Peter Wolf

After leaving the seminal white-R&B party group the J. Geils Band, at the very height of their hard-won popularity, vocalist Peter Wolf released his first solo album, Lights Out, in 1984. It was a promisingly eclectic and electric outing, with Boston hip-hop maven Michael Jonzun (head of the Jonzun Crew) overseeing a rangy program that showcased the blues-belting rocker in a flattering contemporary light. However, Wolf seemed to lose his manic spark thereafter, recording only one more album (the so-so Come As You Are) in the '80s -- another veteran rocker stranded by the new wave.

The '90s began promisingly for Wolf with Up to No Good, which recaptured some of the manic intensity and irreverence of his R&B-fueled work with J. Geils. But although that and subsequent albums were all solid, fan-pleasing efforts, they emerged sporadically (six years passed between Up to No Good and Long Line) while Wolf played major-label roulette, mak-ing it difficult for him to recover any career traction. Happily, he landed on Artemis in the new millennium, where he released a late-career masterpiece, Sleepless. Members of Bob Dylan's band provided sympathetic backup on this spare, reflective album of old-school R&B, blues, country, and reggae. (PARKE PUTERBAUGH)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide