Triangle music legend Peter Holsapple stopped by Live & Local this week, following the release of his latest solo album “The Face of 68.”
Click here to buy the album, from Label 51 Recordings.
“I’m really, really proud of it,” he says of the album, his first in seven years. “I think we did a great record, with a fantastic team.”
That team – with Arrogance’s Don Dixon producing, The Connells’ Rob Ladd on drums, Ben Folds Five’s Robert Sledge on bass, and Grammy nominee Jason Richmond engineering – recorded the entire album in four days (three and a half, to be exact) at Durham’s Overdub Lane studio. Those musicians have all had remarkable careers stretching for decades, but their sound is as fresh and rocking as ever – albeit with more worldly-wise themes of age and loss, held together by a lead single, “Larger Than Life,” that reflects on the death of Holsapple’s friend and bandmate.
“I wrote (Larger Than Life) after the death of the drummer for the Continental Drifters, Carlo Nuccio, who was a dear friend and probably the most inspirational musician I’ve ever worked with,” Holsapple says. “It was a huge loss – and I don’t grieve very well. I just write songs about it.… (But) when I finished writing it, I realized I could probably put an album together.”
Follow Peter Holsapple on Instagram.
The album’s title, “The Face of 68,” is also a reflection of those underlying threads. (Though it’s technically incorrect: Holsapple, who’s now 69, was only 67 during the recording session.) But in keeping with Holsapple’s complexity and humor, that title also has a double meaning.
“Back in 1968, the British press determined that one of the current young rock stars was going to be the ‘face of ’68,’” he says. “And that was Peter Frampton – he was a really beautiful young man, he wore fashionable clothes. We did actually try to reach out to Peter Frampton’s management to see if he might consider doing a guitar solo, (but) he’s been dealing with some physical issues and he’s also still touring a lot… I wish he’d been able to do it, but I got to do the Peter Frampton stunt lead-guitar on that song.”
Visit Peter Holsapple’s blog, “Does This Band Make Me Look Fat?”
Now that the album’s out, Holsapple is turning his attention back to performing – starting with an album-release show Friday, April 25, at Cat’s Cradle Back Room, with Florence Dore opening. (“That show is going to be great fun,” Holsapple says: “[most] of the songs will come from Face of 68, but my catalog goes back 50-plus years, so [we’ll] hit some career highlights as well.”) After that, you can catch Holsapple in Raleigh on Saturday, May 3: he’ll be doing a solo acoustic show at Schoolkids Records, beginning at 3:00 p.m.
Visit CatsCradle.com for tickets to Friday’s show.
Peter Holsapple stopped by Live & Local this week to discuss the new album as well as Friday’s show at Cat’s Cradle. He also played three songs live in the studio: “Larger Than Life,” “She and Me,” and “Swanhilda.” Listen:
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