Earlier this fall, celebrated roots rock band Dispatch announced the launch of an extraordinary, multi-part project that will be released in a series of specific phases. The journey begins with the chaos of Phase 1 and continues today with the release of the final two tracks from Phase 2. Listen to the epic “Connie Hawkins,” which highlights the life of the NBA legend, and tips its cap to everything from Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen to The Cars and Violent Femmes, and “Silent Type” – a song about taking a stand and speaking up instead of staying silent, now below.
This groundbreaking series of phased drops will culminate in the band’s eighth studio album in 2021. Click HERE to listen to the album’s first three tracks “May We All,” (which is currently climbing at AAA Radio), “All This Time,” “One By One” and the bittersweet “As Old As I”.
Dispatch performed music from the album last night as part of the lineup for LEVL UP Festival (Live Events Lift Up Festival) – a virtual benefit concert to raise funds for MusiCares, The Roadie Clinic and The CMA Foundation – alongside Dave Matthews, Blake Shelton, Jimmie Allen and many more.
The band’s new music blends infectious roots rock with hints of reggae, folk and blues, and the production is suitably lean and energetic, leaving plenty of space for some of the group’s most pointed political lyrics to date. The result is a timely and essential collection of songs from a band still breaking new ground two and a half decades into its storied career, an ode to resilience and survival that manages to find hope and joy on even the darkest of days.
Over the last year, bandmates Chadwick Stokes and Brad Corrigan have encountered and transcended unprecedented personal change against the backdrop of the societal upheaval that we have all been experiencing. While personally facing the death of loved ones and the joy of childbirth, Stokes and Corrigan have also parted ways with their beloved partner and bandmate, Pete Francis who stepped away in 2018 to focus on mental health. These new songs were written and recorded as the band’s means to process all this change, in the spirit of collective awakening with all its pain and beauty. This multi-phase project speaks not only to the band’s personal evolution, but to human nature itself.
“Everyone in this country has been facing some kind of turmoil these last four years,” said Chadwick Stokes. “As fathers of young kids who worry about what kind of world we’re leaving behind, as people who’ve lost family and friends to suicide and addiction, as bandmates navigating this transition from trio to duo, I think that feeling of everything being in flux was particularly acute for Brad and me. Writing’s always been the way we’ve made sense of the world, though, so that’s what we did.”
Adds Brad Corrigan, “We wanted to walk people through the feelings of sadness and anger and loss we’ve all been experiencing lately and take them to the other side. We wanted to deliver them to a place where they’re wiser and more compassionate, a place where they’re kinder and more unified, a place where they’re ready to truly protect and care for each other.”
Stay tuned for updates, information and the launch of Phase 3 in the coming weeks.