Peter Case wanders the highways of this newfangled America like an authentic folk-rebel who has never lost his true grit. He was a teenage beatnik who showered Buffalo, New York, bars with blues at the end of the hippie era, then headed to San Francisco and jump-started punk rock with the Nerves, who toured alongside the Ramones. Next, he fulfilled power-pop's promise by writing "A Million Miles Away" with his band the Plimsouls. Then he chucked it all away to pursue a three-decade-long singer-songwriter career, becoming a perennial favorite of hip Americana crowds including fans like Texas icon Alejandro Escovedo. Case covers his titular tune "The End," replete with woven guitar interplay, on his newest collection The Case Files. The album showcases odds and ends left off his own records, including demo tapes from 1986, political-minded spoken word narratives, songs by The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, and even the traditional "Milk Cow Blues" recorded live at Rudyard's in 2005. Case remains the defiant, grizzled seeker of higher truths who doesn't wax nostalgic, avoids the limelight and sticks close to his roots. Look forward to a raucous night with the citizen-singer who dares speak truth to power and never sinks to pop platitudes.