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Peter Livingston Holsapple (born February 19, 1956) is an American musician who, along with Chris Stamey, formed the dB's, a jangle-pop band from Winston-Salem, North Carolina.Strong, Martin C. (2003) The Great Indie Discography, Canongate, , p. 47-8 He became the band's principal songwriter and singer after Stamey's departure. The band, with Stamey back in the fold, reformed with new material in 2005–2006.
After the dB's disbanded in 1988, Holsapple played as an auxiliary musician with R.E.M. and Hootie & the Blowfish, before joining the Continental Drifters, a rock band originating from Los Angeles.
In 1997, he released his first solo album, Out of the Way. He followed it up twenty-one years later with 2018's Game Day and will follow it in 2025 with Face of 68.
Holsapple graduated from R. J. Reynolds High School.
When Rittenhouse broke up, Holsapple joined future dB's drummer Will Rigby and several other former high-school friends in Little Diesel, a proto-punk rock band fronted by Bob Northcott which ran against the tastes of Southern rock. Little Diesel's album, the 17-track No Lie (produced by Stamey in 1974) was released on twenty 8-track cartridges, and it was re-released in 2006 on Todd Abramson. "Kissy Boys" was an original, as were two early songs of Holsapple's. The band's music was heavily inspired by Lenny Kaye's 1972 compilation .
The dB's released four studio albums before their disbandment in 1988: Stand for Decibels (1981), Repercussion (1981), Like This (1984) and The Sound of Music (1987).
In 1981, while living in New York City, Holsapple would often hear the dBs' first single, "Black and White", on Meg Griffin's Saturday-morning show on WINS-FM. "There's something about hearing that pumping out on the radio, when you drive into town and you hear yourself on a college radio station as you're getting close, it's just so cool that it makes you feel like, 'Yeah, I'm doing the right thing, this is exactly what I want to do,'" said Holsapple in 2022.
Stamey left the band after their second album, at which point Holsapple became the primary singer-songwriter.
He joined the Continental Drifters, for whom he had first produced some demos, a single, and the Nineteen Ninety-Three album. "Easily the best band I ever was a part of," Holsapple recalls. "Superb harmonies, top-shelf songwriting, and my favorite people on earth. We should all be so lucky to find friends like that." The band was originally based out of Los Angeles but the members eventually relocated to New Orleans. The band included members of the Dream Syndicate, the Bangles, and the Cowsills. Holsapple subsequently married Susan Cowsill and had a daughter. The group went on to record three well-received albums, an EP of Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson covers, and several tribute-album tracks, none of which translated into a lot of sales. Holsapple and Cowsill divorced in 2001, with Holsapple citing his reliance on alcohol at the time as a contributing factor.
In 1991, Holsapple and Stamey reunited to record an album entitled Mavericks, and a couple of years later Holsapple contributed to Melissa Ferrick's 1993 album Massive Blur. In 1997, he released his first solo album, Out of My Way.
In September 2005, the classic line-up of the dB's performed two shows in Chicago and two in Hoboken, New Jersey. December 2006 brought Stamey–Holsapple Christmas shows in North Carolina. The Bowery Ballroom in New York City hosted the dB'S in January 2007, and the following month the dB's made a brief appearance at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, North Carolina.
Holsapple and Stamey released a new duo album, hERE aND nOW, on Bar/None Records in June 2009. This album featured a cover of the British progressive rock band Family's 1972 single "My Friend the Sun." In 2012, Holsapple reunited with the dB's to complete their first new studio album in 25 years and their first in 30 years with the original 1978 lineup. Falling Off the Sky was released on Bar/None Records on June 12, 2012.
Holsapple released a solo single, "Don't Mention the War", on his own Hawthorne Curve Records on February 3, 2017, and released his second solo album, Game Day, in July 2018 on the Omnivore label. His record label is named for a notorious section of Interstate 40 in Winston-Salem.
On June 12, 2021, Holsapple and Stamey released Our Back Pages on Omnivore, an album of acoustic arrangements of songs by the dB's for Record Store Day.
Holsapple undertook a Peter Holsapple Makes Himself at Home Tour in 2022.
In 2024, Holsapple was playing with The Paranoid Style, alongside Michael Venutolo-Mantovani.
On Record Store Day 2025 (April 12), Holsapple released his third solo album, The Face of 68, on Label 51 Recordings.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Holsapple relocated from New Orleans to Durham, North Carolina. He has a small recording studio behind his home which he calls the Hit Shed.
His father died in 2008, at the age of 95. "He was the kindest man I've ever known," Holsapple said in 2024. His mother died in 2013, aged 91.
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