Shivaree - Under the Moon with Ambrosia

Shivaree (from the French charivari, a serenade for newlyweds, often used along the banks of the Mississippi) is the name behind which Ambrosia Parsley hides, a twenty-nine-year-old Californian whose name evokes the nectar of the gods and whose sensual voice whispers delicate, ironic songs.

The band's debut album, I Oughtta Give You A Shot In The Head For Making Me Live In This Dump, topped charts across half the world, riding the success of the aching single "Goodnight moon". A gorgeous, sad, multi-coloured melody, sung by Parsley in a husky pop register reminiscent of Stevie Nicks, which Breil chose as the soundtrack for its latest commercial. "I've never seen the ad," Ambrosia recalls, "a phone call came in and soon after that song was everywhere. Then again, in my life things have always happened a bit by chance and a bit by magic. Like in the movies." Born in California, in San Fernando Valley, Parsley grew up in a large, eccentric family, where she quickly developed a taste for music. "My father and my two brothers always played country music, my maternal grandmother played piano and ukulele. My mother just liked to dream, and never wanted to cook. So we often went out for pizza, and there, by chance, I started singing on the tables of the restaurant together with some banjo players. I was seven."

Her grandmothers, in particular, are two key figures in Ambrosia's life. Her maternal grandmother, the romantic one, taught her to play music, while the other taught her to understand passion. "She always told me about the time, years before, when she went to get my grandfather back, a heartbreaker who had left her for another woman. She took the kids and moved from West Virginia to California, where he'd gone to live. Then, one morning, she knocked on his door and stabbed him in the shoulder. Lightly, but enough to send a message. Of course the story had a happy ending, and my grandfather came back to her." Her meeting with the two Shivaree session men, guitarist Duke McVinne and keyboardist Danny McGough, also came about by chance. "After my early experiences as a kid, I didn't think I'd become a singer. I had a ton of jobs - waitress, bookshop clerk, cosmetics saleswoman... but I wrote a lot. I liked finding stories that gave me strong emotions, letting them settle inside me and then dressing them up in sounds and words. I met Duke at a party, and he wormed his way into my life right away, arranging one of my songs." From there came the birth of a tight-knit trio, who took the name Shivaree from "drunken serenades" (country-style shouting for bachelor-party send-offs). The album's endless title ("I Oughtta Give You A Shot In The Head For Making Me Live In This Dump") has an immediate comic impact: "I chose it because I liked it, not for its length. The words relate to an American sitcom from the '60s: a cow swallows a little radio, and those words are the verse of a song the radio is playing when the vet manages to pull the device out of the animal's stomach."

The twelve tracks on the album offer a lively blend of folk ballads and pop flourishes. An alchemy of sounds, emotions and dark, bizarre, fascinating background noise, which Ambrosia's soft femme-fatale voice manages to elevate. The record moves from the trip-hop of "Bossa Nova" to the spiritual feel of "Arlington Girl", from the tender piano-and-guitar ballad "Idiot waltz" to the tipsy blues Tom Waits-style of "Lunch", from the feverish dance of "Pimp" to the drowsy trance of "I don't care". It's a repertoire mindful of the Bristol trip-hop lesson (Massive Attack, Portishead), but also of traditional American folk. Among the songs is one with an Italian title: "Arrivederci", inspired by "a melancholy farewell at a Milan airport five years ago", as the singer explained. "We just make songs, but each one has to be its own small, exciting universe. What matters is that even the most dramatic tracks ("Ash wednesday", for instance, tells of the wait, after her cremation, for the ashes of Patricia, Duck's sister, who died of cancer) retain a sense of calm, detachment, and a light touch of humour. To exorcise the drama and live life a little more peacefully." Raised among hippies ("my father had long hair and an unkempt beard, my mother was the typical freak"), listening to Billie Holiday and Nina Simone, Ambrosia says she's always been very drawn to country music, but that these days she mostly listens to PJ Harvey, Bjork, Radiohead, Vic Chestnut, Sparklehorse and Rufus Wainwright. Linda Berry and Garcia Marquez are her favourite authors, while at the cinema she can't stand films that are too violent. Despite her sensual aura, the Californian singer is essentially an anti-diva, who plays with her own popularity with the irony of a seasoned bluffer. Whether with or without Shivaree, we'll surely keep hearing about Ambrosia Parsley.

In 2002, Rough Dreams confirmed the American outfit's talent, though here and there it was somewhat clouded by a touch of mannerism. The title, this time terse, comes from an Otis Redding song: "We liked the idea of the troubled dream, the dream perspective turned upside down. Whether it's a bad dream or a good one," Ambrosia explains. The album is an eclectic survey of pop, trip hop, techno rock and much more, moving from the energy of "Thundercats" to the dreamy melancholy of ballads like "Stealing Home". Tom Waits's influence grows ever stronger (drummer Stephen Hodges played with the Pomona singer-songwriter for several years), but the impression is that it lacks a track able to renew the emotion and success of "Goodnight Moon".

Ambrosia's voice, however, continues to enchant on Who's Got Trouble? (2005), blending sexy inflections with an almost childlike innocence. The upbeat energy of "It Got All Black" and "I Close My Eyes", and the more subdued tones of the alluring "I Will Go Quietly", keep the standard at a respectable level, even if, by this third outing, it's starting to show some wear.

Now operating in semi-obscurity, the Californian band also delivered their fourth studio effort, Tainted Love: Mating Calls & Fight Songs (2007), a collection of covers of international love songs. It alternates an almost industrial version of Chuck Berry's "I Wanna Be Your Driver", a sensual "Half On A Baby" by R. Kelly, a cinematic reworking of Tanya Tucker's "Would You Lay With Me (In A Field Of Stone)", the jazz-pop of Ike Turner's "My Heart Belongs To You", a reissue of the Ronettes' "Paradise" and an extravagant lounge makeover of Motley Crue's "Looks That Kill". Also worth mentioning is the cover of Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough". But by now the Shivaree name is practically a ghost.

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