[Cover photo credit to Megan Hollenbeck]
The Pinkerton Raid, who craft self-described “Dreamer Rock” and “Campfire Pop”, are known for their live shows punctuated with storytelling and commentary from New England native, North Carolina-based songwriter Jesse James DeConto. That commentary ranges widely from his interest in Nordic regions, the UK, Star Wars, Celtic lore, the natural world, and more. There are also a “fair number of songs about trees” in their catalog, which we should note.
Today, we are very pleased to premier a track titled “If a Tree Fell”, here at Wildfire Music + News, which arrives this Friday, July 12th, 2024. The song has a backstory that tugs on the heartstrings of anyone who has ever worked on a creative project and wished to share it as a way to actually connect with other human beings. But the immediate experience of the song is far more visceral than that idea, since it was designed to be absolutely saturated in mood and state of mind, and a dreamy one at that. Taking the subject of a Gibson guitar as a starting point, and floating away on the idea of its original materials of mahogany hailing from a tropical clime, The Pinkerton Raid waft the audience with summery breezes of strings and unexpectedly mellow beats to conjure a place and a mood.
While the lyrics themselves take the spotlight early on in the song, introducing very direct ideas in foregrounded fashion, as the song swirls and embraces repetition, the instruments blend almost inextricably with the ideas of the song, encapsulated in lines like “sound is music when you feel it.” To call this a “party song” would be a little bit of a disservice since it’s more like a “destination party song” which sets out to create an all-embracing mood with a sense of well-being. A little hint at its pandemic-inspired reverie can be excavated in its final lines if you listen closely. Given how strongly the song appeals to atmosphere, it would be a shame to miss it live if you have a chance to catch one of The Pinkerton Raid’s shows.
Jesse James DeConto explains about the emotional origin of the new track:
I was complaining to our old drummer Scott about struggling to connect with the right audience who would have the kind of experience that we’re trying to craft for them. Scott said I should write a song for those people; that was after playing for one of those very distracted and preoccupied barroom crowds, maybe six months before COVID started. During the lockdown, I finally dug into writing that song, and the sense of longing was only heightened because in those endless 18 months, we couldn’t be in the same room with any kind of audience at all, much less a beautifully connected one. “If a Tree Fell” is my attempt to capture the feeling that a song is incomplete until it makes somebody feel something.
On “If a Tree Fell”, Jesse DeConto handles guitar, bass, ukulele, and vocals, Chris Arnet plays drums and percussion, James Phillips plays piano, additional percussion, handles engineering, and mixing, and Cameron Collier plays trumpet. Meanwhile, Sarah Shearin, Suzanne DeConto, Caroline DeConto, and Megan Hollenbeck provide background vocals and Justin Longerbeam mastered the track.
Rounding out the members of The Pinkerton Raid are “trumpeter-keyboardist-disc golfer-culinary explorer” Cameron Collier, who brings Jazz training to the table. Chris Arnet is described as “a zen master on percussion,” as well as bringing the background vocals. He’s also a noted barista and sometime lumberjack, though the latter may be figurative. Interestingly, the trio has seven university degrees among them, which is enough to run a small, or even large country, these days.
Their most recently collection has been a group of winter-themed cover songs handled with great virtuosity, including Fleet Foxes’ “White Winter Hymnal”, which Wildfire also premiered. The band has opened for Illiterate Light, The Ballroom Thieves, TopHouse, Eliot Bronson, Driftwood, The Collection and Noah Gundersen. They’ve played festivals like Shakori Hills, Albino Skunk, Beacon Bonfire and AVL Fest with artists such as River Whyless, Sunny War, Watchhouse, Tall Heights, Amythyst Kiah and The Bones of JR Jones.
