Young bands don’t have to dig too deep to find motivation. But when a group has been around for a while — nearly 30 years in the case of Boston-area indie roots rock outfit Dispatch — inspiration hits different.
“I think probably the difference between being super, super young on your first or second record is that sense of everyone else’s expectations for you or whatever your definition of success looks like,” says co-founding member Brad Corrigan. “And obviously going from your first record to your second record is a little scary because you’ve had your whole life to build out your library for record number one. And then the follow up to that teaches you a lot. Where we are now in our career, I think we’re just trying to make music as as authentic as we can, to be recording only when the songs really feel authentic as opposed to like, man, we probably better record a record once a year.”
Dispatch’s new album, “Yellow Jacket,” is its ninth and its first since 2021. It features the first lead vocal turn from Matthew Embree, a touring member for nearly 10 years, as well as some high-profile guests from the Dave Matthews Band as well as G. Love and Ani DiFranco.
“When he joined our band, we honestly felt like we were really underusing him because he’s a phenomenal guitar player and singer,” Corrigan says of Embree, who came to Dispatch’s attention as the frontman of Rx Bandits. “We had him playing bass primarily and then playing guitar on a few songs. So there’s a song called ‘Whisk Me Away,’ where he’s got a section where he’s singing as the lead vocal, and it’s just fun for us to hear the quality of his voice and just to hear him soloed up.”
DiFranco, the longtime alternative folk favorite, appears on “Everyone’s in the Street.”
“It’s a song about all of us, kind of the best of humanity coming together for nonviolent protest,” says Corrigan. “And it kind of goes through and honors a handful of leaders. And we just felt like, if there’s a voice out there to come alongside us saying, hey, it’s time for us to come together and be stronger together, we just felt like Ani would be a good potential fit. And the fans in us were surprised when she said yes. We were so stoked that that she wanted to be on it.”
The record evolved to include DMB’s Rashawn Ross adding trumpet to “The Night Young,” his bandmate Stefan Lessard playing bass on “Darker Light” and G. Love’s harmonica on “Flood.” “Darker Light” is featured in the film “Ileana’s Smile,” which Corrigan produced and talked about here.
“I think recording is more about collaboration,” Corrigan shares. “It’s not so egocentric that it’s just us now. It’s kind of like we’re stronger together and more creative together.”
Dispatch has taken that spirit of collaboration on the road for its summer tour, which features John Butler with his band, G. Love & Special Sauce, Donavon Frankenreiter and Illiterate Light (on select dates). Corrigan says Dispatch wanted to “power pack the bill” and “deliver something that is fair to our fans in terms of what it costs for them to come out to a show.” The tour includes a sold-out date Tuesday, July 1 at The Rooftop at Pier 17 in New York.
He says they’ve been trying to line up a tour with Butler for about 10 years. Butler opened for them at Madison Square Garden in 2015 — a run of three industry-shocking sellout shows there without major label or radio support — and he is on a “Yellow Jacket” track called “Trinket.” Corrigan says he and cofounder Chadwick Stokes saw G. Love play at Middlebury, Vt., when they were in college and they have gotten to know him well, calling him “a phenomenal human being, a phenomenal artists and just a great hang.” G. Love and Frankenreiter played as a duo at Dispatch’s Only the Wild Ones Weekend in Mexico but this will be the first time the latter will be on a proper tour with them. And Corrigan connected with Illiterate Light through their lead singer/guitarist/bassist Jeffrey Gorman (whose uncle is original Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman).
“He’s a really good friend of mine, and we met because I’m closer with his parents in terms of age, and he was just a little brother to me,” Corrigan says. “So I’ve known him since he was probably 10. This isn’t me just doing a favor for a dear friend. He’s that legit and his band is that legit. So it’s going to be really fun to look at him and smile and say, remember when, and then watch him take it away.”
Illiterate Light will not play at the NYC show but will link up with the tour in August for a pair of shows in Colorado, including at Red Rocks.
Dispatch formed in 1996 at Middlebury College and gained a following in New England and beyond thanks to their live shows and popularity on the file-sharing platform Napster. The growth was slow and steady, paused by a breakup that lasted from 2002 to 2011, and culminated in the triumphant run at MSG 10 years ago. The band was a rarity to reach such successes without the typical music business backing.
“It was kind of a mission statement for us just going, we’re not in a hurry and we want to build a team, but we want to build a team of people who are likeminded and like-hearted,” Corrigan explains. “Once we had record label interest, we still took those meetings hoping we might find someone that really felt like they just wanted Dispatch to be Dispatch and help us find more of our originality and a greater audience. But time and time again, you’d sit down and the trope was, hey, you guys are doing great. We’re going to make you into the next fill in the blank, whatever band they had just blown up that sort of fit us or sort of didn’t.
“You know, our managers were super important to us. More than a record label. Our booking agent, our booking agent was probably first because we wanted to play and we wanted to play everywhere we could. And if we can find someone who really understands us and can open more doors for our live sound, then we’re going to let the record slowly but surely bring audience to the listening side.
“Honestly, there are times when I wish we had found someone that worked at a record label that just absolutely believed in the individuality of the band. We would have said yes to that. But I love the path that we’ve carved out.”
Leave a Reply