Local musician Florence Dore stopped by Live & Local this week, ahead of the May 1 release of her new album, “Hold the Spark.”
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“You’re paying attention to the world in a different way, if you’re a songwriter,” Dore says. “And that’s one of our jobs, I think – to get people to attend to these dimensions of life that they might not otherwise notice.”
Florence Dore knows all about songwriting: she’s an accomplished one herself, with a career going back three decades, and she also teaches songwriting (along with literature) at UNC. Her sophomore album “Highways and Rocketships” got named Best Americana Album of 2022 by Lonesome Highway Magazine in 2022, and for the follow-up she penned a wide variety of stellar tracks – both autobiographical (the title track) and fictional (“Sunset Road”), ranging from sincere emotion (“Can’t Come Down”) to biting comic acidity (“Twelve Great Minds [Department Meeting]”).
“I wrote about 30 or 40 songs in a couple of years for this record – (and) I stopped wanting to write songs about myself, (because) how many things can you write about yourself?” she says with a laugh. “So I stopped turning inward. I teach Faulkner up at UNC, and Faulkner said he enjoys laughing at his characters when they stand up and walk off the pages of his novels – so I’ve started getting really interested in writing characters.”
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And so – fittingly for a songwriter who’s also a literature professor – “Hold the Spark” features several memorable narratives, some of them Faulkneresque short stories in their own right. But Dore didn’t entirely avoid looking inward: in fact the album’s title track is a deeply personal one, about the mixed emotions she experienced when her daughter Georgia moved away to college – emotions they eventually got to share through the song.
“I didn’t play it for her (at first), because – it’s not about me,” she says. “She’s leaving home, it’s a big moment in her life. (But) then she was (back) home, we were taking her to some doctor appointment, and I was like, ‘Do you want to hear this song that I wrote about you leaving home?’ And I didn’t know if she was going to play it cool or what. And then she just – I looked over and she was sobbing. It was sweet. It was sweet.”
The album’s 12 songs were produced by the legendary Don Dixon and brought to life by an all-star cast of musicians, including guitarists Jason Wilber (John Prine) and Chris Masterson (The Wallflowers) and Dore’s husband Will Rigby of the dB’s on drums; other notable guest musicians include Mitch Easter (Let’s Active), Libby Rodenbough (Mipso), Robert Sledge (Ben Folds Five), and fellow dB’s Gene Holder and Peter Holsapple. (“I try to play with people who are better and smarter than me,” Dore says. “It makes me smarter and better.”)
Now that the album’s done, Florence Dore is getting ready to celebrate with live performances – beginning with a record-release show at Cat’s Cradle Thursday, May 7, with special guests including many of the celebrated musicians who appear on “Hold the Spark.” Some of Dore’s UNC songwriting students will also be on stage, many of whom are quickly earning reputations as great musicians in their own right.
Visit CatsCradle.com for more on the record-release show.
“I don’t know what’s going on – I didn’t used to have students in bands all the time!” Dore laughs. “I’ve been teaching this songwriting class for seven years, and now all of my students are in bands, (and) they’re all going to be part of this May 7 show. Humanity might be okay.”
Florence Dore stopped by Live & Local to discuss “Hold the Spark” and play three songs, “Sunset Road,” “Can’t Come Down,” and “Butterflies” – accompanied by Peter Holsapple, Emma Bishop and Ella Deans. Listen:
‘Hold the Spark’: Live and Local with Florence Dore! Chapelboro.com.
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