and spent some time interacting with fans.

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