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Showing posts from April, 2016

R.E.M. Mountain Stage 25th Anniversary

(L-R, Stipe, Berry, Mills, Buck--and Holsapple, just out of the frame, of course) It was brought to my attention by the esteemed Adam Harris that it was 25 years ago today that R.E.M. performed on Mountain Stage in Charleston, West Virginia. We played in front of a live audience for the radio broadcast, but we played a lot longer, and it got really fun. We had our friends Billy Bragg , Robyn Hitchcock , and Clive Gregson & Christine Collister with us as well. If you weren't there, and many were not, here's a link to the show in its entirety best as I can reckon...and if you can patiently scroll through to 1:12:27, you'll hear me and the lads kicking out a healthy version of "White Train," something I'd forgotten entirely that we did. And here it is on video at about 21:05. Set 1   01. World Leader Pretend  02. Radio Song  03. Fall On Me  04. It's the End of the World As We Know It  05. Half a World Away  06. Belong  07. Love Is All Around 

Chicago - quick question

A question to my Chicago area friends -- would you come to a house concert of mine in early July, around the time of the FitzGeralds festival? Just putting the proverbial bug in your ear...

Old tapes

I feel like Winthrop Paroo today, although it's for USPS that I await and not the Wells Fargo wagon. In a search for old dB's master tapes, I was informed by Mark Bingham that he had a stack of old 1/4" reels that belonged to me. Mark is a brilliant musician and producer whom I got to know during the recording of Out of Time by R.E.M., and he was the proprietor of the now-shuttered Piety Street Recording Studio (where the likes of Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint did The River in Reverse , among hundreds of other notable clients). Prior to Hurricane Katrina, I had delivered a bunch of recording tape to him for baking and transfer--old recording tape sheds its oxide, where the information lies, as it ages, and baking in a convection oven preserves the oxide long enough to make a digital transfer, which should be done fairly immediately. While Mark's staff had not performed these operations, they did provide a safe storage area for the tapes during Katrina,

Good rockin' last night

(photo by Debbie Dillon) Had a swell time at Heyday Guitars for my solo show in Winston-Salem last night. It was a comfortable room, and it was probably the best place to be if I broke a string, which I did not do. I played both sides of the single plus other new songs. I played a few Winston-Salem-centric numbers, including my tribute to the late Sam Moss and a really old song about the Robert Porth house . The PA was a great size and got me over the low din of my twin Fender Pro Juniors enough to where I could lean back and let 'er rip on some of my vocals. Among my audience were Troy "Corky" Mcmillan and Chuck Dale Smith who were members of Winston-Salem's legendary band Sacred Irony . That was one of the bands that inspired me to really concentrate on being a rock musician because they'd done that and sounded great, but were only a year or two older than me. So it was a real treat to play for them. Rob Slater, who was the original lead guitarist for S

Saturday's show - another reminder!

Yo, Twin City friends, Saturday night is my 'house concert' show at Heyday Guitars at 414 Brookstown Avenue in Winston-Salem. You'll have to follow the link here to buy advance tickets because there will be no walk-up tickets available. Hope to see you there!

Getting close...and a show!

This morning, Mark, James (seen right) and I went into James' studio around the corner from my house and set to work making some changes in the last mixes of the single. James has been out on tour with the supremely talented Phil Cook who's supporting his new album, Southland Mission , and he's about to leave again for another three weeks. Mark is also busy busy busy with teaching and shows with what seems like a dozen different bands. So we were lucky to snag a day together while they were around to get everything in order. And... it is! The mixes we've come up with have a ton of melody and harmony and passing chords and drama and space and pathos and all that good stuff you've come to expect from Peter Holsapple songs. I hope you like them, but that goes without saying, doesn't it? We'll live with these mixes for a couple of days, tweak whatever we need to and then send them off to be mastered. Then it's cover art and pressing and we're