If you’ve watched local television in the past month or so, you’ve probably seen Erin Ivey. She’s the pixie dancing and singing amongst the clothes in the Reid’s Cleaners commercial. It’s garnered the singer-songwriter lots of interest and the old “selling out” argument doesn’t apply – you have to use Google to find out it’s her.
“I had one woman who said, ‘I hate that commercial,’ and I wanted to kiss her,” Ivey admits. “I was so fucking happy for the six hours that it took to shoot the commercial that I didn’t smile for two weeks afterward. I’m generally a happy person, but I do have a bit of inner darkness.”
Even though she’s still relatively unknown, Ivey’s adventurousness stands out in a town saturated with singer-songwriters. For example, tomorrow night she’s headlining a bill at the Parish that includes Jon Dee Graham (“He makes me want to smoke cigarettes”) and her backing band will be reggae/dub trio the Finest Kind. She also leads Grand Hotel, a combo that sold out the Rollins Theater at the Long Center last fall, performing jazz and swing standards from the 1920s and 1930s.
Originally from Maryland, where she was an aspiring Deadhead (my kind of girl), Ivey moved to Austin to attend UT in 1996. She began writing songs on borrowed guitars, spent as much time in France as she could (“I love the language!”), and after college moved between here and Portland, Ore., where her first disc The 11th Floor was recorded. There was also a year spent working in Peoria, Ill., where isolation fueled her muse. Since 2007 she’s released two EPs – the latest, Sweet Little EP, features a remarkable cover of Radiohead’s “Climbing Up the Walls.”
Thursday’s show promises to be Ivey’s last appearance for a few months. “I’m going to upper Michigan for the summer,” she explains. “There’s too much going on here in Austin and I need to get away once in a while. I enjoy the solitude.” In the meantime, she’s readying a DVD release of her Long Center appearance, currently available as a digital audio download at her website, and contemplating another full-length disc.
This article appears in April 24 • 2009.