Short Sharp Shocked

Shocked, Michelle

album cover

Nothing's Shocking with . . .

During her performances, the irreverent folksinger-songwriter Michelle Shocked makes it a point to urge her audiences to get involved in music. Play or sing every day, she tells people, because "music is too important to be left to the professionals."

Shocked is living proof of that idea. She grew up in Gilmer, Texas, but after a rocky childhood tour of army bases, she left her mother and sought out her estranged father, who introduced her to country music and blues. Shocked bounced around a lot, living in San Francisco and Amsterdam; she was "discovered" while working as a volunteer at a folk festival in Kerrville, Texas. A producer heard her, and recorded what became The Texas Campfire Tapes on a portable cassette machine in a field, with crickets chirping in the background. That led to bigger things: This, her second effort, was recorded in Hollywood and produced by veteran Pete Anderson (Dwight Yoakam's musical director). It's got Shocked playing guitar and singing with the steadying support of a full band. Her voice, which exudes an errant, almost punkish energy, is more front-and-center than it was on The Texas Campfire Tapes.

Happily, the upmarket surroundings don't overshadow Shocked's songs, which share truths and shine light on injustices in a deft, almost subliminal way. Singing as though she's got no time for niceties, Shocked kicks out raucous blues double entendres (the shuffling "If Love Was a Train"), paints a bleak portrait of where she grew up ("Memories of East Texas"), and summons a leftist's indignation to interpret Jean Ritchie's haunted Rust Belt lament "The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore." Yet when she wants to, Shocked can reel off a conventional narrative—the lovely "Anchorage" is a series of letters to an old friend that ruminate on the diverging paths of their lives. True to her code, Shocked doesn't deliver these sparkling tunes like a professional folkie determined to enlighten (or scold) listeners; she lets her feisty character shine through. As a result, Short Sharp Shocked feels like an evening spent around a fire with friends, with one great storyteller holding forth.

Genre: Folk, Rock
Released: 1988, Mercury
Key Tracks: "Hello Hopeville," "Graffiti Limbo," "Anchorage," "If Love Was a Train"
Catalog Choice: The Texas Campfire Tapes
Next Stop: Ani DiFranco: Dilate
After That: Vic Chesnutt: Is the Actor Happy?
Book Page: 695