12-song, full-length album, with art by Jeannine Erasmus, including song lyrics
Includes unlimited streaming of The Highway Moves the World
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 3 days
edition of 300
$20USD
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
THE HIGHWAY MOVES THE WORLD + WHERE THE WILDEST SPIRITS FLY + TOLERANCE ENDS, LOVE BEGINS on vinyl. Two hours of warm analog sound for just $40!
Includes unlimited streaming of The Highway Moves the World
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 3 days
$40USDor more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
12-song full-length album, gatefold eco-wallet with art by Jeannine Erasmus
Includes unlimited streaming of The Highway Moves the World
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 3 days
edition of 1000
$10USDor more
Get all five of our albums on CD for just $30
ships out within 3 days
$30USD
T-Shirt/Shirt
Our song "Dream the Sun" was inspired by a tattoo meant to signify our confidence that the sun will rise, something we can believe even when the night is most dark and the sun is below the horizon. For additional sizes, please visit pinkertonraid.com/merch
ships out within 3 days
$20USD
T-Shirt/Shirt
The world, our world, as something we can almost hold in our hands, but not quite -- it's a theme that runs through our 2022 album THE HIGHWAY MOVES THE WORLD. You can hear it in the lyrics, you can see it in the music-videos for "Lisbet Cries" and the title track. And you can wear it! For print-to-order on additional sizes, please visit pinkertonraid.com/merch
The Pinkerton Raid’s “Rebel Mama Blues” is a satirical slow-burner with a Bowie-meets-Black Keys feel—a blast of zeitgeist-capturing political garage-psych that explores how a whole generation of white hippie-boomer parents were unconsciously primed for late-life Fox News brainwashing by 1960s anti-authoritarian individualism.
When the Durham, N.C., band’s singer and guitarist Jesse James DeConto wrote the song—premiering exclusively today at The Big Takeover—he’d been meditating on how a steady diet of Right-wing propaganda has strained intergenerational family relationships for him and so many of his friends.
“I always thought of my parents’ generation as these hippies who stood up to The Man,” DeConto says. “Then when all the post-mortems came out after the 2016 election, it was clear that the hippies, the boomers, were the ones who chose Donald Trump. They thought of him as some kind of rebel because he didn’t have political experience, and he was supposed to be this outsider who would ‘drain the swamp.’ None of that ever made any sense to me. They gave the power of the presidency over to a bully—the opposite of a rebel, the guy who beats up on rebels. And that’s exactly what happened when he sent federal agents and soldiers to intimidate Black Lives Matter protesters.”
For years now, DeConto and his mother have been “tiptoeing around the elephants—and donkeys—in the room.” The song isn’t specifically about her, though the two have certainly had their share of political disagreements over the years.
“It’s not intended as personal criticism,” DeConto explains. “I think what’s happened with my Mom is part of something bigger, and that’s what I’m interested in. It’s unprecedented—we’re having family conflicts I’ve never seen in my lifetime. The first time I noticed was 15 or 20 years ago with my grandmother. I think 9/11 stoked a general xenophobia, and we saw anti-immigrant rhetoric begin to take hold. Since then, FOX has been a propaganda machine, convincing masses of white conservative Christians they’re being threatened, persecuted or replaced.”
“It plays into the natural fears of aging people—that they can’t keep up with cultural changes; that their kids and grandkids are moving away from them physically, psychologically, spiritually and politically; that they’re being left behind or pushed aside. By the end of her life, my grandmother was angry about all these distant political matters that had very little to do with her life. It was like she’d become a different person on a steady diet of Fox News.”
With the boomers having lived through Vietnam, Watergate, Iran contra, the Iraq War, the 2008 financial crisis, and now a brutal pandemic, “Rebel Mama Blues”—while scathing in its condemnation—is also sympathetic. For their generation, DeConto says, “there’s “a fundamental distrust of those in power. It’s barely about policy differences—it’s a crisis of authority and trust. I think it speaks to the depth of anger at the ruling class, an anger that has become unmoored from reality and has voted against its own self-interest. So Trump comes along and amplifies that mistrust for his own aggrandizement.”
Wrapping up his thoughts on The Pinkerton Raid’s politically charged new single—a track sonically anchored by pounding drums, impassioned vocals, and some blistering Fender Mustang leads—DeConto condemns authoritarianism and stresses the importance of compromise.
“It takes so much time and energy to clear away the propaganda, distractions, and alternative facts, that everybody’s nerves are frayed by the time we get around to having a real conversation. But there’s still common ground to be found. Politics is compromise, and that often means voting for the lesser evil. But electing a ‘strongman’ is a rejection of the compromise of democracy.”
-- Jen Dan, The Big Takeover magazine
lyrics
Mama broke the rich man's heart, for the guitar-slinging boy
With the curly hair and the hippie beard and the hustle on the side
Her daddy said, 'Be careful, child.' But she did not heed his word
The kingpins came with guns afire and a baby in her arms
You know, mama, she's a rebel. And rebels always trade
one hipshot-shooting showman for the next
She said, "So long, Father Anthony,
I gotta find myself a preacher man.
Cuz I don't need no haloed saint to pray me into heaven'
The preacher man wore power suits
He drove a Corvette painted white
The maidens, wives and concubines all paid their widow's mites
You know, mama, she's a rebel. And rebels always trade
one hipshot-shooting showman for the next
Mama heals the hurting ones, making room for everyone
But when it's time to pay the taxman,
She says, 'Taxman, leave us be.'
She speaks up for the billionaires, sets fire to the deal we made
You want a revolution, well, mama, take it slow
You know, mama, she's a rebel. And rebels always trade
one hipshot-shooting showman for the next
credits
from The Highway Moves the World,
track released October 23, 2020
Copyright 2020 Jesse James DeConto (ASCAP Clarendon Street Press)
Jesse James DeConto: vocals, slide guitar
Scott McFarlane: drumkit
Jonathan DePue: bass
David Wimbish: audio production. lead guitar
Greg Abate, Neon Audio: mastering
Alsqueezy: single art design
Words seem too simple to describe the energy and joy and humanity of this music and these people ... there's just life in it, is all we can say. The Pinkerton Raid
Sean is a provocateur and an entertainer -- he recalls Dylan's later flamboyance, Bowie's baritone, Prince's musicianship. There's just so much good and beautiful in what he does. The Pinkerton Raid
supported by 5 fans who also own “Rebel Mama Blues (digital bonus track)”
Wonderful... some of Hiatt's best songs are here. I've been a fan since Riding with the King. This is gloriously played, too. What a band. anthonytoner
Elizabeth Morris of Allo Darlin’ returns with a new group! “Winter Sun” is a tender blend of pastoral folk and diary-like lyrics. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 8, 2019
