Peter Holsapple

One of the central presences in North Carolina’s jangle-pop and new-wave circles, Peter Holsapple is most widely recognized for serving as lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter of the dB’s. He has also recorded and performed with numerous other artists, functioned as a touring and studio sideman for R.E.M. and Hootie & the Blowfish, and belonged to the roots-rock supergroup the Continental Drifters. Compared with many contemporaries on the jangle-pop circuit, Holsapple writes dependably catchy material; his singing and guitar playing integrate smoothly with the melodic core yet supply sufficient bite to temper the inherent sweetness. Far more active as a collaborator than as a frontman, he has released only two solo albums: the understated 1997 set Out of My Way and the engaging 2018 album Game Day. The largely acoustic 1991 project Mavericks, recorded with Chris Stamey, stands among the strongest entries in either artist’s discography.

Born in Greenwich, Connecticut, on February 19, 1956, Holsapple relocated with his family to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, at age six. He took up the guitar at eight and, in 1970, entered Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, where he befriended future Tom Petty keyboardist Benmont Tench through a shared admiration for Mott the Hoople. Returning to North Carolina in 1972, Holsapple formed Rittenhouse Square alongside longtime associate Chris Stamey and local guitarist Mitch Easter; the band issued a six-song EP that Holsapple later characterized as the work of “a bunch of kids that listened to good records and were trying to make a good record, too.” After the group disbanded, Holsapple and school friend Will Rigby started the proto-punk outfit Little Diesel, whose album—recorded by Stamey—was pressed locally on eight-track tape and reissued in 2006 by Telstar Records in updated formats.

While attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Holsapple hoped Little Diesel would persist, yet with no other members gaining admission he turned to separate projects and recorded the EP Big Black Truck with Peter Holsapple & the H-Bombs. Issued on Car Records—the same independent label that had released a Sneakers single featuring Chris Stamey, Mitch Easter, and Will Rigby—the EP coincided with Stamey and Rigby’s decision to relocate to New York. At the time Holsapple was in Memphis working with Big Star associate Richard Rosebrough; he accepted the invitation to join the new ensemble, which became the dB’s. Their intelligent, melodic yet idiosyncratic songs earned critical favor and a devoted following, though commercial momentum proved elusive: the first two albums, 1981’s The dB’s and 1982’s Repercussion, appeared only in the U.K., while 1984’s Like This—cut after Stamey’s departure—disappeared once Bearsville Records lost its Warner Bros. distribution deal and owner Albert Grossman died. Legal disputes halted recording for two years; although 1987’s The Sound of Music received positive notices, the band dissolved in 1988.

Following the split, Holsapple participated in numerous endeavors, including occasional appearances with Eric “Roscoe” Ambel’s Roscoe’s Gang on their debut album and session contributions for Syd Straw, Ben Vaughn, and the Indigo Girls. He produced and performed on Chris Stamey’s 1991 solo release Fireworks, then reunited with Stamey that same year for the duo album Mavericks. Invited to augment R.E.M. on the Green tour, he also played guitar, bass, and accordion on Out of Time and joined the band for MTV Unplugged. In the early 1990s he joined the Continental Drifters—an alternative-country collective that included Vicki Peterson of the Bangles, Mark Walton of the Dream Syndicate, and Susan Cowsill (whom Holsapple married in 1992; they divorced in 2001). The group issued four well-regarded albums between 1994 and 2003; during this period Holsapple settled in New Orleans, Louisiana. Between Continental Drifters commitments he added guitar and keyboards on tour with Hootie & the Blowfish and contributed to Fairweather Johnson and Musical Chairs. In 1997 he issued the low-key solo album Out of My Way.

Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, Holsapple continued session work with artists ranging from the Kennedys and NRBQ to the reunited Bangles. After relocating back to North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the dB’s reconvened for live dates in 2005 and began preparing a reunion album; they also recorded an internet-only benefit single of “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted.” Holsapple and Chris Stamey issued a second duo album, 2009’s Here and Now, which included a new dB’s composition, while the Continental Drifters reassembled for performances at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival that year. The dB’s completed their reunion record, Falling Off the Sky, in 2012—the first release in three decades to feature the original lineup. Holsapple resumed his solo career with the 2017 single “Don’t Mention the War”/“Cinderella Style” on his Hawthorne Curve label, followed by the largely self-performed full-length Game Day in 2018. Several months later Omnivore issued The Death of Rock, a collection of previously unreleased 1978 recordings by Holsapple and Alex Chilton. In 2021 he rejoined Chris Stamey for Our Back Pages, presenting fresh interpretations of material from their shared catalog.