"Too Good for the Basement" Series (No. 2): One of the Great Rock Voices: Peter Wolf, "Nothin' But the Wheel" (2002)

[reposted and reworked; from early 2011]

Peter Wolf live at Wolftrap (2010)

____________________________________

This is one of the best crossover tracks by a great rock singer/songwriter giving us a modern country classic. Peter Wolf, former front man for The J. Geils Band -- here with another of the great rock vocalists and a first class team of studio musicians -- cutting the perfect road song for his 2002 solo album Sleepless.

One more a thing about "another of the great rock vocalists": Jagger may not have stuck around for more of the sessions for the Sleepless album than just to cut the harmonies for Nothin' but the Wheel, but Mick certainly left his influence all over Peter's vocals on the other album cuts I've heard for this record. But that the way it goes I guess, when your rollin' doing the interstate, looking for a back road to unwind.

And yes, the Highway 41 in Nothin' but the Wheel is the same road Dickie Betts was, in the song, 'born rollin' down -- "in the backseat of a Greyhound bus". And yes, I love this song more each time I hear it.

So give her a spin; eh, what do you have to lose?