The Pinkerton Raid

The Pinkerton Raid makes ebullient, dynamic Americana and indie pop out of Durham, N.C. The music starts with Jesse James DeConto’s intimate songwriting. A big, joyful band of six to 10 players can bring brilliant brass and bright harmonies. Or Jesse can whisper over plaintive picking on his ancient Gibson J45. It’s why The Pinkerton Raid has shared stages with high-energy pop acts like The Collection, The Soil & The Sun and The Old Ceremony or with gentle folk singers like Noah Gunderson, Denison Witmer, The Cactus Blossoms or Lowland Hum. They’ve played notable venues from The Surf Club in St. Paul to the Rock & Roll Hotel in Washington D.C. They’ve also played festivals and music series all over the East Coast and Midwest. Their self-titled debut in 2012 and their 2014 follow-up A Beautiful World won critical acclaim. Critics have hailed their 2017 effort, Tolerance Ends, Love Begins, comparing the sound to both the dark beauty of The National and the pure joy of Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes. Over the course of three full-length albums, the desperate wail of DeConto’s indie-rock songwriting has yielded space to the hooks of classic pop and the charms of twee folk. “The tension is what makes it great,” says WUNC’s Frank Stasio. “The group recalls the hey-day of indie rock,” wrote Louise Parker at Paste Magazine. “A masterpiece … the definition of beauty.” “Exquisite,” wrote Meredith Schneider at Impose. “The emotion pulling you from your seat as you sway your hips.” “Glorious … intricate … playful,” described Emily Hinde at No Depression. “A top year-end list contender? You can certainly count on it.” For Popdose’s, Rob Ross it’s full of “earthiness and musicianship.” “A stunning synthesis of folkloric beauty,” wrote Mike Greenblatt of Aquarian Weekly. The band is hard at work on its fourth full-length album, a collection of landscape songs about the places we call home and the spaces in between. They are songs of hope, solidarity and protest, exploring race, the environment, the quest for truth and the possibility of peace, all bound up in vivid storytelling from Jesse’s journalistic eye.

Durham, NC