track list:

HOLOCENE, Justin Vernon

NORWEGIAN WOOD, Lennon & McCartney

RIVER, Joni Mitchell

BLUE CHRISTMAS, Hayes & Johnson

CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE, Guaraldi & Mendelson

HAPPY XMAS, Lennon & Ono

FAIRYTALE OF NEW YORK, Finer & Macgowan

A LONG DECEMBER, Counting Crows

WHITE WINTER HYMNAL, Robin Pecknold

A HAZY SHADE OF WINTER, Paul Simon

You could say that The Pinkerton Raid was born out of Christmas music, in a way. Some of singer-guitarist Jesse James DeConto’s earliest memories are of singing carols in church as an elementary-school kid. “Those melodies stick with me,” he says.  “‘Silent Night,’ ‘O Holy Night,’ ‘Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.’” It seemed only fitting that with five full-length albums of his own songs under his belt and nine years of leading annual holiday sing-alongs, Jesse would at some point make a Christmas album. But after three decades of spiritual evolution, how could he celebrate a season that had once guided his journey without getting tripped up by all the metaphysical ballast that now feels more like an anchor than a rudder? “I wanted to record winter songs that feel essentially human, that capture the loss and longing, regret and despair, the fallen leaves and cut trees, the death of the past that somehow carries hope and possibility for the future, the most basic joy of being together.”

With Vince Guaraldi, John Lennon and Elvis, Jesse was going back to his favorite childhood holiday songs, the ones that could emerge unscathed from his religious deconstruction. “River” wasn’t a song he could really appreciate as a kid, but that opening melody, “it’s comin’ on Christmas,” delivered with Joni’s ethereal soprano, was an anthem for the annual anticipation. With Bon Iver, Counting Crows and Fleet Foxes, Jesse tried for a close reading and reinterpretation of some of his favorite artists of his lifetime, some of the standard-bearers for the thoughtful indie-folk that’s he’s been trying to make. He enlisted producer James Phillips, whose band Bombadil has itself earned a loyal following among fans of quirky modern folk.

DeConto tracked bass successively with drummers Andy Reed and Chris Arnet, and the collaborative recording process flowed from there. Trumpeter Cameron Collier joined as DeConto and Phillips were plotting the overdubs that would give the album its lush sound. Collier’s brass and DeConto’s guitars alternate and interweave melodies throughout the songs, and keyboards from Phillips and from Victoria Victoria’s Noah Elliott accent the dynamic push and pull. The band's one-time bass player Derek Skeen and occasional collaborators Sarah Shearin, Alex Mitchell, Caroline DeConto, Megan Hollenbeck, and Suzanne DeConto formed a small choir in Phillips’ studio to add the whisper of winter.

The result is a tribute to the most natural, most elemental features of the season: the cold, the ice, the snow, the quiet, the fireside warmth, the layers of clothing, the seasonal depression, the futurist hope.