Peter Wolf has seemingly had it all. He’s topped the charts and headlined arenas as the singer with the J. Geils Band, and is in the midst of a long-running solo career that recently saw the release of his eighth studio album, “A Cure for Loneliness” (Concord). But he still sees his life as one long apprenticeship. He got into music to hang out with and learn from the musicians and singers he admired, and he’s still getting his wish.
“I got to work with Muddy (Waters), John Lee (Hooker), Aretha (Franklin), Merle (Haggard), Neko Case, Shelby Lynne, Little Milton, Van (Morrison), Bruce (Springsteen) on stage — that’s the payday,” Wolf says. “A Cure for Loneliness” demonstrates how much he’s learned. It fuses Cajun accordion, country pedal steel, doo-wop harmonies, soul grit and rock toughness with the ease of an artist who has been conversing with those idioms for decades. And its title speaks to the role music and art have always played in his life.
Wolf grew up in the Bronx, N.Y., during the ’50s as a budding visual artist. His father was a classical musician who took him to see Louis Armstrong and many of the jazz greats. Wolf also got a firsthand look at some of rock ‘n’ roll’s founders, from Buddy Holly to Fats Domino, in their primes on stage, and tuned into late-night radio from around the country to hear gospel, doo-wop, bluegrass and blues. All those strains of music have been part of his vocabulary since boyhood. His transformation from a rock ‘n’ roll fan into a performer seemed predestined.
“I was going to art school in Boston, and there was a group of art students performing at this loft party,” he says. “We had one too many and one of the guys forgot the words to a song they were playing, so I got up and started singing. The response was so immediate. Painting was totally solitary — you’re losing it because you don’t know if you’re getting it right or wrong. In music, you don’t have to wait around for a reaction. The audience tells you right away. The discipline of doing your part is like being an actor in play, and I found it exciting.”