FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 25, 2009
MICHELLE SHOCKED’S NEW ALBUM SOUL OF MY SOUL LOVES TO TEASE
May 12 release is a prelude to future multimedia collaboration between Shocked and sweetheart, fine artist David Willardson
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Two intense, seemingly divergent, emotions — love and anger —dovetail on Michelle Shocked’s forthcoming recording Soul of My Soul, a passionate album in every sense. The 10-song collection is set for May 12 release on Mighty Sound, distributed by Megaforce/MRI through RED Distribution. It is a teaser for a future series of creative collaborations between Shocked and Willardson entitled Indelible Women, which will feature “performance portraits,” both in song and on canvas, of iconic trailblazers Audrey, Amelia, Ella and Georgia, among others. It is Willardson’s portrait of Shocked that appears in his “Pep Art” painting style on the album’s cover.
“I think the meditation these past several years, ever since I stopped drinking, really, has been to jettison rage,” says Shocked, “without losing the ability to feel strong feelings.” Two “strong currents” in her present life conspired to teach her that lesson. Artist David Willardson, “the Official Love of My Life,” is one such tide, and Shocked raves about his warm and nurturing nature. On the flipside is her “nemesis,” the Bush Administration “and their alleged enlightened self-interest. Between the two of them, my emotions have run quite high in recent years.”
The sentiments on Soul of My Soul are couched mainly in straight-four, no frills, rock ‘n’ roll — just the context for Shocked’s two-pronged passion play. Among the songs about her new love is the acoustic ballad “True Story,” where Shocked sings directly to Willardson. “The producer [Devin Powers] said he wasn't getting enough emotion from the vocal performance,” says Shocked. “I knew exactly what to do.” Pouring her heart out over the phone, she nailed “one perfect, passionate take” that culminates in a deluge of happy tears. Willardson also inspired the ebullient,
Stones-y anthem “Love’s Song,” a spacey Kate Bush-meets-U2 meditation on the couple’s future called “Heart to Heart,” and the lusty “Paperboy,” a snapshot from Willardson’s youth (when he lost his job for neglecting his duties to chase a girl).
Clearly there are no love songs for the Bush Administration, at least in the traditional sense. Shocked does proffer a ballad, “Other People,” that at first blush sounds like a kiss-off to an untrue lover — which it is, except Shocked sings to Bush’s America, the ugly, war-mongering face of the country she loves. “I used to rant, ‘Bush, pull out like your father should have.’ Now I say, ‘I love you America, but I think we should see other people.’” She gets feistier on the Steve Earle-ish folk-rocker “The Ballad of the Battle of the Ballot and the Bullet,” which she sings “because I can.” On “Liquid Prayer” — Soul’s lone soul tune — Shocked meditates on tears cried to a God she counts on to provide the Kleenex. In the ironically tropical “Pompeii,” she frets over the fate of a “broken democratic state” beholden to corporate compromise and “entwined in orgiastic lies, with the top about to blow.”
Shocked says her “vexation” fuels these Soul songs. She’s righteously, morally and intellectually pissed off at the state of the nation over the last eight years — but instead of tossing beer cans, she flings measured words. For example, “Giantkiller” is a snarling punk rock anthem where Shocked artfully and poetically vents her venom, in turn giving her message added philosophical oomph.
. . . that fact in the back of my mind
I meant to meet the world
A pocket full of rock and wood
But I was fearless, I was bold
Taking aim so carefully
I set my stone and let it fly
And when the giant fell to earth
None more surprised than IIf there’s a more eloquent way to say you’re chuckin’ rocks at a big ol’ jackass, well, leave it to a sophisticated hillbilly to find it. And really, that’s the nut and the shell of Soul of My Soul: it’s a reconciliation of our most gentle and base aspects by demonstrating that we are neither by default or circumstance, and both by choice. “It was Zen and the art of the Dunk-Tank,” Shocked smiles. “I had a target, I took aim and I hit, I believe, a bull’s-eye.”
# # #For more information on Michelle Shocked, please contact conqueroo:
Cary Baker • (323) 656-1600 • cary@conqueroo.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 14, 2007
MICHELLE SHOCKED’S GOSPEL ROOTS INFORM NEW ALBUM, ToHEAVENuRIDE
Live set pays tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Staple Singers and Billie Holiday; includes traditional spirituals as well as several original new songs
LOS ANGELES – “Ask me about my religion,” writes Michelle Shocked in her “womanifesto” for her forthcoming album. “Of course, no one ever does.” But it’s all part of her long musical journey: “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 Shocked’s case, it led to the West Angeles COGIC mass choir in the heart of South Central Los Angeles, where she now tries “living by the Good Book, and putting out a gospel record.”
The resulting album, titled (and spelled) ToHeavenURide, is scheduled for August 21, 2007 release on Mighty Sound through Megaforce/RED.
For this set, recorded live at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in June 2003, Grammy Award winner Shocked enlisted her Bay Area rhythm section, shanghaied Nick Forster (Hot Rize, etown) to play pedal steel and recruited the singing Dancys from New Greater Circle Mission Church in South L.A. for backing vocals and keyboards.
The marriage between the spirit of gospel music and the crisp Rocky Mountain air resulted in a rollicking performance. Shocked presents two songs by one of her greatest influences — Sister Rosetta Tharpe (“Strange Things Happening Every Day,” “Ain’t Gonna Study War No More.”) Tharpe is called the “father — well, mother — of rockabilly” in the notes, and the songs are dedicated to her spirit. Also featured are “The Weight” by The Band and “Uncloudy Day” and “Wade in the Water” by the Staple Singers. Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child” is given the Shocked treatment. Finally, “We’re Blessed” by Fred Hammond of the Detroit gospel group Commissioned, a modern gospel standard, is brought out of the churches.
Shocked also introduces includes four originals here (one is previously unreleased): “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 prove the Psalms are a fertile source of the folk tradition) and “Can’t Take My Joy” (combining gospel and reggae traditions with a nod to Bob Marley).
Although the songs were recorded at the 2003 Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Shocked’s contract plainly stipulated “no recording.” However, for a festival DVD project recorded that year, her set happened to be digitally stored on a ProTools file. It never occurred to Shocked to ask of the existence of such a recording, but it did occur to her new manager. So, in keeping in the tradition of inadvertent “field recordings” which — in the case of her debut album Texas Campfire Tapes — was made on the sneak, ToHeavenURide is another great Michelle Shocked field recording that almost never saw the light of day.
“Fifteen years ago, I was moved by a quote from the Rev. Martin Luther King: “It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.” One white girl attending a black church wasn’t going to change the world or anything, right?” writes Shocked in her ToHeavenURide manifesto, but she decided to “take the mountain to Mohammad.” “I was just going to check out a gospel choir, ya know? . . . Years later, on top of another mountain, the holy spirit erupted. And now here I am bringing it home to you.”
“The Lord works in mysterious ways. Or at least that’s been my experience.”
Shocked embarks on a national tour in support of ToHeavenURide this Fall.
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http://www.michelleshocked.com
http://www.myspace.com/mshocked
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 8, 2007
MICHELLE SHOCKED LAUNCHES BRASSY MARDI GRAS SINGLE, "HARDCORE HORNOGRAPHY" ON FEBRUARY 13, AVAILABLE ON iTUNES, WEBSITE AND MYSPACE
NEW ORLEANS, La. – Michelle Shocked's longstanding ties with the Crescent City vibrantly unfold in time for Mardi Gras with an internet-only single. Entitled "Hardcore Hornography," the song is as bawdy and bold as its title and will hopefully remind everyone that New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast are still recovering from a blowjob they will never forget. "Hardcore Hornography" features New Orleans brass denizens Troy Andrews on trumpet and Trombone Shorty on (what else?) trombone as well as the NewBirth Brass Band (Tanio Hingle, bass drum; Kerry Hunter, snare; Jeffrey Hills, sousaphone) "Virtual" street date for the song is Tuesday, February 13.
Keeping with the festival spirit, however – and as a reminder to fans that there’s still much rebuilding to be done – the song is available free at http://www.michelleshocked.com and at other sites that want to help spread it. A stream is also available at http://www.myspace.com/mshocked , and visitors can also hear demos from the forthcoming album (ETA: August 2007.)
According to Shocked, "Everyone thinks Mardi Gras is a New Orleans bacchanalia but this song is a not-so-gentle reminder that the season we celebrate is a sobering Lent, which just happens to rhyme with 'government.'"
"Hardcore Hornography" may be purchased for download at iTunes where the rest of Michelle Shocked’s album catalog has just been made available exclusively in the digital format for the first time. Her catalog now includes: The Texas Campfire Tapes, Short Sharp Shocked, Captain Swing, Arkansas Traveler, Deep Natural, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, Got No Strings, Mexican Standoff, plus two iTunes-only titles: Kind Hearted Woman and a Live EP. An iTunes Essentials package will shortly compliment this digital launch.
The albums are available with value-added bonus packaging only through traditional retailers.
Shocked will perform solo acoustic in late February at the Folk Alliance in Memphis, and will debut new material with her band at SXSW, held March 15-18 in Austin. An extensive national tour will follow the release of the new album.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 7, 2005
MICHELLE SHOCKED’S THREESOME:
A TRILOGY OF NEW ALBUMS,
ALL DUE OUT JUNE 7
A rock album produced by Dusty Wakeman;
and an album of border blues;
and an album of Disney classics, Western Swing-style
LOS ANGELES – 2005 will be a big year for Michelle Shocked, who will release a new trilogy of albums in June on her own Mighty Sound label through Ryko Distribution.
The two-time Grammy nominee will present her threesome, continuing the "American Trilogy" concept of her first three Mercury albums.
The three new albums -- titled Don’t Ask Don’t Tell; Mexican Standoff; and Got No Strings -- chronicle a tumultuous time of life -- including her recent divorce. This isn’t to imply that the songs are bitter. In fact, to the contrary they’re executed with humor, imagination, irony and empowerment -- and in voices most have never heard from Michelle. There’s rock and after-hours blues and hardcore punk and twang shading her sly lyrics.
The first of these albums, Don't Ask Don't Tell, is a rock album, full of guitar and guts, produced by man-to-watch Dusty Wakeman (Dwight Yoakam, Anne McCue.) The story of what she’s gone through is in there, but so are a lot of other stories and emotions. Early comparisons have been drawn to Richard Thompson’s Shoot out the Lights with the chromatic eclecticism of an album like Los Lobos’ Kiko. This is Short Sharp Shocked all grown up.
Mexican Standoff – like a line drawn in the sand - is half Latin, half blues. It is Shocked's unique tribute to both her Texas and Latin roots. Grounded in the blues tradition that infuses all of her work, it squares off with the influences of her adopted home, Los Angeles – and an exploration of her Spanish heritage. “You know more Spanish than you think you do,” is how she accounts for the showdown between the Texas blues shuffles on one side and the folklorico border ballads on the other. With basic production by Los Lobos Steve Berlin on the Spanglish tracks and Mark Howard on the blues numbers, Wakeman is once again at the helm, bringing the project safely into port.
Sailing in its wake is a very different album, Got No Strings, a playfully animated work in which Shocked re-imagines songs from Disney films – from standards like “When You Wish Upon a Star” to memory-joggers like “Baby Mine” – as western swing numbers. It’s an inspired juxtaposition, thanks in large measure to the contributions of producer/guitarist Nick Forster of Hot Rize/ETown renown, lap steel wizard Greg Leisz, Gabe Witcher on fiddle and David Jackson on bass.
According to Shocked, "I’m not gonna try to convince myself that it was practical. But I do tend to think in concepts of trilogies, tryptichs, trios. It seems like a complete cycle to me."
And you're hearing it here first: There are three more albums right behind these, completely different than these, including gospel/electronica and New Orleans style jazz and a tribute to blueswoman pioneer Memphis Minnie. She says, "You can't stop creative momentum. When it hits, you gotta roll with it..."
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http://www.michelleshocked.comPlease also visit U.K. publicist Peter Noble/NOBLE PR’s web page for Michelle Shocked:
http://www.noblepr.co.uk/Press_Releases/mighty_sound/michelle_shocked.htm
