Who said you can’t merge PhDs? And rock’n’roll?
As Florence Dore explains, she spent a long time traveling the seemingly disjointed track. On the one hand, she was a professor who spent years teaching American literature research and writing from New York City to Ohio to North Carolina.
Then there was Dre’s night persona, who loved popular music, played in bands, recorded albums, and developed close relationships with diehard musicians, including Steve Earle.
But these days, Dre, who teaches at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, has found a way to combine her interests. She’s coming to the Valley this month to show off her accomplishments at Drake on March 28th. She gave a discussion with her band in Amherst and at Amherst College on March 29th.
Raised in Nashville, Tennessee, Dre has been riding a wave of solid reviews with his 2022 album Highways and Rocket Ships. The album is an Americana-flavoured disc built around bright acoustic and electric guitars and a mix of rock, pop and country. And a little R&B.
In a recent phone call, Dore said that years after releasing her first album, Perfect City, in 2001, and getting some critical acclaim for that record, she was looking to find a way to get back into music. He said it was necessary to align the stars of the people.
For one thing, as a mother, she spent her time raising her daughter, Georgie, who is now in college. This allowed her to return to music with her husband, Will Rigby, the drummer in her band and former New Wave rockers Decibelz, Steve Earle. It was a drummer such as
But another gateway for her return to music, says Dore, was when she published her book, Novel Sounds: Southern Fiction in the Age of Rock and Roll, about five years ago.
What Grail Marcus, the preeminent gris of rock journalism, has called “an original and subtle book with punk-rock ricochets,” “Novel Sound” draws on the work of writers such as William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor as Reed Berry’s I am working with musicians. I drew Chuck Berry and Bob Dylan on the connection between rock, blues and Southern literature.
Dore’s argument was basically that beginning in the 1950s, when rock and roll exploded on the national scene, the old barriers separating high art and low variety all but collapsed.
“I was looking for a way to try and bring these two parts of my life together. [book] It was kind of the culmination of that,” Dre said. “Music is a great way to connect the ideas of the Academy with people outside the ivory tower, and it’s been a really satisfying study for me.”
Last year, Dore also published Ink in the Grooves: Conversations on Literature and Rock ‘n’ Roll, where he served as editor and contributor. A collection of essays by writers such as Roddy Doyle, Rick Moody, Colson Whitehead, and musicians who examine the connection between two worlds and their own inspirations.
The book also features interviews conducted by Doré about the literary influences of musicians such as Richard Thompson, Lucinda Williams, and Steve Earle.
“It was a great project to work on,” she said.
Musically, Dre says she was influenced by the 1960s and early 1970s bands and artists her parents played when she was growing up in Nashville (The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, The Band). .
“I remember seeing Joan Baez in concert when I was eight or nine. I remember shaking her hand after the show,” she said with a laugh. “And I wrote her a fan letter.”
It was a tumultuous time: her mother was raised as a typical Southern Belle and became a “marijuana-smoking civil rights activist.” Dre talks about the themes she tackles in one of her new album songs, “Rebel Debutante.” The song also references her mother’s small role in the 1975 Robert Altman film Nashville.
She is self-taught to play the guitar, and in college she earned a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut and played in a band. She continued to play music in Boston, where she attended graduate school for a year before moving to California in 1998 to pursue her PhD at Berkeley.
A few years later she recorded “Perfect City” produced by guitarist Eric “Roscoe” Ambell, who has worked with artists such as Steve Earle and the Bottle Rockets. The album allowed Dre to be compared to a young Lucinda Williams due to her brash, vulnerable lyrics and mix of rock and country-infused sounds.
Williams turned out to be a significant influence on Dre.
“I remember hearing her sing ‘About What Happens When You’re Talking’ on one of our earlier records as I was driving,” Door said. rice field. “I had to stop the car. It was so powerful. It was like rock’n’roll in spirit, but with country/folk influences.”
Dre finally returned to the studio a few years ago to record mostly new material for “Highways and Rocketships.” “Thundercloud” is a warning from one woman to another that her new boyfriend “seems to be (bleeping) in your mind” and encourages the couple, the title track, to find a way out. And like pleas, there are many lockers. I’m with you
Dre explores familial ties with “Sweet to Me,” a song about her grandmother, and “And the Lady Goes,” an upbeat pop song about menopause. Meanwhile, “End of the World” adds punchy horns to her R&B number, which is ironic about climate change.
Featuring backing from Rigby and other former members of dB, the album was named the best Americana album of 2022 by Lonesome Highway magazine.
“We had a lot of support from really talented people to make this happen,” Door said, specifically referring to former REM manager Jefferson Holt, who organized the recording sessions. “You guys helped bring these songs to life.”
During the pandemic, Dre co-produced Cover Charge, an album featuring North Carolina musicians performing cover songs. She and her band created a version of Marshall Crenshaw’s “Somewhere Down the Line” to benefit Chapel Hill’s music club.
And let’s not forget her academic side. Last year, Dore launched her “Ink in the Grooves Live.” This is a traveling public humanities program in which she performs and lectures on local music and civic affiliation.
She was chair of Amherst’s Music Department at 4:30 pm on March 29 at Amherst College’s Frost Library with her touring guitarists Mark Spencer (Son Volt, Laura Cantrell). Co-presented with Daryl Harper, Director of the School Center. For humanistic research.
Dore said he would also speak to students in the class of Geoffrey Sanborn, who teaches English in Amherst.
Dore, who is working on songs for the upcoming album, said: “Great location.”
For more information on Florence Doré’s music and work, visit florencedoremusic.com.
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