Concord RecordsJ. Geils Band frontman Peter Wolf has just released an eclectic new solo album called A Cure for Loneliness that finds him delving into various genres of American roots music. Some of the songs are reminiscent of the soul-, R&B- and blues-infused rock music for which his old group is famous, but Wolf also explores country, folk and bluegrass on the new record.
The 70-year-old singer tells ABC Radio that his eighth solo effort is in line with the musical direction he’s taken on most of the albums he’s made since departing The J. Geils Band in 1983.
Wolf says that with the new record, he “basically [wanted] to keep the bar high and keep this kind of progression that makes sense from the previous solo records,” adding that “it’s just my attempt at trying to just artistically keep a forward move on things.”
The album kicks off with a soulful and introspective tune titled “Rolling On,” which Peter says reflects the theme of the record.
“It’s [about] continuing to roll on as a rock-and-roller through the trials and tribulations, through the good times and the bad times,” Wolf notes. “And also reconfirming for myself that music has been an important…and a meaningful part of my life, and has become the great cure for loneliness and many other things in my life.”
The Bronx-born Wolf goes country on two tunes, “It Was Always So Easy (to Find an Unhappy Woman)” and “Stranger.” He tells ABC Radio that country shares many attributes with the blues and R&B he’s been known to favor.
“R&B and country and blues and country are very similar because one [is] talking about love songs and dance music and entertainment for the honky-tonks,” he says, “[and] the other one is dance music, entertainment music for the juke joints.”
Meanwhile, J. Geils Band fans likely will be tickled with the live version of the group’s 1980 hit “Love Stinks,” reimagined as a bluegrass tune, which appears on A Cure for Loneliness.
Wolf says the rendition “was a happy accident” that emerged from an impromptu backstage jam between him and his solo band.
Wolf has lined up a series of solo U.S. tour dates in support of A Cure for Loneliness, beginning with an April 29 show in Hartford, Connecticut, and spanning through an August 20 gig in Lowell, Massachusetts.
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