MUSE Winston-Salem is launching the new, monthly Arts and Performance Programming Series and this will be the perfect kick-off! We're partnering with the Ramkat to bring you a fun musical program about Winston-Salem and North Carolina music. Our panelists are author David Menconi and two legendary Winston-Salem musicians: Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple.
Menconi’s new book "Step It Up & Go: the Story of North Carolina Popular Music, from Blind Boy Fuller and Doc Watson to Nina Simone and Superchunk" was released last October on UNC Press. You can purchase this book at Bookmarks with a discount, fy clicking this link: https://www.bookmarksnc.org/NCMusic and using the code MUSIC21.
Stamey and Holsapple are featured performers on the upcoming album "Yesterday’s Tomorrow: Celebrating the Winston-Salem Sound, Live at the Ramkat 2018," which Stamey also produced. The impetus for this extraordinary concert was that Stamey had a book fresh off the press, a song-based memoir called A Spy in the House of Loud. A portion of the book references his time in New York, but the first part remembers, song by key song, the late 1960s and early ’70s creative rock music scene in Winston. A surprising number of the Combo Corner crew went on to play and produce music professionally in the decades that followed — often with one another in different configurations (e.g., dB’s, Let’s Active, or with R.E.M., Steve Earle, Matthew Sweet, Vassar Clements, Hootie & the Blowfish, Big Star's Third Live, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Golden Palominos) and in different locales. They were still in regular contact the day Stamey suggested they try to “play the soundtrack to the book.” Buy it on CD or mp3 here: http://omnivorerecordings.com/.../various-artists.../. Buy your copy of Stamey’s book with a discount from Bookmarks, by clicking this link: https://www.bookmarksnc.org/NCMusic and using the code MUSIC21.
This program will be live via Zoom and is free to attend--and donations are welcome to both MUSE Winston-Salem and the Ramkat. Register here on eventbrite and you'll receive a link the day of the program. Kate Storhoff, PhD, will moderate the program. Read on for information about the panelists and moderator.
David Menconi is the author of "Step It Up & Go: the Story of North Carolina Popular Music, from Blind Boy Fuller and Doc Watson to Nina Simone and Superchunk." He is a journalist and author based in Raleigh, North Carolina. He spent 34 years writing for daily newspapers, 28 of those years at the Raleigh News & Observer. He served as co-editor of the University of Texas Press' acclaimed American Music Series from 2011 to 2019. He was a 2019 Piedmont Laureate. His other books include "Ryan Adams: Losering, A Story of Whiskeytown" (2012); "Comin’ Right at Ya: How a Jewish Yankee Hippie Went Country, or, the Often Outrageous History of Asleep at the Wheel" (co-written with Ray Benson, 2015).
Chris Stamey was raised in Winston-Salem and began playing music as a child. He is a multi-instrumentalist and played in several bands in high school, with his friends Peter Holsapple and Mitch Easter. Stamey studied music at UNC Chapel Hill and formed the band Sneakers, which self-released a single in 1976, that was hugely influential to the indie pop genre and beyond. Stamey relocated to New York to play with Alex Chilton (Big Star). He went on to form the dB's in 1978 with Peter Holsapple and other NC members. He has since performed all over the world both as a solo musician and with Yo La Tengo, Matthew Sweet, Bob Mould, and others. As a producer, arranger, and mixer, he has worked with over a hundred artists, including Ryan Adams, Alejandro Escovedo, Tift Merritt, Le Tigre, and Yo La Tengo.
Peter Holsapple was also raised mostly in Winston-Salem, started playing guitar as a kid, and formed the dB's with Stamey. His five decades in the music business have provided the world at large with a raft of memorable song craft, recordings of taste and originality, and travels with some of the finest musicians performing. Holsapple has navigated a snaky course through the annals of modern power pop with quality tunes like The dB’s “Love Is For Lovers” (recently featured in Showtime’s new hit series Billions) or Continental Drifters’ “Invisible Boyfriend.” His versatility on sundry instruments has made him the go-to auxiliary player for groups like R.E.M. and Hootie and the Blowfish. He's played the Apollo Theatre and the Ryman Auditorium. His songs have been played and recorded by Marti Jones, the Droogs, Don Dixon, the Troggs, Claire Lynch, Nada Surf, Bully, the Golden Palominos, Syd Straw, Foster & Lloyd and Megafaun. He is now based in Durham.
Kate Storhoff is a musicologist studying American music, primarily the culture of bands and wind ensembles. She teaches as adjunct faculty at Wake Forest University and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and works full-time as the Retail Manager at Bookmarks. Previously Kate taught as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Wake Forest University in 2018-2019.
