To dB or Not dB
Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple release new solo albums
Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple played together in the dB’s for only a few years, from 1978 to shortly after the release of the group’s second album, Repercussion, in 1981. Yet the pair have been - in Holsapple’s words - “joined at the hip,” a forty-something year karmic pairing that’s included a dB’s reunion album in 2012, two odds-and-sods compilations, and two Holsapple/Stamey albums, along with occasional live reunions.
While Chris Stamey has pursued a solo career since leaving the dB’s (along with stints as a producer, arranger, and bandleader for a project honoring Big Star,) Holsapple had a wife and kids to support, and took sideman gigs in hit touring bands like R.E.M. and Hootie & The Blowfish. Ever the team player, he also hooked up with the Continental Drifters, an all-star folk/pop ensemble, and more recently, The Paranoid Style.
The Holsapple/Stamey songwriting partnership in the dB’s was often compared to Lennon/McCartney, with (to paraphrase Trouser Press) Holsapple writing more conventional pop tunes (like McCartney,) while Stamey’s compositions could be more experimental and quirky (like Lennon.) In 2025, though, that paradigm has shifted. Holsapple’s The Face of ‘68 (Label 51 Recordings) shifts between genres and styles, showcasing his guitar prowess and sense of humor (often self-deprecating,) Stamey’s guest star-studded Anything Is Possible (also on Label 51,) in contrast, shimmers like a well-polished gem, paying homage to the harmonies of the Beach Boys as well as the sophisticated songwriting of The Great American Songbook, paying homage to the likes Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin.
At 68 (the album’s title track refers to his latest birthday,) Peter Holsapple brings us his third solo album, which feels like meeting an old friend you haven’t seen in a while. Yeah, you’re older and perhaps a bit wiser, but the friendship picks up exactly where it left off. Several tracks on The Face of 68 could easily have fit on a dB’s album (maybe not the first two, which were damn near perfect, but certainly the latter three,) right down to the guitar tones. If there’s a difference here, it’s a heavier sound, more Rock with a capital R, influenced by the AM hits Holsapple grew up on in the Seventies.
The themes of aging and dying recur throughout the album, but fear not; remember, this is the guy who wrote a funny song about a friend who killed himself not because his girl left, but because she took his amplifier with her. “So Sad About Sam” grieves the death of Sam Moss, a mentor to Holsapple and his Winston-Salem friends in their youth. Its bluesy vibe suggests sadness, but it’s also got a Loudon Wainwright III feel to me, and ultimately, it’s more a celebration of the “sweet, sweet music” that Sam left behind than a song of mourning. “She And Me” is about growing old together, a paean to the quiet joys of monogamy, while “The Face of 68” offers a self-deprecating take on the self-assessment that birthdays often bring.
”Anytime Soon,” the album opener, comes as close to a dB’s song as anything Holsapple’s done in years, while “Larger Than Life” (another song about a late friend) and ““One For The Book” follow closely behind. “My Idea #49” lets Holsapple and his band seriously rock out, a silly song about in which Holsapple takes credit for all kinds of things he didn’t actually invent, while “That Kind of Guy” pokes fun at the middle-aged record collector and all the bands and albums he can’t quite leave in the past.
In contrast, Chris Stamey’s Anything Is Possible positively wallows in nostalgia. Stamey’s been on a retro kick lately anyway, with recent albums delving into Tin Pan Alley pop, light jazz, and Americana. Here, the opening track, “I’d Be Lost Without You,” pays homage to Brian Wilson (and specifically Pet Sounds,) with impeccably written, arranged, and performed melodies and vocal harmonies; later, there’s a fastidious cover of Pet Sounds’ “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder.)”
”Anything Is Possible,” the title track, echoes the Beatles (“I heard the story on the news today….”) before launching into a ballad infused with echoes of Alex Chilton’s Big Star, and there’s a jaunty homage to Manhattan, “Meet Me In Midtown,” that’s describes the shiny New York City of MGM musicals more than the seedy Big Apple that Stamey encountered as a young man in the Seventies.
Pretty much everything else represents Stamey adding his stamp to the Great American Songbook. These love songs and ballads earn an A+ for Stamey’s sweet lead vocals, lush arrangements, and exquisite vocal harmonies. But if you’re going to tread in the footsteps of giants - Kern, Berlin, Porter, et. al. - you’ve got big shoes to fill, and for me, Stamey falls short in composing the same level of lyrics. These songs may be pretty, but there’s not a single “I know that if I took even a sniff it would bore me terrifically too” caliber line.
Kudos to Stamey for recruiting power-pop Wunderkinds the Lemon Twigs as well as power-pop OG Marshall Crenshaw on multiple tracks. This album sounds great, no two ways about it, but compared to what Stamey’s given us in the past, it could have been much more memorable.