PORTSMOUTH, NH – A lot of music fans know about Peter Wolf as the energetic, wild and charismatic frontman for The J. Geils Band, which originated on the campus of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Mass., during the late ‘60s. He’s sung on various hits including “Give It To Me,” “Make Up Your Mind,” “Must of Got Lost,” “Love Stinks,” “Centerfold,” and “Freeze-Frame,” among others. With this amount of success, there’s also a lot of stories, and they’re detailed in a memoir he put out around a year ago titled “Waiting on the Moon: Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters, and Goddesses.” Following the release of the book, Wolf is back on the road and he’s making a sold-out stop at The Music Hall in Portsmouth on February 19. The show starts at 7 p.m., and he’ll be joined by his backing band, The Midnight Travelers, consisting of both Duke Levine and Kevin Barry on guitar, Tom West on the keys, Marty Ballou on bass and Mark Texieira on drums.
Wolf and I had a talk ahead of the performance about the making of his latest book, how playing with his current band is akin to being on stage with an ensemble of talented actors, and plans for a new album.
Rob Duguay: “Waiting on the Moon: Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters, and Goddesses” is a very in-depth look at your life from your perspective of growing up in The Bronx, going to school in Boston, sharing an apartment with David Lynch, joining The J. Geils Band and rubbing shoulders with the likes of Sly Stone, Alfred Hitchcock and Van Morrison among others. What initially sparked the idea for you to write this book?
Peter Wolf: I would sort of tell stories in the dressing rooms backstage and people always said I should write a book, and I saw a lot of musicians writing books. Many of them sort of had the same formula, and I wanted to write a book that was a bit different, so basically, I wrote vignettes of encounters I had with people I admired, were honored to meet, or privileged to meet. I tried to make each chapter its own short story, and once I made a list of some of the people and adventures I had, I started to have an actual beginning, middle and an end. I just started writing and I was about to make a record, which I have pretty much finished, and with the aspect of releasing that, I was speaking to many of my peers and they were complaining about a record that no one knows is out, it’s in the either, or there’s no “there, there”, there’s no record stores and there’s no real major radio stations.
I figured that books have a certain visibility, so I thought rather than releasing a recording, maybe it would be time to sit down, write the book, and put it out as my next project.
RD: Over the process of writing the book, did it change your perspective at all on certain life events you experienced while you were examining them in a reflective sense?
PW: No, it didn’t because I was basically recounting the experiences I had, and those experiences obviously affected my life, but in writing about them, it didn’t really change anything.
RD: Alright, I get that. This upcoming show at The Music Hall has you playing with The Midnight Travelers, and from my knowledge, they were part of your most recent album “A Cure For Loneliness” that came out in 2016, correct?
PW: Yes, we have a whole string of dates and I’m very glad to say that the entire tour has been sold out.
RD: That’s fantastic. When it comes to this particular band you’ve been leading for roughly a decade now, what does it do for you as an artist at this stage in your career? In terms of creative fulfillment, what makes The Midnight Travelers stand out from other projects you’ve been a part of?
PW: The band is a great collection of artists, and collaborating and making music with great artists is like being in a film or a theater play while being surrounded by great actors. It just keeps the bar high, so it makes it very enriching for me every night to get up on stage knowing that I have top shelf A-list musicians working with me.
RD: As a collaborator, you’ve worked with the likes of Mick Jagger, Aretha Franklin, Neko Case, and Merle Haggard among a lot of others. When it comes to these types of experiences where you’re not leading a band and you’re directly working with someone else in a creative capacity, what would you say is your favorite memory? Who is your most favorite artist you’ve ever gotten to work with?
PW: I hate to use this cliche, but in the book, I do try to describe some of my experiences with Mick Jagger, working with Mick, or Aretha Franklin especially. Each one had such a different personality, each experience was so different, and they were all artists that I admired and was honored to take part in some kind of project with them. What’s also interesting is you learn about things they technically do or warm-ups that they might do, and you get a chance to really go out and have dinner and learn about their lives. I remember with the great blues player Little Milton, I met him in Nashville and we drove all the way to Muscle Shoals[, Alabama] together. In the car, he told me his history and it was fascinating.
The way he learned guitar, how he started with Sam Phillips at Sun Records and played behind Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson and all of these blues greats. You get to know a person a little deeper when you’re working with them.
RD: That’s awesome, it’s cool that you’ve had these experiences and such a vivid perspective from them. You mentioned earlier that you have a new album in the works, so what’s the status of it? Is that release going to be your main objective after this tour with The Midnight Travelers?
PW: Well, it’s with the same players that I’ve been working with for my last bunch of recordings. Kenny White has been helping me with the production, and in my opinion, I don’t want to blow my trumpet, but I think it has a collection of really unique songs and that’s really what a record is all about. There’s a whole bunch of new material that we’re looking forward to presenting on stage.