A lot has changed over the years for Dalton & the Sheriffs, the country band led by lead vocalist and acoustic guitarist Brian Scully. They have performed at venues located in New York City, Boston, Charlotte, Nashville, Chicago, New Jersey, and many others. They have been all over the country to perform but one thing that has never changed is their gigs at the Chicken Box.
“What we sort of do is throw a party and there is no better place to throw a party than the Chicken Box,” Scully said. “This crowd is rowdy man. I feel like this crowd thinks they are going to drinking work. Like it is regular work where you punch in and you are expected to do a specific job. This isn’t amateur hour. People come in here and say ‘nope I know exactly what my playbook is for this bar and I’ll make sure everyone thinks I did a great job by the time the night ends.’”
The band performed at the Chicken Box last night and will close out their weekend tonight with another show. The Box has a place in Scully’s heart for many reasons aside from the electric crowds, which makes these weekend trips to Nantucket all the more special. The Box gave the band an opportunity to play in front of larger crowds, and has helped lead to shows in other areas of the country.
“People learn about us here and then go elsewhere and find us,” he said. “It always has a connection to the Box. This is like the home of the Dalton culture. I think for all the fun that is had, most people who come are here aren’t looking for trouble. They come to have fun and a good time. We are lucky to have crowds like that who carry the energy they bring here to other venues. Not every band’s typical crowd wants to come to a show and have fun the right way. I have probably played this stage a couple hundred times at this point. This is where everything stems from.”
The relationship between the band and the Box began about ten years ago when Scully reached out to Box co-owner Packy Norton to talk about the bands success in South Boston. Scully asked Norton if he had any interest in booking his band.
“It just so happened they were looking for a band on the day we were looking and they wanted to try country because its popularity was growing on the island,” Scully said. “We just didn’t let them send us home after that.”
Along with Scully, Jay Tagg and Ryan Jackson play guitar, Jake Wertman plays the drums, and Dennis Walsh plays the bass. Scully said the band’s lineup has changed several times over the years and that this group came together right before the pandemic.
“We put together a couple of magical shows including one at Ulysses in New York City right before the pandemic,” Scully said. “Then the world shut down. We did a lot of recording. We have put out 23 or 24 songs at this point. We did anything and everything during that time. We tried to do the right thing the whole time to keep the band vibing while helping people out.”
“I think during COVID a lot of bands found a reason to break up, but we found a way to stick together.”
Scully has been with Dalton and the Sheriffs since the very beginning. His passion for music has never been in question. While the world was in quarantine, Scully regularly held live concerts on the band’s Instagram page for his fans to enjoy from their homes.
Scully said he has never played with a group of guys who wanted to be at the shows as much as him or the crowd until now. He feels the band is made up of the perfect combination of musicians that can help take it to the next level.
“Dalton and the Sheriffs has been a lot of things over the years, good and bad, but I think we are now finally an actual band and that is part of the reason why things have kind of started to take off,” Scully said. “If you want to come along for the ride now jump on in because people are coming.”
It isn’t just the shared passion for performing that helps this group click. These five admit they have experienced plenty of success, and failure, in their music careers over the years that has helped them grow and create better music.
“Being in a band is really a lot of trial and error,” Tagg said. “So now for all of us, who have been involved with music and in a band for 20 or 30 years, we can take all we have learned and come together to forge a path forward together.”
Tagg said when they perform at the box, they feel less pressure to be perfect and feel more free to play the music they want to play. He said he believes that makes the shows at the Box some of their best.
“Sometimes you need to win the audience over but the minute you show up at the Chicken Box they love you,” he said. “It is great for us though because it allows us to relax and just play music we love. We also just love the box because it gets dark and we look better in the dark.”
It isn’t dark enough to prevent the guys from analyzing the activity in the Box crowd however.
“Every single time we play I look into the crowd and in my mind I am like ‘well that is new. I didn’t expect to see that,” Scully said. “When I am playing I am pretty into it but it is between songs where I just look out and I am like damn this place is a mad house.”
Tagg said the crowd at the Box, despite their rowdiness, knows how to teeter the line between out of control and wild.
“I think the owners and guys at the Box do a great job of keeping people right at that line and that is another thing I just love about this place.”
