Peter Wolf Brings A Cure For Loneliness To City Winery – September 8th, 2016 Also September 9th & tonight (September 10th)

Peter Wolf’s A Cure For Loneliness is one of my favorite albums of 2016 and he is the kind of performer who I want to see regardless of the circumstances so it was a no brainer to roll down to City Winery on Thursday. Wolf’s songwriting collaborators on the new album include Will Jennings whose resume includes teaming up with the like of Winwood, Clapton, and Orbison among many others and whose relationship with Wolf goes back to the nineties. Four of the twelve tracks were penned by Wolf/Jennings including my fave How Do You Know that the man revealed was given a, uh, shot of something extra somewhere in the birthing process by a bottle of Kentucky’s finest.

The disc also includes a gem written with Don Covay who co-wrote the title track to Wolf’s solo debut Lights Out and who passed away last year. The song, It’s Raining, is a tribute to both Covay and Bobby Womack who we lost in 2014. The plan was to have Womack play on it but that was not to be so the namecheck in the beginning was added. The man who co-wrote so many memorable J Geils Band songs, Seth Justman, also figures in the credits to A Cure For Loneliness as Love Stinks is re-imagined Appalachian style complete with mandolin played by Duke Levine.

Wolf emphasized the collaborative aspect of life as a musician and mentioned that the rewards of give & take between players were a major magnet that drew him to a life of rock n roll as opposed to a career as a painter. Fans may recall he moved to Boston from his New York City home as a young man to study painting and that he still picks up a brush. (Peter spoke about growing up in The Bronx and shared some of the remarkable experiences in his life when we spoke last summer.)  He is responsible for the artwork on the cover to his previous album, 2010’s Midnight Souvenirs…

By the way, the artwork from the English artist Grace O’Connor for the back cover and gatefold of A Cure For Loneliness is especially fab. He described the unit on the cover as the Woofa Goofa Mamma Toofa I-pod!

Those who have seen The J. Geils Band perform in concert know the kind of energy, power, and passion that they bring every time they congregate. With Magic Dick blowing sublime harp, DK (Dr Funk) Daniel Klein rumbling and tumbling on bass, Seth Justman barrelhousing on keys, and the incomparable Peter Wolf leading the charge – these guys are ridiculously loaded weapons. Wolf is a consummate frontman and I understand why that is now more than ever before after speaking with him before the show on the JGB tour bus parked outside the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom in Hampton, NH. I asked him about his formative experiences in New York City (and then in Boston after moving north to study painting) and what experiences! As a young man, he saw everybody and as soon enough he was hanging out with everybody. Throughout those days, he was evolving into a wildly charismatic entertainer that was more than ready to step onto the stage when his time came.

As a boy in Massachusetts, the J. Geils Band were the primary soundtrack to my growing up so it was as exciting as an interview opportunity gets for me and made extra special to have my dad’s brother Mike Holland with me – who turned me on to the their early records – teaching Woofa Goofa about physics while I set up my camera!

It’s been a long time since we’ve seen Bob Seger in NYC.  It’s been eight years since his last album and tour.  It’s been too long since The J. Geils Band worked their magic here as well so it was a twin-bill at Madison Square Garden not to be missed…

Links are to my reviews…

1 Massive Attack/Thievery Corporation/Nada Surf; Beacon Theater/Mercury Lounge
2 Grinderman; Best Buy Theater
3 New Orleans Jazzfest; Dr. John, Simon & Garfunkel, Terrence Blanchard, etc.
4 Corinne Bailey Rae; Terminal 5
5 Brendan Benson & The Posies; Highline Ballroom
6 Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
7 Buffalo Tom; Mercury Lounge
8 Specials; Terminal 5
9 Aerosmith/J.Geils Band; Fenway Park
(Peter Wolf Show at Highline was great too)
10 Lou Barlow; Mercury Lounge
11 Rodrigo y Gabriela; Radio City Music Hall
12 Villagers at Mercury Lounge