Every now and then a record comes along that turns out to be exactly the thing you were looking for-whether you knew it or not. Enter New York trio Shivaree with their latest, Who’s Got Trouble?, an addictive sliver of noir-ish pop flavoured with old-timey country and jazz. Marvelously named singer Ambrosia Parsley (yes, that’s her real name) slinks and coos her way through a landscape of sex and danger like a new-school Billie Holiday, making for the perfect soundtrack to daydream away the February blahs.
Shivaree (who take their name from charivari, or the ancient European custom of serenading the bride and groom at a wedding by making a racket) first turned heads with their sly 1999 debut I Oughta Give You a Shot in the Head For Making Me Live in This Dump (Best. Title. Ever.)-but that was five years ago, an eternity in pop terms. In the interim, their aptly named second album, Rough Dreams, never saw the light of day on these shores after Shivaree was dropped by Capitol Records.
“It’s the same yucky, boring story that happens over and over again to people in my line of work,” Parsley offers from her home in upstate New York before heading out on tour this week. “New record company president came in, we didn’t get along-it was a bad idea for us to work together. It could have been a lot less painful than it was, but that’s not how they chose to do things. I was depressed for a good couple of months, but that got boring and stupid, so we decided to write another record, because that’s what we do.”
Parsley and her bandmates Duke McVinnie and Danny McGough regrouped by signing with well-regarded independent roots label Rounder, who left the band to their own devices while they made Who’s Got Trouble? (the title was inspired by a line in like-minded classic flick Casablanca). Recording for an indie meant a smaller budget and less time in the studio, though one can hardly tell from the lush end product.
“We were in a beautiful studio in the Catskills; we were just there for less time,” explains Parsley, giggling as her dogs interrupt the conversation by barking madly in the background at trucks driving by. “Which ended up actually being a really good thing, because I learned that time and options can maybe be a little bit of a devil for me. Instead of being there for a couple months, we were there for a week. I had a blast doing it like that-it was much more straightforward.”
Shivaree’s career arc has been anything but linear-McVinnie comes from the avant-garde jazz scene, McGough “from a 50s, 60s pop place,” and as for Parsley, well, let’s just say her musical upbringing is as flamboyant as her name.
“The first music I ever learned was old songs from the 30s and the 40s,” she begins, settling into the story. “My mother’s mother was an entertainer called the Uke Lady. She was in our backyard in an old Airstream trailer, and she played this thing called an arrow uke-it’s a weird ukelele that looks sort of like an airplane, with big wings on it. And she wore big sparkly muumuus and stuffed her feet into these tiny gold slippers, wore great big silver wigs and red Lee Press-On Nails. And she played this uke really hard, like she’d been listening to Chuck Berry records or something; she banged on this thing like a crazy lady. And she was also a really great singer who had really good phrasing. She was just a wild character, a Hall of Famer kinda person. She had to be referred to as either the ‘Uke Lady,’ or sometimes ‘Hot Rod Suzie,’ depending.
“So she taught me dozens of these old songs, and there was this Shakey’s Pizza across the street from where I grew up, and that’s where my family ate three or four nights a week. Shakey’s is this American pizza chain that has this cowboy saloon theme to it, and when I was a little girl, there was always a live musician that worked there, and [at the one] across the street from my house, there was a piano player and a banjo player that played all the same songs my grandmother played, so I knew them all. So I would get up and sing with them, and people would give me quarters to play the video games they had in the corner. And one day the banjo player said, ‘You know what? There’s a bigger Shakey’s a couple towns over, and twice a month, we have a 99-piece senior citizen banjo band that plays the same repertoire-‘Won’t You Come Home, Bill Bailey,’ ‘Cha Cha Cha,’ all that stuff. So my parents would take me there twice a month, and they’d put me on a table, and I’d sing with them, which was… loud. One banjo is loud, and they’re all deaf, so they’re just banging away,” she chortles.
“So those were the first songs I learned, and I still find myself being pulled to those sort of chord changes and style of writing lyrics. So with the band, the three of us all kind of come from three different places that somehow meets in the middle-throw a little surf guitar in with those three things, and I guess you have Shivaree.”
As if that wasn’t entertaining enough, Parsley harkens back to her big band roots with a current weekly gig on Air America, the New York-based lefty talk-radio station. Since it debuted last year, Ambrosia Sings the News has become one of the station’s most popular segments, Parsley framing the headlines of the day in her indelible voice and biting wit.
“Writing different lyrics to the same song every week for a year-it’s been an interesting brain exercise,” laughs Parsley. “Also, it’s fun and not that common for somebody that does what I do. I’m just a singer and a songwriter-it’s been great to get to help out in that sort of arena and hopefully give people a little bit of a laugh in the middle of a lot of terrifying information.
“And there’s also the Chuck D. factor, which is in and of itself reason enough to do it,” she enthuses. “Every once in a while, we get to do it live, which means I get to go sit next to him, which is very exciting. I’m always bringing different musicians in, and everybody brings all their Public Enemy records and goes, ‘Will you sign this?’ It’s fun for the whole family.”
Though usually pegged as a trio (Parsley and Co. have been the core of the group for nine years), Shivaree’s extended musical family has roots deep in the NYC scene. Since their touring band is made up of “whoever’s available,” every Shivaree show is different, from a recent hometown gig that saw ten players on stage to their two upcoming Toronto dates at Lula Lounge next week, which Parsley is looking forward to despite the band’s last local visit.
“We played in Toronto once, but I think there were maybe 6 or 8 people there-it was one of those,” she laughs. “Very nice people, but not a whole lot of them.”
Hopefully there will be more of you there when Shivaree plays Feb. 15 and 17 at Lula Lounge (1585 Dundas St. W.). Tickets are $12 at Rotate This, Soundscapes, and Sam the Record Man.
