black queer woman-fronted rock band dakota jones shares bold ep

There’s a simmering intensity to Dakota Jones’ latest EP, the appropriately titled Pt. 3. Throwback blues grooves anchor tracks like “Have Mercy,” while singer Tristan Carter-Jones’ voice hints at explosion. The band has a timeless classic rock sound that revels in lean riffs and raw emotion. On the EP’s centerpiece “Beat Back Bones” Carter-Jones stretches her voice to its heights and the outcome is revelatory. It’s the kind of larger-than-life song that demands a larger-than-life stage.

Tristan Carter-Jones explains the band’s revolutionary posture, telling us “I’m a Black, queer woman expressing my thoughts and my love, and some folks still find that to be a transgressive act in and of itself. I work to fight that idea. I’m also a Black, queer woman- fronting three straight white men- in full control of our band’s message. I write a lot about my sexuality and the ways in which I express it – songs about rough sex and masturbation bounce back and forth between songs about the pain of love, good love, hangovers, self medication.”

Photo by Alexandra Johnson Photography