Michelle Shocked Live At The Point, Bryn Mawr, PA, October 2, 2004

This is a reprint of a post that first appeared on Bloggerhythms in 2005, the year of its inception.

 The controversial Michelle Shocked has always been one of my favorite singer-songwriters. She hasn't released an album since 2009, possibly due to some controversial comments she made during one of her shows in 2013.  Her recording career appears to be at a standstill even though she still tours.

 It should be noted that The Point, the venue where the concert below was held, no longer exists.
_____________________________________________________________

The very eclectic and very entertaining Michelle Shocked played at The Point, an intimate and wonderful coffeehouse style venue in the Philadelphia suburbs this past Saturday night, and just as I hoped for she played a superb and very entertaining set of music. The evening’s performance was a big surprise because it was almost totally devoted to her recently re-released, previously long out of print, 1991 classic CD, Arkansas Traveler. All the songs in the eighty-five minute performance except for the two encore pieces were from this terrific disc.

First, we need to start with some history about Arkansas Traveler. Chris Woodstra of the All Music Guide wrote "Part three of the trilogy that began with Short Sharp Shocked, Arkansas Traveler focuses on American roots music of the South, mainly rural-blues and country. According to her theory in the album's liner notes all of these songs are based on the legacy of blackface minstrels. Recorded with a mobile studio at various non-conventional locations around the country, it features an amazing array of guest musicians including Pops Staples, Doc Watson, and Gatemouth Brown." Allison Krauss, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Jerry Douglas and Bernie Leadon also appear on the disc.

Throughout the evening Shocked either played solo guitar or, when accompanied by another guitarist, she mostly played mandolin. The audience was totally engaged in her performance because she "demanded" full audience participation on several songs or she would stop the show. (I would bet the house that she was joking but considering this is an artist that once refused to go on stage because her audience was not "diverse" enough, who knows). For the title cut Shocked invited participants to come on stage and help her perform the song. Their job was to read the set up lines for several bad hillbilly jokes inserted into the middle of this "start and stop" style song while Shocked answered with the punch line. For "Hold Me Back (Frankie and Johnnie)" audience members acted out the parts of the song on stage. She repeatedly asked people to come and play guitar with her and eventually found one woman gutsy enough to play with a professional career musician onstage.

Shocked made her left-wing politics very well known even while she talked about trying to avoid heavy proselytizing throughout the performance. Her sense of humor makes her politics sound less preachy and her devotion to serious causes is what makes the onstage silliness avoid hokiness. Yet according to her autobiography in Jams, her self-published political magazine that she gives away at her concerts, she always wanted to be an activist first and a musician second.

Shocked did nine other Arkansas Traveler tracks including favorites "Come a Long Way," "The Secret To A Long Life" and "Strawberry Jam." The encore included her most well known and probably her best loved song, "Anchorage" before she closed out the concert with "Memories of East Texas" both from Short Sharp Shocked.

If Michelle Shocked comes to your town you need to see her and you must give Arkansas Traveler a very serious listen.

Find out more about this great singer-songwriter at her website.

Comments

Post a Comment

WHAT'S HOT TODAY!

Slower Than Slow: 16 RPM Records

Image
Have you ever heard of a long forgotten vinyl format, the 16 2/3 RPM record? They were half the speed of the 33 1/3 RPM albums that were the traditional standard for recorded music. Most record players in the 1950s and 1960s came with a speed setting to play these long forgotten discs that were considered novelties even during the years they were available. Because most, but not all, 16s had big holes and were 7" in diameter many of them were mistaken for 45 RPMs and at that size the speed allowed for up to 20 minutes of playing time per side. However, there was no true standard size and they were also manufactured to be 9, 10, or 12 inches in diameter, and these larger records played even longer. Just like the other speeds and formats 16s could be played one record at a time or stacked on a changer for continuous play. Radio stations often used the discs for pre-recorded radio shows containing interviews, dramas, and documentaries. More frequen...
Read more

The Band - Christmas Must Be Tonight (1977)

Image
In 2006 Hall and Oates released Home For Christmas , their one and only holiday album, an extremely good set of music that immediately became one of my favorite seasonal listens. I wrote then that I was stunned at how many overtly religious songs the famous duo put on the the disc considering the very politically correct climate of the new millennium. One of them was a cover version of a song that alluded me for almost thirty years, "Christmas Must Be Tonight." I liked the new, upbeat track sung by Daryl Hall and it made me go out and search for Robbie Robertson's never-to-be classic. Sung by Rick Danko, it appears on the great American band's last album, Islands (1977). It's a surprise that a group whose members were not known to have any specific or powerfully strong religious beliefs would release a song that tackled the subject of Jesus's birth as blatantly as our most loved Christmas carols. It's not about a reckless reinde...
Read more

Chicago: An Album By Album Analysis Of The Terry Kath Era (1969 - 1977)

Image
The original lineup of Chicago has always been one of my all time favorite bands. My affection for this great horn band is such that I want to discuss all of the albums they recorded before Terry Kath's unfortunate and accidental passing. Their debut album is now forty years old, and it's followup is not far behind, yet their music endures to this day. * * * * * Everyone Must Own * * * * Excellent * * * Good * * Fair * Poor * * * * * Chicago Transit Authority (1969) - Whether they were playing screaming psychedelic hard rock, jazz, blues, or love songs, everyone in the band proved they were worthy of the huge mass success that followed CTA 's release. The band's ability to play anything and play it well is the hallmark of their debut album. The stars are Robert Lamm, Terry Kath, and the horns, and even Peter Cetera demonstrates he can be a rock and roll animal when he wants to be. The standout tracks are Lamm's "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It...
Read more

The Chieftains With Jackson Browne - The Rebel Jesus (1991)

Image
"The Rebel Jesus" is a Christmas song composed by Jackson Browne and performed with The Chieftains, the eclectic, veteran Irish folk band on  The Bells of Dublin,  their 1991 holiday album. Browne wrote the song specifically for his guest appearance on this record. The singer-songwriter, who is deservedly in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, can be a bit preachy when he wants to be, and he is again here, but no one can dispute what the man is saying.  The last two verses are the key to the song. Browne points out that people often feel more generous at Christmas so they'll give to those who were less fortunate than themselves during the holidays. But, if anyone tries to dig deeper and root out the poverty that envelops the downtrodden they are often scorned like Jesus was. This message is coming from a man who is admittedly a "heathen and a pagan," but on this occasion he is "on the side of the rebel Jesus." At the same time Browne doesn't want to sp...
Read more

The Beatles - Christmas Messages (1963 - 1969)

Image
For seven straight years beginning in 1963 - even before they were famous in America - The Beatles recorded annual Christmas messages exclusively for their fan club members as a holiday thank you. They were issued on seven-inch, vinyl records that were very thin, very bendable, and easily damaged. These flexi-discs, as they were called, could not be stacked on record changers. Over the years the tracks have been bootlegged in countless ways, and until a few years ago the only legal release was sent to fan club members in 1970 on 33 RPM vinyl records after the boys from Liverpool went their separate ways. The LP cover shown here is from that album. Finally, in 2017, a limited edition box set  on colored vinyl was released and is now an expensive collector's item. Many Beatles fans managed to hear these records over the years, and with the Internet being what it is, there are several websites where anyone can easily listen to all of them.  Archive.org ...
Read more