City and Colour’s Dallas Green on music as a savior, dealing with grief

Phoebe Helms
Tue, 18 Apr 2023 23:37:34 +0000
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City and Color artist Dallas Green will be in Columbus May 12 to perform “The Love Still Held Me Near.” Credit: Courtesy of All Eyes Media

City and Colour’s seventh studio release “The Love Still Held Me Near” has taken Dallas Green through the healing process while coping with loss. He is now set to bring the album to life in his upcoming tour.

City and Colour announced a U.S. and UK/European tour shortly after the release of the album. Green will be in Columbus at Kemba Live! May 12, according to a press release from All Eyes Media.

Green, the artist behind City and Colour, has established a fulfilling music career for himself spanning over 20 years. Originally performing as a member of the band Alexisonfire, Green said he began performing stripped-down coffeehouse style versions of songs he had written for the band, as well as other original songs. He said he sold CDs of these versions in coffeehouses, and they ended up on the internet in the early 2000s via file sharing.

The positive reception and attention his songs received online inspired him to record a studio album under the moniker City and Colour — since then he has released six more, with over 1.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone. Songs like “The Girl” have over 100 million streams, and songs from “The Love Still Held Me Near,” released March 31, have received upwards of 2 million streams.

“‘The Love Still Held Me Near’ is a deeply personal and cathartic offering, and the most sonically expansive in the celebrated City and Colour canon,” City and Colour stated.

Green said he began working on the album after the loss of one of his best friends in September 2019. The album helped him work through his emotions and grief, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Green said.

“When the smoke started clearing a little bit, I dug into trying to write about it,” Green said. “The record ended up being this really cathartic process of trying to deal with my grief and figuring out a path forward to healing.”

Green said music and writing has always served as a deeply emotional and personal outlet for him. He said his discography serves as a way to process and archive his feelings over certain periods of his life.

“I think City and Colour has always been this sort of place where I can go and just ruminate on certain things that are weighing on me or kind of stuck up in my head,” Green said. “Whether it’s just certain things that are going on in my personal life, or just things that I’m kind of dwelling on, I’ve always used it as like almost having a journal entry type thing.”

“The Love Still Held Me Near” is one of Green’s most intimate pieces to date, as he said it is what truly allowed him to work through his grief. It also helped him rediscover the importance of music to his own life.

“I think part of moving forward was rediscovering how much I love music and how much I just am truly grateful for the ability to be able to write a song about how I’m feeling,” Green said. “Then have it sort of turn into something that can connect with another human being is rediscovering that love and that joy. And then like I said, sort of using it as a tool in order to help myself cope. Yeah, it was like a savior.”

Green said he has been touring since fall 2021 with Alexisonfire as well as playing some shows as City and Colour. He said he is looking forward to the connection he’ll make with the audiences during his upcoming tour because he feels performing has become a part of him.

“It’s something that sort of just feels like it’s a part of me at this point,” Green said. “I’ve been doing it since I was 21 years old. It is my career, my livelihood, but I also do feel like it’s been truly a part of me, so it’s been really beautiful.”