Peter Holsapple

www.peterholsapple.com
www.halfpearblog.blogspot.com

It’s a weird situation to be in, this songwriter vocation that chose me.  I started doing this shortly after seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.  I liked that they could do it, learned their chords, moved them around and tried writing my own.  I wasn’t the Beatles.  It was okay, I liked what I wrote, too.

Various times in my existence, I’ve been a musician, too, which seems to work somewhat better than songwriting as an income source for supporting a family.  Often, like now, I become a retail guy since I can interact with people pretty easily.  Writing stays in the back pocket, like a magnifying glass you can pull out when you need to look at small business.

Most songs I write are on guitar.  The first one here, “Oh My”, was written that way.  But I think at this club, I’m going to try to do more on piano, like “Don’t Ever Leave”.

I just busted through a long writer’s block and am hoping this place can be therapeutic in that regard.  Maybe a deadline is all that I need.

See you next month.

Songs that move mountains:

The Dark End of the Street by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham

You Don’t Know Me by Cindy Walker and Eddy Arnold

I Am the Cosmos by Chris Bell

On Obsession by Peter Blegvad

God Only Knows by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher

Do Ya by Jeff Lynne

Like a Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan

I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (to Stop Now) by Otis Redding and Jerry Butler

Who Will Sing for Me by Carter Stanley

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

All the Young Dudes by David Bowie

Songs that move grains of sand:

Twilight by Elliott Smith

The Kiss by Judee Sill

Pink Moon by Nick Drake

I Will by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

You Are My Sunshine by Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell