彼得•沃夫：寂寞良方 (CD)

彼得•沃夫是1970年代美國紅極一時J. Geils Band的主唱，他唱歌也吹口琴，有時他也像是民謠搖滾大師巴布•狄倫那樣最於時事也藉由音樂批評一番。他的音樂特色以鄉村風的搖滾，結合一點節奏藍調， 有時候也會說唱式的演出，讓人聽音樂之餘，也有一種欣賞脫口秀的趣味。他是女星費•唐娜薇的前夫，1984年自己單飛後，與最受歡迎作詞家Will Jennings合作寫下不少經典歌曲。

  繼2010年上一張專輯「Midnight Souvenirs」，獲得美國流行排行專輯第45名成績後，累積五年多的能量，再與作詞家Will Jennings合作四首歌曲，完成最新的這張「寂寞良方」專輯。

  《Fun For A While》在輕盈的節奏中訴說著生活中總有一些樂趣，足以填補空虛的心靈。《Some Other Time，Some Other Place》與《How Do You Know》是他與Will Jennings兩人的傑作，前者有鄉村風的小提琴間奏，順暢巧妙；後者則有一種都市流浪者心情，輕快的節拍譜出都會人們若即若離的生活型態。《Tragedy》也是一首適合獨自欣賞的夜歌，美妙的旋律相當耐人尋味。整張專輯以略為復古的老式曲風貫穿全局，老樂迷一定喜歡。新的樂迷則適合以嘗新的心情來瞭解資深藝人的社會觀察力。

In a musical career spanning half a century, Peter Wolf has earned a reputation as one of rock'n' roll's most compelling performers, while consistently making distinctive, personally charged music that demonstrates his mastery of a bottomless well of American musical styles.

Wolf continues his musical journey with A Cure for Loneliness, his eighth solo release and his Concord debut. The 12-song album ranks with the artist's most adventurous and accomplished work, showcasing his irrepressible charisma while encompassing his effortless affinity for country, blues, R&B and rock'n' roll.

A Cure for Loneliness includes nine new Wolf originals, four of them co-written with Grammy/Academy Award-winning songwriter Will Jennings.  The material ranges from the loose-limbed gospel boogie of "How Do You" to the rousing rock of "Wasting Time" to the acoustic reverie of "Some Other Time, Some Other Place" to the swinging big-band swagger of "Mr. Mistake" to the introspective balladry of "Peace of Mind" and "Fun For A While."

Other highlights are an audacious bluegrass reworking of the classic J. Geils anthem "Love Stinks," and the stirring soul ballad "It's Raining," which Wolf co-wrote with R&B pioneer Don Covay. Wolf had originally intended to record the song as a duet with soul legend Bobby Womack, but received the news of Womack's death while he was working on the song's instrumental track.

A Cure for Loneliness also features a trio of obscure covers that reflects Wolf's wide-ranging musical interests: the honky-tonk lament "It Was Always So Easy (To Find An Unhappy Woman)," the country heartbreaker "Stranger," and the haunting 50's ballad "Tragedy."

A Cure for Loneliness' thematic centerpiece is its opening track "Rolling On," a spare yet insistent statement of purpose that underlines Wolf's stature as a world-class rock'n' roll survivor.

"It's a song about getting through life and trying to prevail, and that's what the whole record is about," Wolf states.  "It's basically saying'I'm still here.'  Change is constant, but it's not necessarily negative, so you just have to keep rolling on."

Wolf recorded A Cure for Loneliness with a prestigious group of musicians that includes several longtime collaborators such as, keyboardist Kenny White, who co-produced the album with Wolf, and the members of his touring band, the Midnight Travelers: guitarists Duke Levine and Kevin Barry, bassist Marty Ballou, drummers Tom Arey and Shawn Pelton.

"I try to work with musicians where there's compatibility in personalities and musical vision," Wolf notes.  "What's nice is the camaraderie that you develop when you're collaborating with the same group of people over a long period of time.  And it's exciting to see what comes together when you're working with artists of enormous talents. I always go in prepared, but you never really know how things are going to work out.  Maybe a song that you expected to be a ballad becomes an uptempo song in rehearsal, or vice versa, and that's where the value and excitement of collaboration comes in.

"The technology has changed over the years, but I come out of the era where albums had a beginning, a middle and an end, and I still feel like it's my obligation to the art form that an album should have a certain flow to it, and that's still the formula I guide myself by.  Does it feel complete?  Does it have enough variety?"

A Cure for Loneliness achieves an expansive flow by combining studio recordings along with several live performances that capture the humor and spontaneity for which Wolf is renowned.  "Performing in front of an audience is one of the things I enjoy most, and it's a different energy from the energy that comes out in the studio. So mixing studio and live tracks is like using different lighting for different scenes in a film."

"I see this album as a continuation of a body of work that I've been creating for a long, long time," Wolf concludes. "Each album is a challenge and every one of them has been a learning experience.  I think that they've become more personal and revealing as I've continued. I still feel the way I felt when I started out decades ago, I'm just trying to prevail and continue to grow as an artist… and to keep rolling on with music as a cure for loneliness."