Dollar General is a new band that has been playing together for years. Chorney, bassist Morse and drummer Carr have collaborated on numerous projects, most recently as the core of the Hadestown Orchestra, performing the concert version of Hadestown, the folk-opera that Chorney orchestrated and arranged with Anais Mitchell. With Dollar General as the heart of the seven piece band they were joined by a bevy of guest artists; Corin Tucker,Ani DiFranco, Thao Nguyan, Aoife O’Donovan, Sean Hayes, Martin Carthy among the many. Two years of international touring further deepened a musical connection already honed by their previous projects so when in the spring of 2011 the ffifty one year old Chorney wrote a new book of songs he brought them to his cohorts. A week before their first show they invited pedal steel player Asa Brosious, just off the road with JP Harris, to fill out the sound. The band played less than a dozen concerts before recording “Dispensation” and this was just as Chorney would have it: “We knew the songs well enough to really be dynamic but they all still had a freshness too.” The basic tracks and vocals were recorded live in the studio (Chorney’s mountain home in Vermont) over three winter days. The songs are both intimate and formal and are played with startling subtlety by the quartet. This is the sound of a band, not session players, and “Dispensation” plays as an album, not just a collection of songs. Images and themes recur and are developed and distorted. The album has the cohesion that only comes from a body of work written in one spell. Chorney is well known in his native Vermont for his prodigious and varied inspirations: the ten piece avant-funk group viperHouse; Magic City, the acoustic chamber group that played arrangements of Sun Ra; performances and recordings of the obscure art songs of Paul Bowles and Tennessee Williams. Seven Days, Vermonts arts weekly has called him “Vermont’s best kept secret”. Hadestown brought Chorney’s work to an international audience. On a recording that featured the talents of indie luminaries, Chorney’s work was consistently singled out by critics: “…Justin ‘Bon Iver‘ Vernon singing Orpheus, Ben Knox Miller of the Low Anthem, Ani DiFranco and Greg Brown. But the star of the show is Michael Chorney who has scored Mitchell‘s songs to wondrous effect.” Guardian of London “Phenomenal instrumental arrangements” Village Voice “Last night at Poisson Rouge we were treated to a set by Dollar General, a band comprised of members of the Hadestown Orchestra. Michael Chorney… has a voice not too dissimilar from smooth folkster AA Bondy though the music behind him came across as much more rootsy and full. …the accompaniment on pedal steel and upright bass made for an interesting and pleasant turn on the sort of apocalyptic folk that Bondy and the like often provide.” Beats Per Minute