Florence Dore is a Nashville-born, North Carolina-based musical artist as well as Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her second album, 2022's Highways and Rocketships, was produced by Don Dixon and Mitch Easter. She is the author of Novel Sounds and coexecutive producer for the Billboard-charting compilation album Cover Charge.

Introduction: Needles and Pens, by Florence Dore
Part 1: The Inescapable Dylan1. Let it Rock

2. The Genius and Modern Times of Bob Dylan

3. All the Poets (Musicians on Writing): An Interview with Rhiannon Giddens

4. Chronicles: Volume One (Excerpt)
Part II: Rock 'N' Roll Saved My Life: Writers on Music5. Banjo Interlude: An Idle Teen's Life Is Saved by Music

6. Tonight We Improvise: From Sag Harbor (Excerpt)

7. Ubu Lives! Remembering Punk and Its Stories

8. By Heart: From Eat the Document (Excerpt)

9. Precious Resource (Rock and Our Generation of Novelists): An Interview with Jonathan Lethem and Dana Spiotta

10. Whack Fol the Daddy-O: How I Learned to Hate Irish Music Slightly Less
Part III: Rock's Literary Identity: Musicians on Literature11. Dear Dylan: An Interview with Lucinda Williams

12. Iambic Pentameter and the Blues: An Interview with Steve Earle

13. Sir Patrick Rocks! Dragging Ancient Ballads into the Twentieth Century, and What That Can Do to Fragile Young Minds

14. Two Blue Suedes
Part IV: Don't Let Anyone Write Your Story: Musings on Rock as Literature15. When We All Get to Heaven

16. English as a Second Language

17. Cosmic Ray: How Ray Charles's "I Got a Woman" Transformed the Music of Ray Charles, Allowed Him to Keep His Band, and Created a Musical and Social Revolution

18. Ain't It Always Stephen Stills
Part V: Losses and Erasures19. Black Cowboys and Jimi Hendrix: An Interview with Dom Flemons

20. Anatomy of a Canned Heat Hit: "Let's Work Together" by Wilbert Harrison

21. John Prine (The Reluctant Genius): An Interview with Dave Jacques, Jason Wilbur, Fats Kaplin, and Pat McLaughlin

22. The Day the Live Concert Returns

23. Unknown Band on a Forgotten Stage

24. Right on Time: An Interview with Amy Helm,