Holsapple and Stamey on Superbowl Sunday

Photo by Roy Kasten

Photo by Roy Kasten

I can’t recall when I’ve been so entertained on Superbowl Sunday as I was this past Sunday. Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple were at Off Broadway and they made it easy to walk away from what was a pretty good football game. Anyway, the duo courteously delayed their show until the contest was decided.

No one will ever mistake Off Broadway for a sports bar with its single 12″ black and white TV set left over from around the Nixon administration – but no one expects it to be – it is expected to be a venue that continually brings in bands that are regularly played on our KDHX. In fact on any given day you just might hear from Peter or Chris. You might hear the legendary band they fronted back in the 80′s (The dB’s) or from their solo careers or maybe Peter with his most recent band The Continental Drifters, or it could be from the album they did as a duo. Oh and then there’s the long list of Chris Stamey’s production credits.

The twosome was in town for a house concert last Saturday night, an in house appearance at Euclid Records on Sunday afternoon and Off Broadway on Sunday night. It was apparent that this wasn’t just another stop of a long tour. There was no tour, just a few gigs in St. Louis and then back home to North Carolina. They were a little rough around the edges, but in a charming way that only added to the intimate setting with roughly 25 audience members who were able to converse easily with the performers between songs. Armed with just their acoustic guitars and a keyboard which Peter played for one song, they started off with more familiar songs from their Holsapple-Stamey “Mavericks” album. Peter Holsapple had to adjust his capo three times during their third song trying to find the correct key, but he was still able to add sublime harmonies which were on display all night. “Let’s try this one”, “I don’t really remember it”, “Come on let’s give it a shot” they would say to each other as they tried out songs that they hadn’t played live for years only to find they still could find and settle comfortable into the grooves. And did I mention the harmonies were magnificent?

They pulled out “Angels”, “I Know You Will”, the Gene Clark penned Byrds song, “Here Without You”, (Peter Holsapple recalled how he was able to get a copy of that song to Gene Clark shortly before he passed away back in 1991.) “I Want To Break Your Heart”, “She Was The One”, “Geometry”, “The Child In You” and “Lover’s Rock”, “Taken”. And my memory fails me but one of those songs contained a couple lines from the George Harrison Beatles’ song, “It’s All Too Much”.

They also did the Chris Stamey solo composition, “Cara Lee”, Peter Holsapple’s “Here And Now” which I could have sworn he said was from the new Holsapple-Stamey CD. Perhaps he is redoing it as it also appears on his 1997 solo “Out Of My Way”.

Three or Four songs from the forthcoming Holsapple-Stamey CD were also performed, as well as a couple from the forthcoming dB’s CD. This time it’s a true reunion with both Holsapple and Stamey present. Speaking of the dB’s, “Big Brown Eyes” was dusted off and sounded fantastic.

The evening ended with a number from The Everly Brothers whom the duo obviously have been mightily influenced by – “Let It Be Me”.

Maybe they’ll be back to play in St. Louis soon, perhaps during game seven of the World Series. I Know I’ll be there.

Posted by | February 3, 2009 | Concerts, Video/Film | 1 Comment 

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