Peter Case
My Life to Live: Live at McCabe’s
(Sunset Blvd Records)
★★★★☆

My Life to Live: Live at McCabe’s offers 22 tracks of a well-captured live performance from Peter Case at his favourite venue, so intimate that the ringing of a sheepish gig-goer’s phone can be heard. This album provides Case’s recognisable classics, like Entella Hotel, Underneath The Stars and Ain’t Gonna Worry No More as well as more piano-heavy numbers like Girl In Love With A Shadow, Case having rediscovered his love for the keys during Covid.

Case’s casual style paired with his gravelly vocal talent and easy guitar picking are emblematic of his old blues lineage, his heroes including Honeyboy Edwards and Memphis Slim. He delivers lyrics which are socially conscious without being didactic, sincere vocals and the deep twang of his 12-string guitar cut through with upbeat harmonica.

Other stand-out elements of the album include its sound quality, particularly impressive for a live recording, and the good-natured, witty asides between songs. Case variously announces he’ll be throwing his Stetson into the ring for the American presidency, running on the ticket of “Make Billionaires Pay” and that, as a memory trick, he likes to “send a guy” into his mental archives to retrieve an elusive name for him. These guitar-side stories with a genuine soft spot for this music venue ground the album in touching humanity.

This album offers a blues-infused folk sound with rich vocals, pensive lyrics and emotional depth. The earthy style is served well by the live-recorded format as it captures the warmth and personality of the performance.

My Life to Live: Live at McCabe’s is released on April 24