Peter Case – Who’s Gonna Go Your Crooked Mile:Selected Tracks 1994-2004

Few singer-songwriters have wedded folk-rock traditions to pure pop bliss as effectively as Peter Case. The latter component is plenty evident in the work he’s done with the Plimsouls, but the richness of this fusion surfaces most fully on his solo albums.

This generous sampling of Case’s work for the Vanguard label during the past decade handsomely illustrates that. Fleshed out with two new songs and a solo acoustic live version of “Crooked Mile” (from 1997’s Full Service No Waiting), the sixteen-song compilation comes off more as a unified collection than a scattershot primer. This cohesiveness attests partly to the consistency of Case’s vision as a songwriter, but more to the point, it speaks to his talent for mixing the serious with the playful in a manner that’s seamless.

Of the previously released songs, high points include the harmony-driven rocker “Blind Luck”, the ragged barnyard stomp “Two Heroes”, and the unabashed love ballad “I Hear Your Voice”. Better still are the two new songs. Case has never shrunk from topical writing, and these recent compositions rank among his most powerful. Written in the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq, “Wake Up Call” couches protest lyrics in stormy garage-pop worthy of early Graham Parker. Similarly, the sinewy “My Generation’s Golden Handcuff Blues” addresses the expanding stranglehold big corporations wield over middle-class America.

Case rarely comes off as strident; few singers are better than he at conveying a yearning, scruffy romanticism. Moreover, songs such as the rockabilly throwaway “Coulda Shoulda Woulda” show that sometimes Case is concerned with nothing more than having a good time.