The Way Home, at Robbins Farm in 2023: From left are Sam Goldstein, Emanuel Lewis, Jackson Speller, Joey Dalton and Charlie Dietel. / Photo by Proudmany Dheva-Aksorn
Everyman: How singer-songwriter Joey Dalton and The Way Home aim to build a community of listeners
“Do you know you can’t find really good ice cream in Nashville?” quips Joey Dalton, a former town resident who graduated from Arlington High and Berklee College of Music. Back in the Boston area to play a few gigs, Dalton is realizing that along with his favorite pint, he has been missing some of the local flavor that characterizes his hometown — the ruddy-faced guy waiting in line for his daily dose of Keno at the Easy Convenience, and the serendipitous meetups with people you know at Dunkin’.
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But while he misses the community that raised him, he hopes that the one he is building in Nashville will help him develop into the musician he wants to be. Arlington is home to many talented musicians, but not all of them have the confidence and courage to put their talent on the line in an effort to break into the competitive Nashville music scene.
New home, Arlington influences
Just over a year after graduating from Berklee, he has settled into a house on the outskirts of Nashville to forge a new path as a singer-songwriter and front man (lead vocals and acoustic guitar) for The Way Home, the classic-rock band he formed during his senior year at Berklee with fellow musicians Sam Goldstein (guitar and lap steel guitar), Charlie Dietel (guitar), Jackson Speller (bass), and Emanuel Lewis (drums).
Dalton and Goldstein, both 23, graduated from Arlington High School in 2019 and Berklee in 2023.
Asked who at Arlington High School encouraged him to pursue music as a career, Dalton named Madalyn Kitchen, the choral director at the time, and Sabatino D’Agostino, the longtime jazz band and orchestra conductor, who, he notes, “were big influences on me. I saw them every day, and they pushed us all to do what we wanted to do musically. My English teachers were also a big influence on me — especially poetry class with Mr. Richardson, which has been critical to my work as a songwriter.”
For Dalton and the members of The Way Home, it’s been a challenging but productive year. Spread out between Nashville, Boston and New York, creating music together as a band has required an unwavering commitment. When they come together to make music in person, it feels and sounds like a celebration.
Sold-out show in Cambridge
At a July 31 show at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, a shared bill with Nick Prato and Ava Panza, the sold-out crowd experienced their joyful synergy.
Six of the songs in the nine-piece set were written over this past year and will be recorded, produced and released “in the spring.” Ranging from the emotionally raw opening bars of “Love Me Like That” to the celebratory rhythms of “Strawberry Afternoon” and the exalted guitar-driven heights of “Molly O’Leary,” the new songs showcase their rich, expansive rock sound. They bookended their set with the early singles, “Everyman,” and “Everything Yvette,” with the whiskey-voiced Dalton leading an elated crowd in an exuberant call and response.
After catching the show, this reporter caught up with Dalton at his childhood home in Arlington, in the Stratton School district, where he had a freezer full of ice cream and a floppy-eared labradoodle puppy at his feet. Our interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
How has the transition been from being a student at Berklee to being a working musician in Nashville?
It’s been very exciting and very difficult. At Berklee, if you wanted to perform, there was no way to stop performing. There were so many opportunities to share music with audiences. I had classes starting at 9 o’clock in the morning and going till 10 o’clock at night. Somedays after class I would go to a rehearsal, or to a gig when I was working with a wedding band. So it was the constant presence of music in my life at Berklee that I found myself missing when I went to live and work in Nashville, where I had to create a structure for consistent music by myself. I found myself struggling to create or perform without that kind of structure.
How did you go about creating a musical life in Nashville? What were your first moves?
In Nashville, I had all the space and time I needed, but I didn’t really know where to begin. When I first got there in August 2023, I was applying to entry-level jobs at publishing companies, management companies — anyone who was hiring. For me, it was a struggle between wanting to be a musician and feeling like I should also be in the business of music as my day job — but then questioning if that’s really going to help my musicianship . . . .
Do you think you’ve resolved that dilemma between being a musician versus being in the business of music for now?
I have learned a lot from people who have industry jobs. They get to meet so many people and see the real-life sales aspect and nitty-gritty of how the industry works. But I’ve recently been talking to a lot of people who say, you’re not going to be able to focus on the music and really give it a try if you’re doing it as an industry person. Like when you’re doing a job full-time, it’s hard to go home and do it for yourself. So for now, I really want to focus on writing music.
(After working for an Airbnb company as a concierge, he is working as an audiovisual event technician for a Nashville hotel.)
You are living in a house with Sam and Jackson, but Charlie and Emanuel are still on the East Coast. How has living together and apart shaped your collaboration as a band?
Sam, Emanuel and I actually had been living together at Berklee for two years before moving to Nashville, and Charlie and Jackson would always land at our apartment, so we were always together. At first in Nashville, it was just me and Sam, we were having meetings with the others on FaceTime, and it got hard because we were all missing each other quite a bit. But now that Jackson has moved in with us, and we’ve been really strengthening our relationship as friends and networking partners, our collaboration is better than ever. Before leaving for Nashville, we all agreed, we’re gonna take care of this [The Way Home]; we’re gonna make this our baby and hold onto the project.
Can you talk about the music scene in Nashville right now?
Nashville is known as a country town, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a pretty diverse music scene. For the longest time it’s been a songwriter’s haven — country, rock, indie, folk — there are endless possibilities in Nashville because people are going there and industries are moving there. It’s centrally located near several metropolitan areas like Chicago and Atlanta, which makes touring relatively convenient. The city is growing really rapidly, and the music scene reflects that growth. It’s a very exciting time to be in Nashville.
How has living in Nashville influenced you as a singer-songwriter?
It is the place to be a songwriter, because you’ve got feedback built into the community in the songwriter’s rounds, a staple of the music industry in the city. My favorite writer’s round is Pindrop on Sunday nights at this bar called Sonny’s in Germantown.
It’s great because I have access to these incredible writers — rock, country, folk, indie — all of these different styles converge in a setting where the audience is really listening to your creative work. You walk off the stage, and someone comes up to you, gives you feedback and wants to work with you on something.
How do you describe The Way Home’s sound?
Each of us grew up with a unique catalog of family music traditions, from blues legends and classic RnB, to CCM [Contemporary Christian Music], to the rock radio classics of stations 105.7 and 92.9 in the Boston area, to the lush folk records stacked high in our grandparents crates. We each bring a little different flavor to the music we write together. We take a lot of shared inspiration from the musicianship and timeless melodies of old-school rock bands like Fleetwood Mac, Jackson Browne, and Bruce Springsteen, and blend our passion for the authentic rock sound with contemporary writing styles more in the vein of Noah Kahan and Zach Bryan.
At your recent show, I noticed, in songs like “Molly O’Leary,” the evolution of the band’s sound. What was the inspiration for that song?
When I was writing it, I had been having a difficult time — not really making enough money and trying to figure out what I was trying to do with this music, and missing home. I was trying to find the right kind of metaphor for what it’s like living as an adult far away from Boston, my hometown. I think that [finding it] has been a pillar of my writing goals for the entire time I’ve been in Nashville. So I thought of the Irish bars we have around here, places like The Burren [in Somerville], where everybody from your high school gathers when they come home for Thanksgiving. You all leave to take a stab at life, but there is this pull from home — to just be around the people you’ve known your entire life. It’s a fight to be the person you know you want to be.
Can you talk about how you work collectively as a band to develop a song?
I love writing with this group of creative people. I usually start with the music — playing random things, coming up with interesting core patterns on the guitar, and then singing mock words to get some vowels and ideas of what the song could be about. Anytime I have a song I’ll bring it to Jackson and Sam, and together we’ll tweak the melody and the lyrics. Then Emanuel, who always has an incredible sense of where things should go, chimes in. He grew up in a vibrant church scene and has this incredible talent for sculpting sound and energy. And then Charlie, who is an insane guitarist and producer, gets involved, and we all listen and bounce ideas off each other. We work and grow the ideas together, and we build songs that are all of us combined.
The audience at the Lizard Lounge was mesmerized by the band’s performance. How do you connect with your audience?
I’ve been performing pretty much my entire life singing in school ensembles, in my high school band, and with a wedding band. Playing weddings and shows where no one’s listening, I’ve enjoyed trying to amplify the room beyond where anyone thought we could collectively go. When people want to experience live music, they’re locked in as much as they’re enjoying drinking and having fun with their friends. They’re there to experience whatever it is we do, so every time I go on stage, I really respect that responsibility. My approach is we’re gonna make this the best night of your week. I’ve always loved that feeling when the air is moving and there’s nothing but sound and people clapping and screaming. It’s like the best high of all time.
What are the next steps for The Way Home?
I am really proud of all the songs we delivered at the show [at the Lizard Lounge]. I feel like we found ways to communicate that longing that we’ve all been sharing as friends who are still spread out across the country. In the next two months, with the help of some crowdsourcing, we are planning to record our album at Blackbird Studios.
Then in late September, we are planning a launch show in Nashville with another Boston-born band, Juniper, followed by a tour of the Northeast corridor in October, and a New Year’s show in New York. We are trying to build a community in Nashville, while also thinking about our broader digital presence. It’s all about reaching listeners.
The band just completed recording an EP of its songs at Blackbird Studios, as planned. Release is expected next spring.
Listen in …
YourArlington readers can view performances and listen to the music of The Way Home on YouTube, TikTok, Spotify and Apple Music.
March 30, 2024: From mozzarella to music: Making pizza, bursting into song
This news feature by YourArlington freelancer Maura Shea Crowley was published Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024.
