Review: Revisiting Mavericks with Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple of The dBs

Last Thursday at World Café Upstairs a small but fervent crowd visited the recent past as Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple played their 1991 album Mavericks in full. As one of only two planned performances of this album, it was certainly set up as a special night. And though they had to dust off their memories of the tunes since they had not performed many of them for quite some time, they delivered a rousing 18-song set of music.

Displaying a songcraft and pop sensibility inherent in their most well-know venture—as one half of The dB’s — and a well-honed maturity and assuredness, Stamey and Holsapple rejuvenated the 22-year old work with a backing band featuring Dave Schramm on guitar, reprising his role on the original album. From the dysfunctional love of “I Want to Break Your Heart” to “Angels,” the stirring opening album track that they performed last in the Mavericks portion of the set, acting as though they had forgotten it, Mavericks was taken to its root sound of jangly guitars and the harmonies of Stamey and Holsapple. Also dabbling in their other duo effort of Here and Now and some dB’s songs as well as a wonderful cover of The Everly Brothers’ “Lord of the Manor” to start the evening, Stamey and Holsapple delivered a worthy retrospective of their work on what was certainly a unique experience. See photos of the show in the gallery below, read the setlist after the jump and revisit Stamey’s February performance at World Cafe Live here.

Setlist
Lord of the Manor (The Everly Brothers cover)
I Know You Will
Here Without You
Close Your Eyes
Anymore
I Want to Break Your Heart
She Was the One
Geometry
The Child in You
Lovers Rock
Taken
Haven’t Got the Right (To Treat Me Wrong)
Angels
Christmas Time (The dB’s)
Hollywood Waltz
Early in the Morning

Encore:
Song for Johnny Cash
Lonely Is (As Lonely Does) (The dB’s)