**** Peter Holsapple

OUT OF MY WAY

(Monkey Hill)

Former dB's leader, current Continental Drifter, and sometime Hootie sideman (but don't hold that against him) Peter Holsapple has apparently saved his most personal songs for his long-overdue solo debut. Sometimes cranky, sometimes despairing, and always doggedly hopeful, Out of My Way offers some of the most tuneful catharsis you'll hear. Past and present Drifters, including wife Susan Cowsill, provide most of the back-up, but the sound is closer to dB's territory. The opening "I Been There" has the jangly lead guitars and killer chorus hooks of old, and its lyric sets the album's grown-up but not mellowed-out tone. Mellow ain't the word for the album's standout, "Couldn't Stop Lying to You," a soul ballad written from the darkest hour of a break-up and featuring a heart-and-throat-tearing lead vocal. "Pretty Damned Smart" and "No Sound" both address music-biz frustrations, the first acoustically and the second with a swampy, slide-guitar kick. On the more upbeat side, "Here & Now" is about the healing power of a really good gig, much like the one the Drifters played at the Middle East recently.

-- Brett Milano