Michelle Shocked Albums (11)
What The Critics Say
Michelle Shocked is an artist who likes to reach for the grand gesture in the recording studio -- most of her albums are built around some broad overriding theme, she's fond of epic-scale sessions with a wide variety of musicians, and in 2005 she released three full-length albums of newly recorded material on the same day. So what's most startling about 2009's Soul of My Soul is its modesty and accessibility -- the album features ten songs that spin by in a mere 35 minutes, and it's the closest thing to a radio-friendly pop/rock album that Shocked has ever released. Devin Powers produced the album and played most of the instruments, and he's given Shocked an engaging set of tracks to work with, from the light R&B of "Liquid Prayer" and the sassy dance-friendly pop of "Paperboy" to the gentle contemporary folk feel of "Other People" and the full-on rock of "Giant Killer." The sound of the album fits this batch of songs, which for the most part are more playful than one might expect from Shocked, especially the sly and sexy "Paperboy" and the plainspoken affirmations of love in "Waterproof" and "Love's Song." Shocked is in fine voice here, and she seems to be having a lot of fun making like a pop diva or a rock & roll belter. Curiously for Shocked, it's when Soul of My Soul ventures into deeper waters that the album is least effective. "Ballad of the Battle of the Ballot and the Bullet, Pt. 1: Ugly Americans" is a sharply pointed political broadside against the abuses of the George W. Bush administration and the crackdown on dissent under his rule, while "Other People" and "Pompeii" more subtly but clearly deal with the failures of W's reign. While the songs are intelligent, well-written, and obviously sincere, their appearance on an album released about three and a half months after Barack Obama's inauguration feels curious -- it's not as if all the issues they raise have vanished, but with the primary target of her rage out of office and rejected by a majority of Americans (who voted his party out of control of both Congress and the White House), it feels like beating a horse that isn't going anywhere soon. Released during the heat of the 2008 presidential campaign, Soul of My Soul would have sounded both exciting and up to date; as it stands, in the spring of 2009 it's a surprisingly strong exercise in grown-up pop that feels just a bit thematically dated. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
'To Heaven U Ride'
Release Date 9/4/2007
Tracks 14
Label Mighty Sound
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Two years after she simultaneously released three separate recordings on her own Mighty Sound imprint, Michelle Shocked is back with a live album. Don't plan on hearing live versions of Shocked's classics from Short Sharp Shocked, Arkansas Traveler, or Captain Swing. In fact, don't plan on hearing much of her old material at all (four tunes). To Heaven U Ride is a live gospel recording done with a killer gospel band and small choir from Los Angels churches, recorded at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2003. Shocked begins with a funky bluesy groove and does her own extrapolated cover version of Sister Rosetta Tharpe's "Strange Things Happening Every Day," and follows it with a Sunday morning version of Robbie Robertson's "The Weight," before warming up enough to deliver an intensely funky version of her own "Quality of Mercy." The choir and the band's rhythm section add considerable punch to Shocked's delivery. She can sing with the best of them with that throaty contralto of hers, but she is really pushed by this group. The set is released as it happened, so not a lot of editing was done in order to keep its energy and flow intact. That's both a good thing and a bad thing -- musically it's terrific, because all that crackling energy is on offer and the sound is awesome. Then there is the talking and sermonizing, which is part of a Sunday church gig: authenticity was what she was going for, so you can't blame her (there's some social activism tossed in with her gospel rap). Still, hearing that stuff once is enough. The raps on all live records are best heard once. This group kicks ass on her "Good News" as well, bringing the blues and funk home inside some seriously snaky rock & roll. Pops Staples would have loved this tune. And speaking of Pops, Shocked's reading of "Uncloudy Day" is based on the Staples' original version from the 1950s with a single reverbed electric guitar backing her and the choir (this after a completely choral version of "Wade in the Water"). "Study War No More" is a bit ragged and rough (but the spirit's there to be sure); it sounds like it's too high for her. The set begins to turn the corner after another sprightly, beautifully funky gospel number that's just riotously happy ("Blessed"), and Shocked launches into a deeply inspired and moving version of her "Psalm." The conviction in her voice is clear. For her this is no show; this is church. Shocked's religious conviction is every bit as fiery as a gospel preacher's, and social justice -- as it was borne out of the Southern black gospel churches -- is very much alive in her heart and in her performance. Good for her; at least she believes in something besides consumerism and/or fame. The final track is a reggae reading -- her own "Can't Take My Joy." They do what they can to get the audience involved, but let's face it, they're at a bluegrass festival. This set is a mixed bag, but not for lack of trying. It's admirable that it happened at all and it's musically very sophisticated. But one gets the feeling that a set like this would have been even better performed at Bonnaroo, where audience participation would have been full, wild, and as inspiring as the music. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Despite her many musical mood swings over the years, here's something no one was expecting -- Michelle Shocked recording a family-friendly set of songs from classic Walt Disney movies with a semi-acoustic bluegrass swing band backing her up. And dipping even deeper into the well of surprises, Got No Strings turns out to be lots of fun -- the sassy warmth of Shocked's voice turns out to be a great match for songs like "Give a Little Whistle," "The Spectrum Song," and "The Bare Necessities," and she's able to add a bluesy drift to "Spoonful of Sugar," "Wish Upon a Star," and "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" that suggests that while this is safe for all audiences, this ain't a children's record by a long shot. The backing musicians (rounded up by Nick Forster of Hot Rize, who produced the set) are in fine fettle, finding some tasty nuances in these songs that are both unexpected and delightful. And if there's ever been a more positively emotionally manipulative song than "Baby Mine," I don't think I've heard it. Got No Strings is in most respects a modest album, but it's thoroughly delightful from front to back, and is as breezy and pleasurable as anything Shocked has ever committed to tape. [Got No Strings was released on the same day and date as two other albums from Shocked, Don't Ask, Don't Tell and Mexican Standoff, and the three were also made available as a set called Threesome.] ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
'The Mexican Standoff'
Release Date 6/7/2005
Tracks 10
Label Conqueroo
See Album Tracklist and Review
'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'
Release Date 6/7/2005
Tracks 11
Label Conqueroo
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Described by its creator as "Short Sharp Shocked all grown up," Don't Ask, Don't Tell doesn't bear all that close a surface resemblance to Michelle Shocked's first studio album beyond the fact that it's easily her most straightforward and accessible piece of roots-influenced pop/rock since she went into the studio with Pete Anderson back in 1988. Produced by Dusty Wakeman, Don't Ask, Don't Tell is strongly informed by the rhythm and blues accents that have been increasingly prominent in Shocked's music in recent years, especially on tunes like "Hardly Gonna Miss Him," "Don't Ask," and "Used Car Lot," though the album also finds Shocked dipping her toes into laid-back jazz grooves ("Goodbye"), lonesome country moods ("Elaborate Sabotage"), and funky New Orleans rhythms ( "Don't Tell"). She also tosses in two fine mid-tempo rock tunes that sound like the sort of thing Mercury were begging her to write from Captain Swing onward, "Fools Like Us" and "How You Play the Game." One of the long-standing bugaboos of Shocked's eclecticism is that her gumbo of influences don't always cohere into a good soup, and that problem dogs Don't Ask, Don't Tell from time to time -- while Shocked is in solid voice here and has written some lovely melodies, this set of songs doesn't seem to have a strong enough center to make it all seem like a coherent whole, and the album's lyrical voice isn't nearly as strong as the music (especially when she slips in broadly theatrical delivery on the two title cuts). Don't Ask, Don't Tell is a set of good to very good songs that find Michelle Shocked in the company of some fine players with genuine sympathy for her material, but somehow the results don't congeal into a whole that's as interesting as the parts, though in many ways it ranks with her most musically pleasing albums since Arkansas Traveler. [Don't Ask, Don't Tell was released on the same day and date as two other albums from Shocked, Got No Strings and Mexican Standoff, and the three were also made available as a set called Threesome.] ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Michelle Shocked's natural eclecticism, long since unfettered by the commercial considerations of a record label other than her own Mighty Sound imprint, means that, on the infrequent occasions when she issues a new recording, one approaches it with no idea what it will sound like, except, of course, that it won't sound anything like her last one. Deep Natural is a case in point. This time around, an artist who has varied from singer/songwriter folk to swing to traditional country, with elements of rock and gospel thrown in, makes her stand with blues and soul, for the most part. In this case, that means blues boogie in the manner of John Lee Hooker and gritty soul in the manner of Stax Records. But that isn't all, by any means. Shocked sometimes uses odd percussion and compresses her vocals in a style that recalls Swordfishtrombones-era Tom Waits. She turns to New Orleans second-line rhythm on "Peachfuzz." And she goes back to close-miked, finger-picked folk on the love song for a child "I Know What You Need." She also covers Jimi Hendrix's "House Burning Down" in a slowed-down, stomping arrangement. And then, of course, there are the dub tracks, which are not restricted to the entire extra disc (Dub Natural) packed with the main album, but also include "Can't Take My Joy," a version of the introductory snippet "(((Joy)))." And even within tracks, the styles combine and clash. "Draughts of Dublin," one of the dub tracks, for instance, mixes a Hooker guitar riff with an Irish tin whistle and a Miles Davis-like trumpet. It may be an instrumental, but it is Michelle Shocked at her best, mixing things up and finding connections in forms of music others might keep separate. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Kind Hearted Woman'
Release Date 10/15/1996
Tracks 10
Label Private Music
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Each successive Michelle Shocked album marks a departure from its predecessor, and her fifth album, Kind Hearted Woman, was true to that in more ways than one. Shocked endured an acrimonious split from Mercury Records following her controversial 1992 album Arkansas Traveler and began selling an early self-released version of Kind Hearted Woman at her shows and by mail order on March 25, 1994. (The 1996 version under consideration here was re-recorded for retail release by Private Music. This is the so-called black edition, since the cover is black with a white line drawing. The earlier version is called the white edition and features a white cover with a black line drawing.) Following an album on which she worked with a different name band on nearly every track, Shocked took things back to basics, recording with just her own electric guitar for accompaniment on several tracks, plus selective use of a rhythm section and harmony vocals on others. That was appropriate to a set of slow-tempo, minor-key compositions treating rural scenes and desperate circumstances. Like Bruce Springsteen on his Nebraska album, Shocked was concerned with what sounded like Depression-era issues of poverty and hard times in the heartland, beginning with the story song "Stillborn," a portrait of a midwife heading home after delivering a dead infant. A dead toddler was the subject of "A Child Like Grace"; a boy lost his father to a bolt of lightning in "Eddie"; and death loomed elsewhere as Shocked surveyed the lives of poor farmers and cattlemen. Her defense against a world in which God made grave mistakes and didn't care was a typical sense of flippancy and outright defiance. In words that might have acknowledged her recent career struggles, she sang in "The Hard Way," "I always believed I ran away but now I know I was told to go. Maybe it worked out better this way. What could you say I didn't already know?" And the final song, "No Sign of Rain," found her "Fanning my desires, spitting in the eye of hurricanes." Clearly, she was ready to continue no matter the obstacles. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
One may feel a certain pity for Mercury Records when it took delivery of Michelle Shocked's third album for the label, Arkansas Traveler. Mercury had signed the feisty country-folk singer/songwriter in the wake of the hoopla surrounding her first album, The Texas Campfire Tapes, an impromptu collection recorded on a cassette player at the 1986 Kerrville Folk Festival. Shocked eschewed a hefty advance in favor of greater artistic control and then delivered the well-received Short Sharp Shocked (1988), followed by Captain Swing (1989), something of a swing-band genre exercise. Both albums reached the Top 100 in Billboard and spent six-plus months in the charts. At first, Arkansas Traveler must have sounded like a breakthrough effort; it was certainly ambitious. Shocked was adapting old folk and country material such as "Soldier's Joy," "Frankie & Johnny," and "Cotton Eyed Joe" with new arrangements and lyrics, and she was conducting sessions around the world with a host of impressive partners. In Australia, she collaborated with Paul Kelly's backup band, the Messengers, on "Weaving Way," and she went to Ireland to record "Over the Waterfall" with the Hothouse Flowers. In the U.S., there were sessions in Chicago, IL, with Pops Staples of the Staple Singers ("33 RPM Soul"); Woodstock, NY, with Levon Helm and Garth Hudson of the Band ("Secret to a Long Life"); Chapel Hill, NC, with the Red Clay Ramblers ("Contest Coming [Cripple Creek]"); St. Charles, MO, with Uncle Tupelo ("Shaking Hands [Soldier's Joy]"); Los Angeles with Taj Mahal ("Jump Jim Crow/Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah"); Memphis, TN, with Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown ("Hold Me Back [Frankie & Johnny]"); Wilkesboro, NC, with Doc Watson ("Strawberry Jam"); Franklin, TN, with Alison Krauss & Union Station ("Prodigal Daughter [Cotton Eyed Joe]"); Rising Fawn, GA, with Rising Fawn String Ensemble ("Blackberry Bottom"); Mountain View, AR, with Jimmy Driftwood ("Arkansas Traveler"); and Mineola, TX, with Dollars, Taxes, featuring her father, "Dollar Bill" Johnston, on mandolin (Woody Guthrie's "Woody's Rag"). The music ranged from folk-rock to old-timey country, and Shocked interacted well with her many guests, reinvigorating the traditional tunes and remaking them in her own exuberant style. If they had a chance to think about it, the executives at Mercury might have dreamed of a PBS special featuring all the musicians and a home video to further expose and promote a release that might have seemed like a potential cross-genre smash. Then would have come the bombshell. Shocked, it seemed, had been inspired in her conception of the album by an interest in the history of blackface minstrelsy, which provided the source of such songs as "Jump Jim Crow," and she wanted to appear in blackface on the cover of the album. Despite her contracted artistic control, Mercury rejected this desire, which of course would have constituted commercial (and perhaps career) suicide, but the label did allow her to write a sleeve note about her intentions and then felt required to add a disclaimer to the effect that her views "do not necessarily represent those of the musicians who have generously contributed their time and talent to this project." One could certainly listen to and enjoy Arkansas Traveler while ignoring all this small-print, handwritten commentary in the album's booklet, but of course critics couldn't be expected to do that, and while praising the music, they also commented on the artist's no doubt well-intentioned, but seemingly confused -- or at least confusing -- concept. As a result, Arkansas Traveler failed to sell and became Shocked's last major-label effort. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Shocked made a big jump from The Texas Campfire Tapes to Short Sharp Shocked, but no one expected the direction she would take for Captain Swing. Rather than continuing as a folky singer/songwriter, she opted instead to take on western swing and big-band music, complete with horn-heavy arrangements and bright orchestration. And although the cartoon image of her on the cover gives a smirk and a sly wink, the album is surprising devoid of irony. She treats the genre with affection and she's obviously having a good time swinging. Captain Swing may have confused fans of Short Sharp Shocked, but the album has several great moments, and most of all, it offers a good time. ~ Chris Woodstra, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Michelle Shocked is asked in the song "Anchorage," "What's it like to be a skateboard punk rocker?" Perhaps it takes a flashback like Short Sharp Shocked to fully answer the more interesting question, "How did you get there?" The album finds Shocked taking a semi-fond trip back to an East Texas childhood, and all of the defined roles, limited expectations, claustrophobia, and ultimate rebellion coming from that environment. Musically, she tackles the spectrum of rootsy folk in a warm way that shows not only a love for, but also a great deal of knowledge of the forms (producer Pete Anderson added a Nashville gloss to the recordings that shouldn't go unnoticed). The songs have a very personal, almost diary feel, but at the same time, they speak a universal language -- none so poignant as the album's centerpiece, "Anchorage," a touching letter from an old friend. The cover photo, which shows Shocked restrained by police officers during a protest, indicates little about the music found within (save for the uncredited album closer, the hardcore punk work-up of "Fog Town" featuring MDC), but the music certainly reveals much about the protestor. ~ Chris Woodstra, All Music Guide
