Stream: Peter Case, ‘HWY 62’ (full album)

Kevin Bronson on October 23rd, 2015

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If you’re under a certain age, you might know Peter Case without knowing him. You’ve heard the Nerves’ “Hanging on the Telephone” (and probably thought it was penned by Blondie), or the Plimsouls’ stone-cold power-pop classic “A Million Miles Away.” And you’d recognize the names of many of the luminaries who have helped him realize “HWY 62,” the 61-year-old’s first album in five years: D.J. Bonebrake, Ben Harper and Jebin Bruni among them. The album, out next week via Omnivore Recordings, draws its name from U.S. Route 62, the only east-west highway that connects Mexico and Canada and an artery that’s close to home for Case, who was born in Buffalo, N.Y., a block away from the road. Case’s 14th solo album, “HWY 62” (produced by Grammy winner Sheldon Gomberg) has the well-worn feel of a Rand McNally road atlas — the wizened troubadour, alone with his stories and thoughts as the miles and vignettes go by. And those are as sharp as the vintage Americana-blues of Case’s music: the heartbreak of “Evicted, the hapless twang of “All Dressed Up (For Trial),” the humor of “If Go Crazy” (second part of the chorus: “… I will lose my mind”) and, especially, the political volley “Pelican Bay,” a diatribe on America’s prison system.

Case says of the album: “Everybody says I’m a troubadour, since I perform alone and bring the tales. The challenge was to make a ‘troubadour album’ that rocks with electric energy — Ben Harper and D.J. Bonebrake were key to that. HWY 62 connects east with west, north and south. I’m connecting three-chord rock ’n’ roll, to all kinds of American music, bringing together stories I’ve lived and found along the way, music about now.” Indeed, Case has lived some things — he had double-bypass surgery in 2009 — and it’s special to hear them articulated so vibrantly on his new album.

||| Stream: “HWY 62”