Laurelyn Dossett
listen now children a story I’ll tell …

Photo by Andrew Rein

One could never accuse me of being overly linear about my musical career.

But if I were to have one guiding principle it would be this: When people who do good work ask you to work with them, say “yes.”

That is what I said 5 years ago when Preston Lane asked if I might want to write some songs for a play, that he had not yet written, based on an epic poem I’d never read. The result was Brother Wolf, an Appalachian version of Beowulf.

Since that first “yes” we have written 4 plays-with-music together – Brother Wolf, Beautiful Star, Bloody Blackbeard, and the upcoming world premiere of Providence Gap.

It might seem that writing songs for plays would be confining, but it turns out those constraints of time, place and story end up taking my songwriting to places I would not have gone to otherwise.

And while Preston is a single-minded visionary, he is also a generous collaborator.  Triad Stage is a courageous supporter of our new works  — it’s almost unheard of in regional theatre.  I don’t think North Carolinians realize how fortunate they are to have Triad Stage, but I know how lucky I am.

Laurelyn Dossett and Scott Manring, by Andrew Rein

Speaking of luck, our next play, Providence Gap, is all about luck, chance, providence – and love.  It opens June 6th and we are having a blast working on it.

In the meantime Preston and I will head up to Minnesota on February 13 to see Brother Wolf at St. Olaf College; we’ll have a little talk-back with the audience afterward.

If you happen to be in the Minneapolis area, say yes, and come on over.

The play premiered summer 08

Maybe most pirates don’t go well with the symphony, but Edward Teach, also known as Bloody Blackbeard, wasn’t like most pirates.

He quickly learned to leave the cannonball fuses behind and adopt a finer style on the Carolina coast where he wooed women, charmed local politicos (all but one), and perhaps took in a symphony performance.

So he’ll likely be there in spirit March 27 - 29 for the Blue Skies and Golden Sands series performance with the North Carolina Symphony.

Honoring the state’s cultural coastal connection, the symphony is hosting an evening with stories, songs and dance. The evening features narrator Frank Stasio, Native American flutist Arnold Richardson, vocalist and concertina player Jeff Warner, dancers Heidi Kulas and Tyler Mercereau, and little ol’ me.

I’m honored the symphony asked me to sing and play with a sypmhonic adaptation of “Remember My Name” from the Bloody Blackbeard soundtrack. For this event we recorded a new version of the song featuring Rebecca Stevens on fiddle and Scott Manring on guitar. Recorded by my good friend Robert Kirk at Treehouse Mobile Studio for a new album, Stages is a collection of songs spanning career stages, life stages, and the variety of stages that North Carolina has given me in previous years - from the theater, to the sypmhony to Merlefest. The new album will be available for sale at the symphony performance.

One note of gentle warning about that symphony: Should you see a black bearded head hovering above the symphony stage, hold on to your treasure.