Peter Case: “Doctor Moan” (2023) CD Review

I’m always excited to hear something new from Peter Case, and realize now that I somehow missed his 2021 album The Midnight Broadcast. How did that happen? I will have to rectify that soon. In the meantime, I’ve been immersing myself in his new release, Doctor Moan. This album has a different sound from his 2015 release HWY 62 and earlier releases, as Peter Case’s main instrument here is piano rather than guitar. But whatever instrument he chooses to deliver his music, Peter Case can be counted on to compose some excellent and memorable songs. And he does so here. Joining him on this release are Jon Flaugher on bass, and Chris Joyner on organ.

Peter Case opens this album with a powerful, striking number, “Have You Ever Been In Trouble?” His work on piano has a dark element, as if providing a warning of some kind of trouble, or that the instrument itself faces trouble. This song was written by Peter Case and Warren Klein. “Tonight you feel the danger rising on the wind/Tearing at your jacket, ripping at your skin/Have you ever been in trouble?” And Peter Case delivers a strong vocal performance. This is one hell of a good opening track. It is followed by “That Gang Of Mine,” which begins with some moving work on piano, backed by organ and bass. The scene described is the end of a party, “The bottles are empty and everyone’s gone.” But it turns out to not be just the end of a party, but an end to those youthful friendships. We never know when they’re ending, do we? It is only years later when we wonder what happened to those folks. This song looks back. “Whatever happened to that summertime?/Whatever happened to that gang of mine?” I’ve been thinking about these very things a lot lately. Time passes, and suddenly you find yourself in your fifties, with memories and longings, those plans and dreams somehow lost along the way. “Something sweet has been left behind,” he sings here, a line that stands out for me.

On “Downtown Nowhere’s Blues,” Peter Case is pounding those keys, giving the song an immediate power and energy. The piano is a force here. And check out these lyrics: “At the corner on a microdose of LSD/She fiddles with the jukebox and her destiny/The walls are moving, the food is dust/One song keeps playing to T’s disgust/And you know we don’t get along Downtown Nowhere.”  Then an instrumental opening sets the tone on “Eyes Of Love,” and there is something soulful in the organ work. “Never hear the words of forgiveness/‘Til you let me see/Through the eyes of love.” This is a captivating song, in large part because of Peter Case’s vocal approach, but also the way the organ gives things a gospel flavor. “Return to the battle/The peace we crave/Just another kind of war/This cold land/Lost and forgotten/‘Til you set us free/Through the eyes of love.” That’s followed by “Give Me Five Minutes More,” with lyrics by Michael Lally. Here Peter Case sings, “Give me five minutes more/To answer the question/To find the solution, look it up/Give me five minutes more/To explain myself/Win or lose, to turn it around.” And we think of this song as what he’s doing with those five minutes he’s asking for, as the song itself is a bit shy of five minutes. Nearly halfway through we are treated to some good work on harmonica, and some more just before the track’s end.

Peter Case switches to guitar for “Wandering Days.” “The world was so wide/I had to see it from the other side.” And in the second half of the track, he offers some whistling. He returns to piano for “Ancient Sunrise.” As this track begins, there is the sense that it could become a jazz number, with that catchy theme on piano. This song has a particularly strong and interesting and varied vocal performance. “We stole wild honey/Got chased by the bees/Took the shortcut/Never got home/Opened my eyes up/I was alone.” This is one of my personal favorites. That’s followed by “The Flying Crow,” which is listed as a traditional number in the disc’s liner notes. It’s an old blues number that was recorded by Black Ivory King in the 1930s. You feel like this one could just break loose at any moment. It is somehow both wild and restrained at the same time, with something bubbling just below the surface. It’s a train song, these lines also calling to mind Robert Johnson’s “Love In Vain”: “Got two lights on, two lights on behind/Well, that red light, that means trouble/Green light’s a wandering mind.” Peter Case delivers some great stuff on harmonica. “Why do you hide your face/I trusted in your mercy/Now you make a federal case.”

“Girl In Love With A Shadow” kind of eases in, a slow gem that ends up being another of the disc’s highlights, in part because of its strong vocal performance and its haunting vibe. “We were down in south L.A./I finally found a job to play/There was a night I spent in jail/I bumbled out, but lost the trail/Of that girl in love with a shadow.” That’s followed by “4D,” a piano instrumental track with a certain beauty and mood. It is the album’s only instrumental track. The album then concludes with “Brand New Book Of Rules,” another of the album’s highlights. These lines stand out: “You lost your taste for hearing truth/And got lost in a polling booth/Don’t know what you’re talking about/But don’t seem to care if you ever find out.” And of course I appreciate the Shakespeare reference early in this song: “I heard a story on the evening news/About the Capulets and the Montagues.”

CD Track List

1. Have You Ever Been In Trouble?
2. That Gang Of Mine
3. Downtown Nowhere’s Blues
4. Eyes Of Love
5. Give Me Five Minutes More
6. Wandering Days
7. Ancient Sunrise
8. The Flowing Crow
9. Girl In Love With A Shadow
10. 4D
11. Brand New Book Of Rules

Doctor Moan is scheduled to be released on March 31, 2023 on Sunset Blvd. Records.