Shenandoah Davis's 'popsicle' style

Seattle singer/songwriter Shenandoah Davis's brand of classically-influenced pop music has inspired many labels, from rock-tinged indie pop to popsicle.

Shenandoah Davis Photo: Louography

Davis, who's touring New Zealand, last year released her third album, Souvenirs, declared by American Songwriter as the perfect introduction to her orchestral sound and sweeping, singular voice.

"I was performing at Folsom Prison in California and an inmate described the style of music as popsicle - a mixture of pop and classical," she says. "She was just like 'this is the strangest thing I've ever heard'."

Made famous by Johnny Cash's 1968 concert recorded there, Folsom is one of the few California jails that still has musicians coming in to perform.

"The prison system used to have a lot of arts funding in the States. Quite a lot of it got cut about 10 years ago but because Johnny Cash had made Folsom Prison famous they were able to keep a little bit of their musical programming."

From a conservative family, and homeschooled until she was 15 grade, Davis' main exposure to music was through church. Starting on a toy keyboard, Davis played piano from the age of three, setting the trend for her three younger siblings; all four went on to take piano lessons.

At home, she spent hours every day playing music, so going to a "regimented" high school schedule was a shock. Davis went on to study classical music and opera performance in Colorado, going back to spending up to eight hours a day thinking about, learning and playing music. In the end she didn't want to be an opera performer - a competitive field, she says, but a dying art form worldwide.

In fact, performing is one of her "least favourite" parts of being a musician, but she values it as the only opportunity to observe people listening to and enjoying the music.

Davis moved to Seattle in 2007 and started writing her own music. "I really love the songwriting process and I love recording." As her day job she runs a nanny agency.

This month's New Zealand tour is her third to the country.  

"One of the reasons I like coming to New Zealand and playing is that people are more attentive and appreciative of shows here. In a lot of places we might be the only musical show happening there in a month so you end up with a much broader audience of people.

"In the States there are just so many bands, and so many shows going on all of the time, that sometimes attending one almost seems like a favour."

Since it takes so much time to plan a trip to New Zealand, and to get here, she makes sure perform outside main centres  - such as Okarito on the West Coast - and to do some sightseeing.