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Peter Holsapple

photo by Bill Reaves

Meet Peter Holsapple. You probably already know him, but if you don’t, it’s time to change that with his new album The Face of 68 on Label 51 Recordings.

You may know him from The dB’s or Continental Drifters, two bands he co-helmed over the course of influential albums like Stands for deciBels and Vermilion. Or his duo records with Chris Stamey like Mavericks. You may know him from his work on the road and in the studio with R.E.M. and Hootie. Or via artists like Marti Jones, the Golden Palominos, the Troggs and Claire Lynch, who have all covered his songs.

This is different, though: The Face of 68 is a fresh new sound for Peter. With a couple of years playing lead guitar with The Paranoid Style under his belt, he’s renewed his rock roots. The Face of 68 is a high performance album that accentuates Holsapple’s stylish guitar work alongside the established excellence of his songwriting.

Biography

PETER HOLSAPPLE

THE FACE OF 68

4/18/25 release date

Meet Peter Holsapple. You probably already know him, but if you don’t, it’s time to change that with his new album The Face of 68 on Label 51 Recordings.

You may know him from The dB’s or Continental Drifters, two bands he co-helmed over the course of influential albums like Stands for deciBels and Vermilion. Or his duo records with Chris Stamey like Mavericks. You may know him from his work on the road and in the studio with R.E.M. and Hootie. Or via artists like Marti Jones, the Golden Palominos, the Troggs and Claire Lynch, who have all covered his songs.

This is different, though: The Face of 68 is a fresh new sound for Peter. With a couple of years playing lead guitar with The Paranoid Style under his belt, he’s renewed his rock roots. The Face of 68 is a high performance album that accentuates Holsapple’s stylish guitar work alongside the established excellence of his songwriting.

  • The solid muscular groove of the leadoff track “Anytime Soon” bridges the gap between a classic Holsapple pop song and something more intense and harder rocking, with a wicked retro guitar sound.
  • Title track “The Face of 68” is the one recording that’s got Peter playing all the instruments. He’s brought an enthusiasm and engagement to the vocals on this bright birthday present to himself!
  • “Larger Than Life” is the first single/focus track from The Face of 68. It’s got a heavy ‘70s rock vibe not dissimilar to Mountain, and lyrics that were grief therapy for Holsapple after the death of Continental Drifters’ founding member Carlo Nuccio in 2022.
  • “My Idea #49” is a dystopian science project by Peter, powered by heavy guitars. (Not to be confused with “Funk 49” by esteemed midwestern rockers the James Gang.)
  • The spirit of the aforementioned Continental Drifters rises in the sound of “High High Horse” which features a soulful organ solo by Mark Simonsen (Old Ceremony).
  • Record collecting has a new national anthem. “That Kind of Guy” swings the story of someone you probably know if you are digging through crates yourself!
  • A true story of theft and retribution, “One for the Book” has Peter back on acoustic guitar with a classic West Coast folk-rock vibe.
  • “Fireflies” bridges progressive and punk with its searing lead guitar and mathematical arrangement.
  • Peter mourns another friend, the legendary Winston-Salem guitarist Sam Moss, in “So Sad About Sam.” Moss was a mentor to Peter and a generation of musicians in the Camel City, and this song encapsulates the grief an entire community felt in a succinct rock song.
  • If MTV still played pop rock videos, you could imagine “See About You” as a candidate with its late 70s pop vibe.
  • The album ends with “She and Me” which is more familiar songwriting territory for fans of Holsapple’s power-pop catalog. Nobody writes a love song like Peter Holsapple, and this one belongs among his finest.

Recording in the popular trio form like Cream and the Limelighters, Peter and his rhythm buddies Robert Sledge (Ben Folds Five) on bass and Rob Ladd (The Connells) on drums ran everything by producer Don Dixon (R.E.M., Smithereens) and through engineer Jason Richmond (Margaret Glaspy) in three and a half days.

Eleven new songs that drolly weave through laughter and grief, all the while underpinned by Peter Holsapple’s confident electric guitar and the strongest singing heard from him yet. It’s a strong and intense record by a veteran songwriter still stretching his wings.

Media contact:

Wendy Brynford-Jones

[email protected]

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Larger Than Life
by Peter Holsapple - The Face of 68 (2025)

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