Shotgun Party: Press

" Unheralded opening trio Shotgun Party blew the house away with a set of Texas swing that had one foot among the tumbleweeds and the other in outer space. Singer Jenny Parrot has an arresting, brassy voice with a permanent, fluttering vibrato, and a stage presence that was just art-school enough to let you know somebody up there’s a-thinkin’. Kind of like a two-step Björk, without the annoyance factor. Fiddler Kay Rose Cox gets virtuoso honors for the night; her solos were hair-raising, heroic statements. Shotgun Party will be back, and when they are, go."

A lil' jug, some cowgirl, smudges of Betty Boop soundtracking, sneaky bordello, snarky and romantic country of course, and a variety of hybrid hybrids compose this way cool trio's dirt-road brass tack sonorities with far more grit, humor, and populist sentiment than one might suspect…and then Katy Cox proves to be one helluva fiddler on top of it all.

Shotgun Trio is a High Noon Mayberry ensemble straight out of a Mark Twain that's exceedingly deceptive in its period sound, filling out the environs masterfully with just a triad of great in-house axehandling (Jenny Parrott: gtr., vox; Katy Rose Cox: fiddle, vox; Chris Crepps: upright bass, vox) plus some guest clarinet and slide guitar. The disc's engineering is a gem in producing a perfect midground between polish, ground-level spaciousness, and ungentrified dirt roads. Jenny is sassy and devilishly seductive in a high pitched little girl's voice a good deal more knowing than the oft innocent lyrics suggest (and there's more than a trifle of double entendre, especially in cuts like "Kitchen Mechanic").

Think of the Ditty Bops joining in with Dan Hicks' Lickettes and ace backing band, and you have a fairly good Polaroid of what Shotgun Party, a very strange nomenclature for such a spunkily pacific band, really is. They swing, proto-rock, chance a tang of rag here and there, waltz about in gingham and cowboy boots, even roll out un canción and a few covers, all adeptly slotted into their nuanced style. Every cut is so well cohered that Mean Old Way hangs together like that prizewinning quilt at the county fair. No two ways about it, Shotgun Party is a hip hootenanny and a dreamy kitchen window country flirtation rolled into one sly package.

Shotgun Party
Mean Old Way

As winter chills, Shotgun Party levels a warm blast of summery swing and bluegrassy-folkie bounce on Mean Old Way. The Austin-based trio is a perfect target for fans of anything Maryann Price does, meaning their gentle yet lively music is as loaded with bandleader Jenny Parrott's mountain-cool vocals as it is shot with hot jazzy fiddle courtesy of Katy Rose Cox. It's Cox's fiddle that gives the band such personality, beginning with instrumental cover "Draggin' the Bow." On the other side, the unexpected beauty of the bilingual "Y Yo" suggests that Parrott's horizon is broader than it appears, as does the smoky presence of Steve James on slide and Stanley Smith on clarinet on "Run n Hide" and the sly "Kitchen Mechanic." Some of Mean Old Way's sweet new sound comes courtesy of producer Mark Hallman, who imbues the 17 songs with his legendary expertise, guaranteed to warm cold nights with someone you love.

"Their music lives in an area somewhere between honky-tonk or the classic blues of folks like Memphis Minnie, and modern alternative music. The instrumentation is completely traditional -- fiddle, bass and a gorgeous old archtop acoustic -- but the songs (all originals) go places you don't expect. Katy plays wicked fiddle, sometimes like horn lines, sometimes like keyboards, sometimes very dissonant, and Christopher Crepps on bass was right there with all the weird changes and unexpected turns, playing masterfully in the classic style. And Jenny Parrott is one of the quirkiest and most engaging singers I've seen in a bluegrass setting in some time, and a great songwriter. Her voice ranges from little-girlish to gutbucket blues, sometimes in a single line, and a stage presence that's hard to describe. Check the link above; they're playing several more times in the area over the next few weeks and are well worth catching."

"Now that's what I like to hear!"

Shotgun Party

Melding swinging, sultry jazz with dancehall sensibility, Shotgun Party falls somewhere between the White Ghost Shivers and Hot Club of Cowtown. Jenny Parrott's distinctively pitched whine kicks against the thudding upright rhythm of Christopher Crepps and the versatile fiddle fireworks of Katy Rose Cox.

"Best songs I've heard since Christ was a cowboy. An old rugged cross between Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen. Jenny Parrott has the purest most un-decaffeinated voice this side of Loretta Lynn." -Kinky Friedman

Shotgun Party sets their own mood and is the coolest most refreshing act I've seen in ages, complete with color coordinated outfits! I've loved them since the first time I saw them set foot on the Cactus stage under the floodlights. So get ready cuz Shotgun Party is goin' places!"

Sure, they've got hot fiddle , cool harmony and a take-no-prisoners approach to rhythm like all nice post-modern rockabillies should. ( If Johnny Ramone had played swing, he would have sounded like Jenny Parrott.) But it's not a vintage banner that these troops are flying when they play from their highly original songbook; it's a freak flag.
Hey! Is that thing loaded?

The Austin-based acoustic trio Shotgun Party doesn't entirely elude classification, but it comes close. Whatever it is -- a cracked 21st-century take on Western swing probably gets nearest -- it's weird and wild, in the old Johnny Carson catchphrase. Mostly, though, it's music, literally and metaphorically, to jaded ears. It's also a high-wire act, something that couldn't go the distance without exceptional musical chops, bracingly unhesitant vocals and songwriting of a high order.

The repertoire draws largely on guitarist/singer Jenny Parrott's endearingly odd, usually jazz-drenched originals. The songs go pretty much anywhere except in the direction you anticipate they're heading. In "Run N Hide," for example, she fires hot lead at a band member who criticizes her songs, then kisses him passionately. In the same song: "On the mornings I wake up to broken glass / It's like last night's love sure sat at the back of the class."

"Meet You on the Trail" gives one the disorienting sense that it's about buffalo hunting on acid. In the title song there's this: "In my mean old way / I'm coming home to you." The CD has a couple of songs that express something approximating conventional romantic sentiments, maybe.

Think a little of the Roches's worldview, but not too much. If the Roches are very New York, Shotgun Party is Texas, or anyway the best (as opposed to the, um, other) part of Texas, which is to say the place that's given us some of the finest music ever produced in America. Party appears to have taken it all in, stealing off with Lone Star blues, jazz, country and Tex-Mex, and returned bearing something with disconcertingly, if always pleasurably, shifting identities. It is with relief that one hears the occasional straightforward piece, such as the superbly executed version of the traditional fiddle tune "Draggin' the Bow."

Besides Parrott, Shotgun Party's regular line-up consists of the excellent Katy Rose Cox (formerly of the Brooklyn-based neo-oldtime band The Maybelles) and the more than able stand-up bassist Chris Crepps. Country-blues slide-guitarist Steve James and clarinetist Stanley Smith make periodic guest appearances. All told, it is indeed a party to remember, but be warned: the shotgun is loaded.

To set it off right, davinci launched with a free four-day mini music fest. Headlining the opening night (oct. 8) was austin's shotgun party, a Carter Family -esque trio specializing in country, folk, bluegrass and western swing. While many acts out there work the old-time into winking, insincere kitsch, these neo-traditionalists have the skill, enthusiasm and authenticity to separate themselves from the unsatisfying ironists.