NEW BEATS
Backstage, after a show, Peter Case is talking baseball. The game is one of Case’s passions: he tells of his recent visit to Cooperstown and zealously endorses a book he’s been reading on the road, Philip Roth’s excellent “history” of the Patriot Baseball League, The Great American Novel.
NEW BEATS
Do YOU WANT A MAN OF STEEL?
Backstage, after a show, Peter Case is talking baseball. The game is one of Case’s passions: he tells of his recent visit to Cooperstown and zealously endorses a book he’s been reading on the road, Philip Roth’s excellent “history” of the Patriot Baseball League, The Great American Novel. He says he’s got an almost-finished tune called “The Baseball Song,” which he plays after some urging. It’s fairly hilarious, being about an emigre from Cuba (“Where they don’t play pro ball no more”) who has long-ball power (“He hits ’em in the cheap seats where you can’t buy a beer”). The six or seven people backstage applaud, and Peter Case is pleased.
This is Case’s life now; he’s a folkie. And he simply loves to play, whether it’s in front of seven or 7,000. He travels our country, often quite alone, with his Gibson J45 and a handful of harmonicas, playing record stores and live radio shows and small clubs and, every so often, opening outdoor concerts for Jackson Browne. And having a helluva good time.