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Professor by day and rock star by night, Florence Dore is a singer-songwriter and Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Last June (2022) she released her second album, Highways and Rocketships (Propeller Sound Recordings), which was named Best Album of 2022 at Lonesome Highway Magazine. Highways and Rocketships was produced by Don Dixon and Mitch Easter and features contributions from some of leading lights of the past four decades of American popular music: Will Rigby (Dore’s husband) sometimes-Springsteen bassist Jeremy Chatzky, dB’s member Peter Holsapple, Southern Culture on the Skids bassist Mary Huff, Mipso fiddler/vocalist Libby Rodenbough. Dore’s backing band for the tour includes the rhythm section of the dB’s—Will on drums (also a member of Steve Earle and the Dukes for 15 years) and Gene Holder on bass—as well as Son Volt guitarist Mark Spencer. Last year Florence also published a book, The Ink in the Grooves: Conversations on Literature and Rock n Roll (Cornell University Press), with essays by Richard Thompson and Roddy Doyle, as well as interviews with Steve Earle, members of John Prine’s band, and Lucinda Williams. She is also the co-executive producer for the Billboard-charting compilation album Cover Charge.