Serafima & The Shakedowns

Serafima and The Shakedowns finds influence in the likes of Johnny and June Carter Cash, Kimya Dawson, Lily Allen, Dan Reeder, and Cake – somewhere in there among the honest and the groovy. Her lyrics hit you in the heart and stick in your head – wry, time-twisting verses as deceptively complex as her protagonists and their experiences. She won’t lie to you, but she just might tell you a story … so keep up, folks, and let’s ride along. If Serafima’s lyrics are so honest, they burn, The Shakedowns distribute the heat, electrifying classic elements from the Golden Age of Radio, honky tonk, and Russian folk. With drummer Jules Tennyson joining in 2023, and the arrival in 2025 of trumpet player Finn O’Hea, and second drummer Ian Davidson in 2026, The Shakedowns rounded out to a six piece, with founding guitarist Sam Burrows and bassist Joe McPhee, and Serafima on vocals and rhythm guitar. Onstage, they’re a party. “I like to say it’s hunky tonk,” Serafima says. “Because my bandmates are all hunks”. While tasty drums and steady-chickin’ rhythm guitar hold each song to the silver thread at its core, the other players spin, swell, and rise up in the mix in turn – melodic bass, country-fried guitar leads, hook-laden trumpet, gossamer pedal steel, and sparkly honky-tonk keys. It feels like a circus, a carnival, a house party.