Florence Dore is a singer and songwriter who is also a professor of Literature at The University Of North Carolina. She has written a fine book called Novel Sounds that connects Southern Literature with rock and roll. She also released a solo CD, Perfect City in 2002. Now she has enlisted a truly crack band and was warming up a batch of new songs for a new recording project (at Mitch Easter’s (tinyurl.com/zubactive tinyurl.com/zubqdash) Fidelitorium with Don Dixon (tinyurl.com/zubimbibe), no less).
So, the band, dubbed The Defenestrators, were Jeremy Chatzky on bass who was a total ringer. He has played with Springsteen (yes - Springsteen!) and many others and brought a certain McCartney-esque flavor to the songs, especially the Revolver sounding track ‘Perfect World.’ He was outstanding. Lead guitarist Mark Spencer (Son Volt) was another ringer, getting an amazing variety of tones out of his beautiful orange hollow-body Gretsch guitar, he crushed it on the new ‘Rebel Debutante.’ Peter Holsapple is a favorite here on our Zub Alert! (tinyurl.com/zubamplifier tinyurl.com/zubphc tinyurl.com/zubbyephc) and he was the utility man, providing rhythm guitar, an occasional lead, accordion, and backing vocals. Drummer Will Rigby is as good as they get, and Florence’s vocals were strong and her songwriting tight.
Florence’s sound is definitely Americana, with a bit more energy than most. They played seven new songs that were a bit both placid and rocking. Again, with a band like hers and her lovely vocals, everything was pleasant and new sounding. But at the end, they absolutely rocked the house with Patty Griffin’s ‘Silver Bell,’ a truly inspired cover this band blew up.
It was good to see The Station packed full for Florence and her band. This club has booked a lot of quality bands and it’s not always as well attended as I’d like for the bands. Tonight was special. The sound was great, the band amazing. I am very interested to hear Florence’s new record as the signs bode very well indeed for a carefully crafted and smart work. And with her backing band, this crew will definitely defenestrate gimmicky, staid Americana.
---Steve McGowan
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