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Peter Holsapple was on the road in Maryland, working as a sideman for Hootie & The Blowfish, when hurricane Katrina stormed ashore in New Orleans, his home of 13 years. Stuck at the office, as it were, Holsapple talked to his family by cell phone as they evacuated.
And in a heartbreakingly peculiar twist, he literally watched on TV as wind and water consumed his house, which was directly in the path of one of the levees that broke, and thus was part of a neighborhood often shown in the aerial coverage.
As his house disappeared beneath the floodwaters, so did the flotsam and jetsam of a star-crossed and star-studded musical journey of 30 years.
"Going through something like that really makes you appreciate what you have," Holsapple said during an interview last week. "For instance, I lost my record and music collection, which I could never conceive living without. A lot of friends and super-collectors have helped me replace a lot of that stuff, but I've also found that the iPod in my head is working just fine.
"The important thing is that I am a 50-year-old musician with a wonderful family and I am still able to squeeze out a living making music I love with people I love.
"So yeah, it's been quite a trek, but I feel I've gotten through it remarkably unscathed."
Holsapple's journey is one filled with ricocheting highs and lows.
It started in Winston-Salem in the 1970s, where he grew up (save for a year at prep school, where he befriended classmate Benmont Tench, later of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers). He came of musical age playing local churches and recreation centers in such local bands as Rittenhouse Square and the proto-punk band Little Diesel, each of which released regional albums.
To Holsapple's delight, the Little Diesel disc, No Lie, originally released on 8-track tape with tongue firmly in cheek, has just been re-released on CD by Collector's Choice - and it sounds amazingly vital, if not wholly prescient. Of the Rittenhouse Square album, Holsapple said he is looking forward to its re-release "at some point after I'm dead, and I'm planning on living another 50 years."
Then came the formation of The dB's in New York/New Jersey with three other expatriate natives of Winston-Salem - Will Rigby, Chris Stamey and Gene Holder. A series of now-influential albums - in the great cult-pop pantheon, The dB's canon lands squarely between those of Big Star and The Replacements - led to predicted stardom and critical acclaim, all undercut by an unceasing streak of bad luck and trouble (some admittedly of the doomed band's doing).
Post-dB's, it was off to Los Angeles (and a three-year tenure as a sideman for R.E.M.) then New Orleans, where Holsapple hooked up with Hootie, spent years making fine (and largely unheard) albums with the purposefully named Continental Drifters, and released a hard-won solo album.
"Well, released isn't exactly the right word," he said. "I think escaped might be better."
Then, Katrina, after which his journey took on an unexpected, but welcome, prodigal-son aura as he landed, after a brief period of recovery in Pennsylvania, in Durham, where he now lives with his wife, Sarah, and his son, Webb, who is 3. He also has a daughter, Miranda, 13, from a previous marriage to Susan Cowsill; Miranda lives in New Orleans with her mother.
"Getting back here was a bit of a wide circle - I had to try out all the coasts," he said. "But now I'm back in North Carolina, an easy and wonderful place to be, and I've learned to appreciate the journey and the lessons it has taught me," he said. "It's easy to get hung up on why this song didn't become a hit, or who owns the publishing to that song, or the lingering consequences of an association with some vampiric, blood-sucking label or manager."
He laughed. "But you know what? The world's not fair. We're in it. Get used to it. I have a great family. I still love music - I believe that music is something that lifts us all up. And I can still write songs and play them, and get carried away by the experience."
The cyclical nature of Holsapple's career is also pulling his past back into the present. There is the first proper release of the Little Diesel material, which has already prompted interest in a series of reunion shows, a prospect that delights Holsapple. And the past year has seen The dB's reunite for a series of shows and a flurry of recording with the possibility of a new album. Fans can visit the band's Web site (www.thedbsonline.net) and hear two new songs: "World To Cry," by Holsapple, and a wonderful rendition of Jimmy Ruffin's classic "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" - a downloadable song, with profits that go to Katrina relief efforts.
Holsapple and Stamey are also again performing shows as The Mavericks. The duo - backed by bassist Wes Lachot, drummer Jon Wurster and pedal-steel player Allyn Love - will perform at 10 p.m. Friday at The Garage as part of Sally Spring's holiday show. Holsapple said there are also plans for a second Mavericks album, the follow-up to Mavericks, the duo's acclaimed album from 1991.
"My schedule with Hootie also keeps me on the road a lot," he said. "But I have promised Chris my highest fidelity in the coming year to get this done."
Holsapple continues to write songs - he doesn't rule out another solo album. But for now, one of his greatest joys is playing shows for children. "I have become expert in the world of children's music, and all I can say is that the new singer for The Wiggles had better be darned good," he said, chuckling. "I still feel like a crazy big kid who likes to write goofy songs, and kids are a great audience. I love the feeling of passing on the goodness in music - and playing it right.
"Music is so important. I look back at the musical community I grew up with in Winston-Salem, and at least 75 percent of those people are still making music in some way. What a marvelous and terribly fascinating thing, and a wonderful example of the power and importance of music.
"If you do nothing else in life, sing a song every day, even if it's just in the shower. I do, and I promise you, it will make a difference."
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