For his first correct solo album in seven years, Peter Holsapple reconvened with an outdated buddy: influential ’80s producer Don Dixon (R.E.M., Smithereens). And from the sounds of it, he’s additionally rekindled the identical ardour for lead guitar that knowledgeable his early days with longtime foil Chris Stamey within the dB’s, the last word cult band for followers of energy pop and Southern-tinged new wave.
Beginning within the late ’70s, the dB’s made a number of critically acclaimed, if commercially disappointing, albums, touring the U.S. and England. Holsapple later joined the Continental Drifters, a kind of pre-Americana supergroup that additionally included Mark Walton (Dream Syndicate), Susan Cowsill (Holsapple’s ex-wife) and Vicki Peterson (Bangles), amongst others.
Throughout that post-dB’s interval, Holsapple bounced round fairly a bit, shifting from North Carolina to New York to Los Angeles to New Orleans earlier than discovering his manner again to the place he began. The Face Of 68 (Label 51) was produced by Dixon in Holsapple’s house studio in Durham, with Rob Ladd (Connells) on drums and Robert Sledge (Ben Folds 5) on bass. Grammy nominee Jason Richmond engineered the four-day session, with Dixon taking all the pieces again to his house studio in Canton, Ohio, for mixing.
Holsapple works his manner by way of every monitor under.
—Hobart Rowland
1) “Anytime Quickly”
“Some songs come to me music first, some phrases first. That is the previous, and I needed to work the story rigorously round what I heard as a slippery association. The lyrics are an appraisal of one other misplaced love, with a slight peppering of candy recollections. You gotta dangle onto these days on the seashore in your reminiscence—or they’ll disappear utterly.”
2) “The Face Of 68”
“It’s the album’s title music, however like a pair different tunes herein, it had some totally different lyrics at one level. I lastly selected ‘The Face Of 68 and constructed it across the title. To paraphrase the Stooges: ‘Final 12 months, I used to be 68/Most of it was fairly nice/This 12 months, I turned 69/That’s OK, that’s simply positive.’ In 1968, the British pop press named Peter Frampton—along with his successful demeanor and traditional attractiveness—‘the face of ’68.’ It crossed my thoughts to get in contact with Peter’s administration to see if he’d think about enjoying the quick guitar solo in the midst of the music himself. After transient contact with them, we by no means heard again, so it’s me hitting the licks within the music. Peter’s a busy man—we completely perceive.”
3) “Bigger Than Life”
“I’ve a number of hassle processing demise. Within the case of this music, it’s about my buddy Carlo Nuccio, one of many founders of the Continental Drifters, who handed away in 2022. His demise tore a gap in his household and his New Orleans and international buddies. I wanted to write down it as a partial dialog with Carlo, that he tell us from the opposite facet that he’s OK and watching over us—and possibly impart a bit about what all of it means anyway.”
4) “My Thought #49”
“On my Music Memos app, it saves every entry as ‘My Thought # … no matter.’ This one occurred to be quantity 49. As soon as in a blue moon, you get impressed to write down a set of lyrics from a possible title, which was the case right here. I additionally like laundry lists. Dixon had Rob sit out within the ‘listing’ part, then return for a number of passes of that ramshackle stuff you hear on the combo. It was elegant.”
5) “Excessive, Excessive Horse”
“I used to be telling somebody not too long ago that I hope I’m writing a unique sort of music from those I wrote once I was 22. Expertise and loss will do this to you. This can be a have a look at the way it was for me—and the way it’s now. It’s a stability between the enthusiastic rock-boy flâneur and the late-middle-aged household man … after which going through that towards no matter future’s left. In any other case, it’s acquired a cool, considerably soulful Southern sound, and you’ll dance to it. This options the beautiful and proficient Mark Simonsen on organ, my longtime buddy and the co-producer of ‘Don’t Point out The Conflict’ a number of years in the past.”
6) “That Variety Of Man”
“He’s me, he’s you, he’s somebody everyone knows or knew. I’ve been on each side of the file counter since I used to be about 14, once I began working at Reznick’s Thruway in Winston-Salem. I realized, I absorbed, I learn each journal, I wrote, I performed, I sang. Largely, I listened. I understand how you change into that sort of man—and I nonetheless am. My thoughts is cluttered with issues just like the declension of the Mayall, Butterfield and Savoy Brown lineups by way of the early Nineteen Eighties, but I can scarcely bear in mind my very own cellphone quantity anymore.”
7) “One For The Ebook”
“The title got here from a comment I made to Continental Drifters biographer Sean Kelly as he neared the top of the enhancing course of for White Noise And Lightning: The Continental Drifters Story (2024). It’s a real story that occurred to the Drifters—one which was very twisted, with good intentions and dangerous drugs mixing as much as make for an insane episode with an sad ending. Within the stunning, peaceable world of that band nowadays, it appeared like an anomalous situation—and it didn’t make the lower.”
8) “Fireflies”
“I really like subtraction. Are you able to inform? Much less is greatest. This music kicked round for a number of years whereas I used to be engaged on the association. It had a fury of its personal within the studio, a tribute to the nice enjoying of Rob Ladd and Robert Sledge, with whom there’d been no rehearsal previous to coming into the doorways of Overdub Lane in Durham. Proof constructive that an ideal rhythm part will get you the place you wish to go in consolation and with pace. The lyrics are a fever dream of Louisiana someplace a few years in the past, earlier than waking to another person’s disconnected recollections of the identical factor.”
9) “See About You”
“Simply checking in on a buddy—it’s what buddies do. ‘Come See About Me’ by the Supremes was the apparent leaping off level for the lyrics. However I heard the phrase once more in a gospel music a few years later, and it caught with me.”
10) “So Unhappy About Sam”
“In Winston-Salem, one of many best guitarists of our technology was Sam Moss. I say ‘our’ technology, however he was really a number of years older than me. I consider him as our Mike Bloomfield—blues-immersed, however with jazz, nation and what-have-you blended in. He was a mentor and inspiration to many years’ value of musicians within the space. His guitar retailer (‘conveniently situated close to Sam’s home’) was a salon for pickers, and conversations ranged freely. When Sam took his personal life in 2007, the musicians who knew, cherished and admired him have been gutted. For me, the aid from grief is to write down a music (see ‘Bigger Than Life’). I hope it’s perceived by Sam’s buddies as a tribute.”
11) “She And Me”
“A love music to my spouse and doubtless probably the most power-poppy monitor on the entire file. I couldn’t have imagined making this album with out her help, assist and recommendations.”
