 Self-described rock and roll folk singer Peter Case has, on his fourth album for the renascent old line folk label Vanguard, created his strongest set since his1989 Geffen release, The Man With The Blue Postmodern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar.And thankfully its title, Flying Saucer Blues, is a lot easier to type, even if there’s no such thing as a title track.
The disc is playfully named after a throwaway line on the first cut, Paradise, etc. where Case longs for the place everyone in every culture strives for: cloudland, dreamland, fairyland, canaan, goshen, shangri-la, elysium, arcadia, paradise, et cetera. But his narrator is instead earthbound, stuck in this primordial ooze, with a case of flying saucer blues. The fingerpicked guitar intro Case does sounds a lot like the traditional children’s song from Alabama, Green, Green Rocky Road, but his top notch studio band, including multi-instrumentalists Greg Liesz and Andrew Williams, soon add the gentle sting of dobro, mandolin and upright bass to make Case's plea for paradise more heartfelt.
Of the 11 tracks, Case was sole author on 9, with one of the two collaborations being Two Heroes, which LeRoy Marinell co-wrote. Case has always had an affinity for both tall tales and the urban underbelly and this bluesy six-minute opus, about a fighter and a pimp who break up an L.A. street robbery, lets him indulge his love of both. As on many other tracks, Sandy Chila's drumming is simple, insistent, and forward in the mix. The three most notable other offerings are the waltz-time Blue Distance, about a love that almost made it; Lost In Your Eyes, a slighly sinister love song whose Kurt Weillish tones are accented by Chila’s drum rolls, Williams' lightly picked banjo, and David Jackson's upright bass; and Walking Home Late, a sharply observed portrait of Memphis street life.
Case closes out Flying Saucer Blues with This Could Be The One, his own twist on the Harlan Howard country classic, Miller's Cave. He's never seemed to be the kind of guy who goes in for revenge fantasies, so this tale of a man betrayed in love by his best friend is all the more chilling, especially with its bouncy, cheerful melody. As long as Case can write murder ballads like this one, folk music’s urban future will be as joyfully bloodsoaked as its Appalachian past.
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