There’s nothing quite like chatting with Philip Wolf . An energetic storyteller who puts as much time into being a fan of music as he does creating it. And that’s not always the case. Some musicians look in their art as merely a job. But, for Peter, music is a lifelong passion that he feels fortunate to get in order to explore and share with his bandmates plus audiences around the world.
Peter Wolf and The Midnight Travelers will make an appearance at The Music Corridor in Portsmouth Saturday, Oct. 15. They’ll use the stage on this particular evening to revisit tunes from Wolf’s extensive repertoire, through his solo work to classic J. Geils Band numbers, tipping the cap to the old before putting out a new record in the near future and touring on new material.
Seacoastonline caught up with Wolf in order to trace some roots, check in on what’s been cooking, the merits of exploring local report shops, and what excites him about becoming back on the road. We’ve spared you the particular 6, 000 words of two avid record collectors going back plus forth and nerding out over crate-digging scores. You’re welcome.
Seacoastonline: Have you gathered any further appreciation for getting the opportunity to share songs to an audience following the forced layoff we all recently experienced during the pandemic?
Wolf: Oh, definitely. I mean I always had the particular appreciation as this has always been something I’ve enjoyed doing, but during the pandemic, I had the chance to step back and listen to a lot of music. A lot of reading. Caught up on a lot of things. But I really enjoyed returning through my record collection and doing some serious listening again.
Seacoastonline: Old points, new items, or a combination of both?
Wolf : A little bit associated with both, but revisiting was definitely the bulk of the experience. Things like Muddy Waters, Hank Williams, early doo-wop stuff, Carl Perkins … a lot associated with stuff that has always inspired me. Chuck Berry, of course. But there has been a lot of newer things, too. Bowie’s last records … a whole assortment.
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Seacoastonline: Funny you should mention Mr. Berry. There’s a bunch of photos associated with you from 2012 along with Chuck Fruit, Leonard Cohen, Keith Richards, etc. at the JFK Library. My 10-year-old kid is currently obsessed with Chuck Berry. Like, it’s the only thing this individual listens in order to. You have any fun stories? What was he like?
Wolf: Get rid of Berry had been very much the hero of mine when I was 10 years old. Throw Berry plus Little Richard. We played a great deal along with Chuck. He was usually very nice to us. People have tales of Chuck being cold and distant, but he was constantly extremely nice to us. We backed him upward, The Geils Band. He enjoyed us. We shared a lot of similar musical passions. Charles Brown, Nat King Cole, and of course, Little Walter, the great harmonica player he had a fondness with regard to. And because the particular Geils Music group had Magic Dick playing harmonica, Get rid of kinda respected what we were trying to do, which was pay homage to the music that he loved, and all of us loved.
Seacoastonline : OK, it’s been six many years since your final record, “A Cure regarding Loneliness” came out. Is there anything in the works, or is that will it? You cracked the particular code intended for loneliness. I am talking about, I guess that’s because good a place as any kind of to stop, yet, yeah, what’re you working on?
Wolf: Working upon a brand new record that is about 85% done. We’re just waiting on some finishing touches. So, I’ve already been working on that, and I have also been putting together a few memoirs associated with working with — since a fan — artists I admire; Chuck being one of them. People like Sly Stone, Dylan, Van Morrison … It’s something I’m deeply in the middle of. Hopefully, sometime next year they’ll come to light.
Seacoastonline : You’ve led the wild existence and have so many great stories to share. Let’s talk about the artwork of collaboration and how getting to work alongside several of your peers and perhaps heroes might inform your own approach in order to your own songs, or to life in general. Who and what are some highlights? Aretha Franklin comes to mind, Merle Haggard, the list is vast.
Hair: I love to collaborate. I do my best work in cooperation. I also paint and write, which are more solitary activities, but with music, with actively playing in a room along with a lot of people, everyone gets to put their two cents in. I like that. With songwriting, a person don’t get as distracted. I’m more disciplined whenever I’m working with another writer because you get an immediate reaction from them, from someone you respect the opinion of. It is the preferred way for me.
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Seacoastonline: Love the lineage of exactly how you added “Wolf” to your name. I’ve read in a couple of different interviews you’ve carried out over the years that will Howlin’ Wolf is the “fascinating individual, ” yet nobody ever seems to follow up with a “why? ” I’d love to learn more regarding your collective experience with the particular original Wolf.
Wolf: Well, first associated with all, the immediate point of fascination is, of course , the songs. Just to hear him taking the essence of Charlie Patton and Son House — earlier bluesmen —and creating his own soundscape through that. The particular voice. The images he or she sings about. The character of the voice…. He was a complicated man. His influences plus traveling within Chicago, his experiences in the Army, the relationship together with his band; as an individual he has been very bright and very complex. As is Throw Berry. There were many different sides in order to Howlin’ Hair. I was able to be around him and feel fortunate for that, but I wasn’t as close to your pet as I was to Muddy Waters or James Cotton, Junior Wells — other blues musicians from the South Chicago scene. I was a great fan, and still is, of Howlin’ Wolf.
Seacoastonline: Last time I saw you has been on accident. You, Marty Ballou plus Duke Levine were playing at Dyno Records on Record Store Day back in 2018. Talk about being within the right place in the right time. Do you remember that moment? How many hours have you spent in record stores throughout your life? What’s their significance historically and, well, in these contemporary times when songs is a lot more of an “on demand” commodity.
Wolf: Whoa. That’s an action-packed question. I guess this is as good a time as any in order to mention that the guy who played prior to us that day, a fella by the name associated with Bobby Keyes, is inside my band that will be along with me about this run. He’s an amazing guitar player. It was sort of serendipity that we were all playing on the same afternoon. I remember it quite well.
I always spent time in report stores. I worked in record shops. Record stores were kind of the main headquarters. And when I was growing up, there were things within records stores called hearing booths. So , you could try away what has been new, and if this appealed to you, you would buy it. That was the great treat. Sometimes I’d spend hours in those booths listening to records. Record stores were my big archive of, dare We say, wonderment. That’s where I discovered so many things that will I’ve cherished all my existence. Not getting on-demand required more of a search of getting music into your personal domain, shall we all say. That in itself added to the particular intrinsic value of whatever you wound up walking out there with.
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Yet on the other hand, while talking to somebody, about say, someone want Howlin’ Hair or Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and be able to bring up the particular song you’re talking about on the spot . There’s something to end up being said regarding that being a great resource. So, there’s positives plus negatives to the way music is getting presented today. I sort of miss the old school way of discovery.
I am not going to get into it, but in the audio file sense, when you compress some thing into a good MP3, you’re not getting all the information. It’s, towards the ear, like a Reader’s Digest summary of what you might be listening in order to. It’s tricking the brain that what you are hearing is whole. That is, naturally , until a person put it on the turntable — a real system — and, um, to get me, I’m much more emotionally involved when that will needle hits the wax and falls into the grooves.
Seacoastonline: Perform you actually think about rekindling your days as a disc jockey? Or do you prefer to share your enthusiasm for other folks’ tunes from the particular stage (along with your own songs, of course)?
Wolf : Yeah, you know, through the stage we do a bunch associated with covers. Music that has inspired me over the yrs. Music I’d be taking part in on our show if I still had one. Being able to shed new light on some of those tracks from the stage? That will satisfies me personally.
Seacoastonline : In general, why do you seek music? Why do you create this? What keeps you chasing this thing?
Wolf: Well, my dad was a musician. He was a singer. When this individual was 14, he left home plus joined the Schubert Theatre and traveled around the country. Always playing music. I actually come from the very musical family. Everyone was musical :. except myself. I didn’t have the particular talent that they had to play piano or guitar. But it was often around me. It became an important attraction to me. I became moved by it, motivated because of it, and as We started hearing radio, that was very important in those days … Radio had been the way of discovering all sorts of great performers. I’d stay up late listening to country music on AM stations, jazz stations, rock and roll most of the time. Songs always moved me plus the moods that songs played was an essential part pertaining to me. When I was studying painting, music was on inside the background. Always. It stayed with me. As I said earlier, whenever I started moving from painting into music, I found that operating and playing with a bunch of music artists to study, break down, and figure out songs was endlessly fascinating. Playing with an ensemble of top-shelf players always maintains it exciting for me personally.
Seacoastonline: Alright, you’re actively playing The Music Area here in Portsmouth on April. fifteen. What excites you about the gig? What can fans expect when they arrive out to see you play this period around?
Hair : Well, I’ve got a request list out there, so we’ll pick things from my solo albums, my favorite Geils’ tunes, and mix in requests that individuals want to listen to. The next time we tour we will have the new record out there, so this is type of such as saying goodbye and revisiting some associated with the older material be it my own, or the Geils. A last celebration of that stuff before all of us move on in order to the next chapter. Looking forward to obtaining out there on the highways plus byways!
For more information upon The Music Hall show on Saturday, Oct. 15 at 8 p. m., check out themusichall. org and peterwolf. com .