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Photo Credit: Sara Haile
When Mackenzie Shivers creates music, it’s as if it demands to be heard. The Hudson Valley based singer-songwriter began writing music and playing piano when she was four years old, telling her mother she had “music locked inside of her that needed to come out.” Her writing provides a conduit for complex emotions, untangling as they poke through the surface, yearning to be explored and set free. Her fourth full-length album primrose was in season, produced by frequent collaborator Kevin Salem (Rachel Yamagata, Emmylou Harris), is vivid feminine alt-folk, a powerful portrait of inner fragility and strength that’s at once gossamer and deeply profound. The ten new compositions intertwine magic with grief, illustrating the two can, and often do, co-exist. Shivers boldly gives a glimpse into her healing process after losing her first pregnancy, triumphantly capturing a depth of feeling that illuminates both her resilience and vulnerability. Electric guitar, a mix of dance beats and organic drums, and Shivers’s trademark piano bolster her most adventurous work to-date.
Through textures that are handmade and vibrant, Shivers examines who she is in the wake of loss and transition, all the while pulling each listener into a stunning musical terrain. Ethereal pop opener “a cautionary tale” and the evocative “pedestal” capture an internal struggle to confess she’s not always as put together as she seems. “It’s just an illusion, like the theory that things come easy for me,” she reveals on the opening track. Downright danceable “nest” and “johnny gown” prove that Shivers’s soul-baring lyrics aren’t just suited for ballads, while hymn-like “marigolds”, almost child-like in delivery, offers an unfussy and unguarded peek into someone trying to make sense of personal tragedy. “Is this how I should behave? I don’t know anymore, I just wax and I wane,” she sings on the penultimate “terracotta floors,” draping her ambivalence in a surprising tapestry of banjo and pump organ. The album ends on a note of hard-won hope in “whatever it takes”, driving and diverting with the help of Yuka Tadano on bass and Cody Rahn on drums.
As with all true artists, Shivers’s sound is constantly evolving yet instantly recognizable. With primrose was in season, she proves her artistry is as versatile and definitive as the title’s early spring bloom. She is someone who is unafraid to grow, to dig, to unearth all sides of herself. The self-portrait she paints is honest and flawed, shimmering and spirited. The title, a lyric from the gritty and grooving “hush now”, holds meaning beyond its wistful beauty. The primrose, signaling the end of winter with its vast array of colors, has a reputation for healing wounds. “This album has been an empowering way for me to move forward,” says Shivers. “And I hope it gives listeners a space to feel any and all things. Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned from this process, it’s that nothing you feel is wrong. Feeling all emotions is the only way to move through them. Maybe even towards joy.”
primrose was in season will be released in 2024.