Classic Clips : Shivaree “Goodnight Moon” Live at the Theatre Des Varietes Paris, 2002

There’s got to be a great poll to be staged soon to find out the best debut album title ever. For what it’s worth, my nomination would be cult band Shivaree’s 1999 album ‘I Oughtta Give You A Shot In The Head For Making Me Live In A Dump Like This’. The band, whose name is taken from a slang word for a drunken serenade, was fronted by the wonderfully named Ambrosia Parsley. Her first gig was performing with a 99 piece senior citizen banjo band at a local pizzeria in the Fernando Valley.

She left home at 13 and travelled the country in pursuit of a career in music and ended up working tracking in a recording studio where she met Duke McVinnie,  who was working with Johnnie Otis and JJ Cale at the studio – and struck up a musical friendship. Keyboardist Danny McGough (who had toured with Tom Waits) met the duo and a mutual love of similar music developed into them forming a band – Shivaree. They managed to persuade Joe Henry to produce their debut, recorded in Henry’s backyard.

It’s an amazing album full of bluesy, raw americana and a feel reminiscent of early Tom Waits. Their most famous track from it was this one – which was to feature in the closing credits to Tarentino’s Kill Bill Vol 2.

The band made four albums and Parsley made a great solo album ‘Weeping Cherry’ in 1995. She also managed an unusual feat in 2004, when she embarked on a project for the liberal radio station Air America called ‘Ambrosia Sings The News’ – where she provided a short song, usually under a minute, always with the same melody, that attempted to encapsulate the contents of the previous week’s news headlines.

This live rendition of their most famous song wonderfully demonstrates the band’s perfectly pitched mixture of blues and eclectic americana and also shows how Parsley was a captivating lead singer. Their debut album is really worth checking out and still sounds as fresh and invigorating now as it did back in the late nineties.