Peter Holsapple

Information

Pop Mutations presents:
Peter Holsapple

• Special Guests
  Thursday 11th June
  The Old Hairdresser's
  18+

Peter Holsapple has recorded an extraordinary new solo album he’s calling The Face of 68. It reflects on age, humor and hurt, with his usual high-quality wordplay and legendary gifts for melody and harmony. For longtime fans and newcomers alike, Peter’s record is an enduring testament to his striking abilities as musician and songwriter. Don Dixon (R.E.M., Smithereens) produced it in Peter’s hometown of Durham NC, and the rhythm section was Rob Ladd (Connells, Don Henley) on drums and Robert Sledge (Ben Folds
Five) on electric bass. Grammy®-nominated engineer Jason Richmond was at the console for the four-day session, with Dixon mixing at his home studio in Canton, Ohio.
There are guest turns from Marti Jones, who was the first artist to cover Peter’s songs on her debut album (Unsophisticated Time on A&M) and from Mark Simonsen, who co-produced
Peter’s single “Don’t Mention the War” in 2017.

But mostly it’s about Peter Holsapple: his stunning songs, his strong vocals and his newly- rediscovered love of lead guitar that came about when he was drafted by crafty pop intellectuals

The Paranoid Style to play on their most recent album, The Interrogator (Bar/None), in 2023. “I’ve been at this for a long time,” Peter admits. “I picked up my mom’s guitar after seeing the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, just like hundreds at that time. It stuck, and I began singing and playing in bands right after that. My first recording session was in 1972, with Chris Stamey and Mitch Easter (Let’s Active, R.E.M. producer) in the band. I moved to New York six years later and joined forces with Chris’ band, The dB’s. We cut several albums and toured the US and England. Then I moved to Los Angeles and joined Continental Drifters. That band also cut some records, toured Germany and the US and moved to New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina, I found my way back to North Carolina and my roots there. My home studio, The Hit Shed, has offered me the workspace to create endlessly, and The Face of 68 is the proof in the pudding, as it were.”
“Larger Than Life,” which was written after the death of Continental Drifters’ founder Carlo Nuccio, allowed Peter to grieve in his most comfortable manner. “Carlo was an inspiration who made me work harder and stay at the top of my game,” Peter reflects. “I miss him so much every day, his presence and ineffable energy. I have so many questions for him on the other side that I may never get answers for.”
“And from time to time Please send us a sign:
Is it all by design, or just
Larger than life?”
Then there’s the observational “That Kind of Guy” which takes on the record collector whom we
all know. “I met a guy once who bragged that he’d never open his copy of the I Fought the Law
album by the Bobby Fuller Four. All I could think was ‘you’re sure gonna miss some great songs,
then.’”
“I got ‘In the Street,’
I got ‘Down on the Street,
I got the complete ‘Down on the Street’ reliquary...”
And the album features one of Peter’s sweetest love songs, “She and Me,” which was written for
his wife, “my hero.”
“And she,
She probably thinks I’m pretty great
Even though I’m punching well above my weight,

So we’re just gonna wait and see.
“We,
We keep it interesting, I must admit:
Never dreamed we’d find the perfect fit
That we found in she and me.”
Overall, it’s a fine way to see his way to a future of rock and roll, love and the inevitable loss
over time.
The Face of 68 is Peter Holsapple, facing forward with electric guitar in hand, and looking
enthusiastically at what’s to come.