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.

Folk-pop artist Mackenzie Shivers brings out her fourth full-length album, primrose was in season, on March 1st, 2024. On the album, 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.

1. a cautionary tale
2. nest
3. marigolds
4. hush now
5. pedestal
6. paper dolls
7. johnny gown
8. borrowed time
9. terracotta floors
10. whatever it takes

This highly impressive 10-track collection of new tracks opens on the, at first, hauntingly ethereal, latterly a translucent pop ballad opener of a cautionary tale and the veritably glistening nest and they are followed by the more organic piano fare of marigolds, the beautifully wistful hush now, and then comes the resonant pedestal.

Along next on this set of ten new compositions that combine magic with grief is the dutifully layered, structured hushed tones of paper dolls and the danceable, synth-driven foot tapper johnny gown, and they are in turn backed by the lighter fare of borrowed time, the set rounding out on a melodious pop line that drives terracotta floors, closing on the more astutely honed whatever it takes.

Musicians:
Mackenzie Shivers: vocals, grand piano, keyboard, pump organ, Farfisa compact organ
Kevin Salem: electric guitar, banjo, bass guitar (2, 3), drums (9), pot and pans
Yuka Tadano: electric bass, upright bass
Cody Rahn: drums

Official Purchase Link