California Troubadour Makes Rare Appearance to Benefit Local Nonprofit

Legendary folk musician Peter Case will host a concert and songwriting workshop Sunday to benefit Hungry for Music, a local nonprofit that puts instruments in the hands of underprivileged children.

The show, held at the Takoma Park Auditorium starts at 7 p.m., and the workshop will run from 4 to 6 p.m. Tickets for the concert are $20 at the door, $15 in advance. Workshop fee is $40 (reservations are recommended but not required). If you purchase tickets for both the show and workshop, the total cost is $50. Tickets are available at www.hungryformusic.org or by calling 240-582-6193. 

Case hails from Buffalo and has been making music for 40 years. As a member of the Nerves, Case worked as the opening act on the 1977 Ramones tour. By 1984, he'd disbanded his pioneering maximum R&B band, the Plimsouls, after scoring at hit with "A Million Miles Away." He became one of the first musicians of his generation to put down the electric guitar in favor of an acoustic, forging a sound he dubbed tribal folk.

"I tell people now I play folk-rock, and they seem to understand," Case says. "But the whole truth is more complex: I'm a singer/ songwriter that uses all the American styles to get my stories across: blues, rock 'n' roll, country, soul, R&B and folk, plus some rhythmic influences from around the world. I'm trying to forge my own style out of those inherited materials."

In 2006, Hungry for Music produced a three-CD, 47-track tribute, "A Case for Case," to help raise money for its mission to put musical instruments in the hands of underserved children. The tribute started as a single disc, said Hungry for Music founder and director Jeff Campbell, a longtime Case fan. The tribute's artists included John Prine, Kim Richey and Susan Cowsill, plus Washington-area musicians Bill Kirchen and the Brindley Brothers.

Musical instrument donations will be accepted at the door for this show.