A Cure for Loneliness

If you’ve been praying for Peter Wolf to drop a bluegrass remake of his J. Geils Band classic “Love Stinks” – congratulations. The man heard you. It’s just one of the welcome surprises on the Woofa Goofa’s superbly rugged new solo album, rambling through various strains of roots music, yet infusing it all with his own lanky-boned rock & roll spirit. “It’s Raining” is an R&B ballad he co-wrote with the late Don Covay. The unlikely highlight: Wolf’s rendition of the vintage Moe Bandy honky-tonk heartbreak lament “It Was Always So Easy To Find An Unhappy Woman” (“till I started looking for mine”), hitting right in the sweet spot where Nashville meets the Bronx.