The Texas Campfire Takes [Expanded] - Michelle Shocked

When producer Pete Lawrence recorded Michelle Shocked on his Sony walkman in 1986, the two unknowingly created a field recording that would break Shocked into the spotlight and eventually get her signed to Mercury Records, where she would jump-start her musical career. As interesting as The Texas Campfire Tapes were for a debut release (albeit unintended), their 1988 successor, Short Sharp Shocked, was the reason people became engaged with Shocked's music and therefore the reason the legacy of The Texas Campfire Tapes was sustained. Shocked's public disapproval of the quality of the product centered around the fact that the performance was edited from its original state as well as when it was recorded; the batteries in the walkman were weak, causing the tape to record at a lower speed, so upon playback, her performance sounded higher than normal in pitch. Seventeen years after the fact, Shocked took the opportunity to rectify these issues in the form of the two-disc set The Texas Campfire Takes. Released on her own label, Mighty Sound, in 2003, disc one is the original issue of The Texas Campfire Tapes at the corrected pitch and disc two is the unedited cassette complete with Shocked's between-song banter from that evening. The major problem with disc two is that the transfer actually sounds worse than the already lo-fi original transfer for disc one, presumably because the original cassette recording lost fidelity with age, making the sought-after banter and previously unreleased tracks sound muted and very difficult to listen to for any length of time. For this reason, it is really the exquisite packaging -- which contains a detailed collection of Shocked's journal entries and notes between 1982-1987 -- that makes this release worth the price alone (it is priced as a single disc). Collectors and die-hard fans of Shocked will find this reissue a worthy upgrade; however, casual fans would be better off to stick with Short Sharp Shocked or Arkansas Traveler. ~ Gregory McIntosh, All Music Guide