A CONVERSATION WITH PETER CASE (continued)

PM: Listening to anything in particular?

PC: Yeah, but outside the usual suspects lately, I'm trying to think. I like these guys, the White Stripes. I guess that's really my favorite new band. I love the songwriting and the blues playing that's going on there. The guys are really good songwriters. They're real smart, and there's a wide range of music going on there. They're really good.

PM: It's an indie thing or a major thing?

PC: They've been on the indies. I don't know if they signed a major deal or not. They've got three albums out, and the third one is probably my favorite, the one called White Blood Cells. It kind of goes from--they had a punk rock song that was sort of on the radio out in California, and they cover a range of punk rock through blues rock, bluesy stuff. It's sort of like the Gun Club, but different, sort of like the Stooges, but different. And he's got a voice almost like Paul McCartney or Ray Davies at times, like sort of a mellifluous higher voice at times. And he writes great material. And it's just a guy and a girl playing drums.

PM: It's just a two-man group?

PC: It's a two-person group, a brother and sister. Pretty rockin'.

PM: Wow. Okay, we're on it.

So, along with becoming even better and more successful at what you do, are there things that you haven't done yet that you'd like to attempt?

PC: Well, I'm working on a couple of books, and I've got several different book-type projects I'm pursuing, but it's going to take a while to get together.

PM: Yeah.

PC: But they're coming together. And one of them is sort of an investigation of this place where I grew up, but there are some unique things that happened there. And this is an investigation of the events.

PM: Wow.

PC: It's about a time where a bunch of people became artists and musicians. And one guy is a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist. And a number of other people committed suicide. And it's just this little town, and there was a lot going on.

PM: We won't reveal the town since it's the subject, but what state is it?

PC: It's in New York. Western New York State. It's my hometown. So I'm sort of writing a book about that.

PM: I love that idea.

PC: Yeah, it's pretty interesting as you go back there. I've been haunted by it a long time, and just needed to really find out what the deal is.

PM: It's like a something in the water type trip?

PC: Exactly. And I'm trying to figure out what it is. There are some really odd things about the place, and it's going to be a heart breaking end, fairly, and a music book at times, too.

PM: Wow. So we hope that this interview and the clips will bring new people into the Case fold.

Is there something that you'd like people to know about you that may not be obvious in your CDs or your press?

PC: That's not obvious in the press? Well, I don't know, in my latest press releases we tried to pretty much get the word across.

PM: Something about who you are, maybe.

PC: The one thing about it--I suppose I wish people would just really come and see the show, when I play, because I think it's a lot different than what people think, what people expect in terms of just being like a songwriter. You need to experience it. Like a lot of other things, you can't know unless you go. So constantly I'm just trying to break through people's feelings that they know what it's about.

PM: Because you throw down, you want people to see you throw down.

PC: I want people to see that. Exactly. You got it.

A lot of these pictures of Peter Case were cut from photographs by Greg Allen. Check out the remarkable array of musician photos at Greg's website, where you can purchase original prints. That hard-to-buy-for music fan on your Christmas list might love a framed image from one of Lucinda's early album covers, or maybe a glossy blow-up of Jim Lauderdale or Willie Dixon or XTC or the Meat Puppets or...

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