Biography
Chicken Grass/Princess Shaw represents a transatlantic funk and soul collaboration between Chicken Grass — a six-piece band hailing from Oulu, a small city in Northern Finland — and Princess Shaw, the stage name of Samantha Montgomery, a Chicago-born, New Orleans-based singer and songwriter. Chicken Grass formed over two decades ago in the unlikely hotbed of Oulu, where members Tapio Wiik (vocals/keys), Mikko Räisänen (guitar), Janne Valppu (bass), Olli Tuomainen (sax/flute), Janne Mathlin (drums), and Jallu Junnilainen (percussion) channeled their passion for New Orleans funk and soul into a relentless live act. Their self-titled debut album, recorded live at Philophon Studio in Berlin with Grammy-winning producer Max Weissenfeldt, marked their bid for wider international recognition — and it was for this project that they sought out Princess Shaw.
Samantha Montgomery, raised in Indiana and eventually transplanted to New Orleans, spent years working as a certified nursing assistant while pursuing music at open-mic nights and posting raw, confessional a cappella videos to YouTube under the name Princess Shaw. Her voice caught the attention of Israeli composer and video artist Ophir "Kutiman" Kutiel, who wove her recordings into his acclaimed mashup project Thru You Too around 2013, sending her music viral to over two million listeners seemingly overnight. Israeli documentary filmmaker Ido Haar captured this unlikely story in the 2015 film Presenting Princess Shaw, which earned a Critics' Choice Award nomination and won the Israeli Academy Award for Best Documentary. The collaboration with Chicken Grass — resulting in the Tramp Records 7" single "Snakebites" b/w "Trading Bullets" — brought Montgomery into the European funk underground, pairing her soul power with the band's raw, Toussaint-esque grooves.
The pairing is a study in geographic improbability: a Northern Finnish band steeped in New Orleans tradition meets a New Orleans singer who became an internet phenomenon through Israeli mashup artistry. "Snakebites" is an organ-led, swinging funk track with Montgomery's vocals front and center, while "Trading Bullets" leans toward deep swamp soul. Together they represent the global reach of New Orleans funk as a cultural lingua franca, capable of connecting artists across vastly different circumstances and continents. Both tracks appeared on the Chicken Grass self-titled debut LP and as a standalone Tramp Records 45 (TR-1047), released in 2021.
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Fun Facts
- Princess Shaw was too self-conscious to perform publicly for years because she disliked her teeth — she only began posting YouTube videos and singing at open mics after getting braces.
- Kutiman built Princess Shaw's viral track entirely from her a cappella YouTube uploads without ever contacting her first; she discovered the finished, widely-shared remix at the same time as the rest of the world.
- Presenting Princess Shaw (2015) won the Israeli Academy Award (Ophir Award) for Best Documentary, and Princess Shaw and Kutiman performed live together at the ceremony.
- Chicken Grass are from Oulu, Finland — one of the northernmost and coldest major cities in Europe — yet the band's entire sound and ethos is rooted in New Orleans second-line funk and soul, a style they have performed live for over two decades.
Musical Connections
Mentors/Influences
- Kutiman (Ophir Kutiel) - Israeli composer and mashup artist who discovered Princess Shaw's YouTube videos and remixed her a cappella recordings into his Thru You Too project (~2013), launching her to viral fame and opening the door to broader collaborations [2013–present]
Key Collaborators
- Chicken Grass - Finnish six-piece funk/soul band from Oulu who featured Princess Shaw on their self-titled debut album and released the Tramp Records 45 'Snakebites' b/w 'Trading Bullets' with her (Snakebites, Trading Bullets (Tramp Records TR-1047, 2021); Chicken Grass LP (Philophon/Fat Beats))
- Max Weissenfeldt - Grammy-winning producer at Philophon Studio in Berlin who recorded the Chicken Grass debut album featuring Princess Shaw
External Links
References
Heard on WWOZ
Chicken Grass/Princess Shaw has been played 1 time on WWOZ 90.7 FM, New Orleans' jazz and heritage station.