Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
"Michelle Shocked decided to write 30 new songs, enough music for two full sets, when she was booked in late November for 5 shows at the Bottom Line. Working with the guitarist Fiachna O'Braonain (of the Hothouse Flowers), she made her deadline for her first set on Thursday night, when she introduced more than a dozen songs in nearly as many styles. She sang blues, reggae, norteno, punk, gospel and folk-rock songs with her new band. In a voice that could be wry, genial or fervent, she sang reminisces and observations, biblical homilies and a promise to "get your ya-ya's off." For her they were all musical kin at a big family reunion. Ms. Shocked used to make a defiant show of eclecticism; now she and her fans jovially assume it. As both her arms and her voice moved skyward, Ms. Shocked was at her best: creating a joyful moment with a durable song." - Jon Pareles
"At a time when so-called alternative music has faded into a familiar refrain of scrappy guitar changes and plaintive singing, Michelle Shocked is still happily criss-crossing the American music landscape like nobody's business, and nobody's idea of a career trajectory. This is, after all, the woman who sued her record label citing the 13th Amendment -- that's the one abolishing slavery. Shocked has explored the blues and R&B in the past, in and among honky-tonk, hymns, fiddle tunes, rock, and swing. Now she's diving headlong into the tradition -- and if the idea of a tall, skinny white girl wailing with a four-piece all-black band called the Anointed Earls sounds unlikely, you have two nights left to bear witness to the depth and breadth of Shocked's talent. She contines to be a radiant, unpretentious performer who distills the essence of whatever style, or styles, she's investigating. At Sunday's sold-out show, she sang dirty soul riffs with the open-heartedness of a folk singer and played fuzzed-out blues guitar like a Delta punk. A perpetually grinning Shocked preached the healing benefits of swinging your hips, and orchestrated a full-house square dance, matching all that musical mastery with -- of all things in this day and age -- irrepressible joy." - Joan Anderman
"Hot shows at the House of Blues are no great rarity, but what Michelle Shocked accomplished there on Sunday was unique. She got the capacity crowd to follow her every wild whim. At the back of the House, there are almost always a bunch of chatting hangers-on. Not this time. Everyone was involved. Her Anointed Earls jelled like a great juke-joint band steeped in funk and soul. Late in her 2 1/2-hour show, the first of four nights, Shocked convinced the entire crowd to turn around and wiggle and twitch their posteriors. Then Shocked performed a slight miracle: She arranged a wide aisle in the middle of the jammed room, and then called square-dance steps. It was quite a sight." - Daniel Gewertz
Discography
ToHeavenURide - released September 4, 2007
Photos
Bio
The Lord works in mysterious ways, writes Michelle Shocked in her womanifesto, a tract written in conjunction with her forthcoming album. Or at least thats been my experience. Evidencing an inventive narrative sense, the Lord sent this initially unwitting pilgrim on an extended musical and spiritual journey that began two more than two decades ago, when the fledgling artist was a self-described feminist and punk rocker.
In the beginning, Shocked writes, I was moved by the power of rock n roll. And if you follow the trail from rock n roll, it always leads you back to the blues, sweet soul music and finally to the churches and gospel music. In Shockeds case, it led to the West Angeles COGIC mass choir in the heart of South Central Los Angeles, whence she has come to the point of living by the Good Book, and putting out a gospel record.
But not just any gospel record. Indeed, one might say that Shockeds new album, which bears the playfully profound (or vice versa) title ToHeavenURide, was heaven-sent. One might further conclude that the Holy Spirit has a fittingly elevated sense of humor, irony and symmetry. Like the iconoclastic artists very first LP, 1987s The Texas Campfire Tapes, this new set contains recordings Shocked didnt know were being made while she was putting on the show it documents. She may be the only artist in history with not one but two inadvertent live albums in her body of work.
The performance that ToHeavenURide comprises (to be released Sept. 4th on Mighty Sound through Megaforce/RED) was digitally captured at the 2003 Telluride Bluegrass Festival and this despite the fact that Shockeds contract had specifically stated no recording. But because that years festival was being documented for a projected DVD by a production crew with no knowledge of the contractual stipulation, Shockeds entire set just happened to be captured for posterity assuming it was ever unearthed. The recording would have continued to be hidden away in binary limbo had it not occurred to Shockeds new manager to inquire about the possibility of its existence, and there it was, preserved in the virtual amber of a Pro Tools file. When she heard this group of songs, Shocked realized how perfectly they connected with her present musical and spiritual direction. Hallelujah, yall.
What makes the performance contained on ToHeavenURide even more intriguing is that, in marked contrast to the act of preaching to the converted, as most gospel recordings tend to do, Shocked and her musical cohorts were putting the Good News out there not for a congregation of worshipers but rather for a crowd of people who had no idea they were about to witness an act of spiritual elevation so in a very real sense, the album documents the progressive coming together of two widely divergent (if not necessarily antithetical) mindsets. It was its incongruous setting that led Shocked to describe this provocative musical statement as a manifestation of the politics of preaching, as opposed to preaching per se. And that may well be another first.
The marriage between the spirit of gospel music and the crisp Rocky Mountain air has resulted in a performance that is inspired in more than one sense of the term. Accompanied by a fittingly diverse crew made up of her Bay Area rhythm section, pedal steel player Nick Forster (Hot Rize, etown) and the Dancys from the New Greater Circle Mission Church in South L.A. on backing vocals and keyboards, Shocked delivers 11 songs ranging from the explicitly devotional to what she refers to as secular gospel.
Strange Things Happening Every Day and Aint Gonna Study War No More come from the songbook of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, one of Shockeds primary influences. She calls Tharpe the father well, mother of rockabilly in the manifesto, and the songs are dedicated to her spirit. The Weight by The Band and Billie Holidays God Bless the Child, representing the secular gospel realm, are given the Shocked treatment, while she draws on the Staples Singers, who moved freely between the church and the concert hall, for Uncloudy Day and Wade in the Water. The modern gospel standard Blessed, by Fred Hammond of the Detroit gospel group Commissioned, completes the list of outside songs.
Shocked also includes four originals here: The Quality of Mercy (originally written for the soundtrack of the film Dead Man Walking), Good News (commissioned by Greenpeace for the documentary Cancer Alley), Psalm (which proves the Psalms are a fertile source of the folk tradition) and Cant Take My Joy on which she hot-wires gospel and reggae traditions, with a specific nod to the great Bob Marley, who knew a little something about the intersection of praise and revelry.
Let us now return to Shockeds womanifesto for a greater understanding of this fiercely single-minded artist and the long, strange trip (as she puts it, quoting the Dead) that has led
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