LISTEN: Florence Dore Shares New Single “Signs of Life”

There’s also a cool cover of a deep Marshall Crenshaw cut as well

October 21, 2024October 22, 2024 Ron Hart 0 Comments 2024, COVID-19, Florence Dore, Mark Spencer, Marshall Crenshaw, Signs of Life, Somewhere Down the Line, Will Rigby

Even four years later, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unearth creative treasures during everyone’s time on lockdown.

The latest offering is an incredible pair of singles from Nashville-born, Chapel Hill, NC-based artist Florence Dore, who by day is English and Comparative Literature at UNC Chapel Hill. Both songs, “Signs of Life” and a cover of Marshall Crenshaw’s 1991 tune “Somewhere Down The Line,” were recorded while Dore and her band, which includes her husband Will Rigby of the dB’s on drums and Son Volt keyboardist/steel guitarist Mark Spencer, were on a pause from recording her 2022 LP Highways & Rocketships at Mitch Easter’s studio with acclaimed producer Don Dixon.

“Although ‘Signs of Life’ sounds like a pandemic song, I actually wrote it during the year before lockdown. But all songs took on new meaning in the months immediately after COVID-19 hit, and the time-space continuum felt busted open,” Dore explains of the song, which Rock & Roll Globe is honored to premiere today on the site. “I did add the bridge after the doors slammed. Peter Holsapple (who plays guitar on the track) thought ‘Signs of Life’ needed a different bridge, and so I set about creating one. I was doing this work right after John Prine passed — and the ‘listening for dreams in thunder’ line in ‘Signs of Life’ just came to me. I’m nodding to his song ‘Angel from Montgomery,’ which has meant a lot to me as a songwriter. I interviewed Mr. Prine (circa 2000) backstage at a show in Akron (thanks to my pal Dave Jacques, John’s longtime bass player), and when I asked him about that song, about the fact that as a man he wrote it from an old woman’s point of view, he said, ‘Well that’s just songwriting.’ Then he actually dedicated ‘Angel from Montgomery’ to me from the stage. I’ll never forget that. ‘Signs of Life’ is about feeling like the woman in ‘Angel from Montgomery’ — like your life isn’t enough, like you need some dreams to cure the sense that everything is mundane. So ‘Signs of Life’ is partly an homage, and a thank you, to one of the greats.”

Florence Dore “Signs of Life,” Propeller Sound Recordings 2024

Dore’s Crenshaw cover, meanwhile, was recorded during the very first week of the lockdown in March 2020. It was featured on a benefit album Florence co-created, Cover Charge: NC Artists Go Under Cover to Help the Cat’s Cradle, assisting the legendary North Carolina rock club during dark times.

“Peter Holsapple had suggested that my band cover Marshall Crenshaw’s ‘Somewhere Down the Line,’” Dore explains. “I had just re-entered the musical world after a long hiatus (during which Will and I had the privilege of raising our daughter, Georgia) when bang: Everything shut down. No more live music. ‘Somewhere Down the Line’ is about comfort in a time of distress and uncertainty—the refrain, ‘It’s gonna be more than fine,’ just seemed like it needed to be put out into the world. So we recorded it from our homes. Don Dixon and some other friends talked me through recording Will’s drums on GarageBand (other members of the band had more sophisticated setups) and then pulled everything together beautifully. My former student Libby Rodenbough of the band Mipso wasn’t busy touring and was able to lend her talents to the track. The question then was what to do with this song? At the same time, I started worrying about our local rock venue, the iconic Cat’s Cradle. I got together with three savvy locals who know a lot about music — Steve Balcom, Lane Wurster, and Shawn Nolan — and we created a benefit record to help keep it afloat. We called it Cover Charge, and the idea was for local NC musicians to do covers of songs that, like ‘Somewhere Down the Line,’ seemed relevant to life in the pandemic. There were some pretty funny takes on this idea: Superchunk’s version of ‘Can’t Stop the World’ by the Go-Go’s, the dB’s cover of the Kinks’ ‘I’m on an Island.’ And there were some heartfelt ones too: Southern Culture on the Skids’s version of ‘Let’s Work Together’ by Wilbert Harrison, Tift Merritt’s version of Kris Kristofferson’s ‘Help Me Make It Through the Night.’ ‘Somewhere Down the Line’ is about comfort, and Cover Charge gave me lots of that in a terrifying time.”

“Signs of Life”/”Somewhere Down the Line” will be officially released on Oct. 25th via Propellor Sound Recordings.

Listen to both tracks below and follow Ms. Dore on her Instagram here.