Singled Out: Hope Dunbar's More

Keavin Wiggins | 04-02-2021

Hope Dunbar just released her new album, "Sweetheartland", and to celebrate we have asked her to tell us about the song "More". Here is the story:

The last track on the record is a song entitled "More." I wrote it for a songwriting workshop taught by my friend and mentor, Darrell Scott, a few years back. Before we arrived for the class, he gave us all a prompt from which to write a piece and bring to the group. The prompt was "Journey." I remember thinking on that word and feeling how the word "journey" didn't seem to match my everyday reality back then when the kids were little and I was fitting my songwriting in between household chores, pick-ups and drop-offs, and so, instead of imagining a world where "journey" was front and center, I wrote this song, "More," from a place of ordinary honesty about what my life looked like.

The version I brought to that class for everyone to hear is different than the version you hear now on the record, but it had the same heart and it had the same truth I hope listeners hear in this final version. My last record, "Three Black Crows," had a song that I describe as an autobiography. and now, I think, "More" is the autobiography song for "Sweetheartland." I wanted to express a certain conflicted joy in this song. It gives voice to that very real feeling of gratitude and thankfulness for the peace and beauty of family life while also expressing a deep-rooted desire to be seen as something more and to want something more. I wonder if it's just me who feels those feelings. I hope listeners connect with it in their own way.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about the album here