Michelle Shocked is a fascinating study in eclecticism, both inside and outside of her art. Her views often seem in opposition to each other, but she seems to have successfully integrated them into a belief system that sustains her. She’s a feminist and an activist who leans left, but she’s also a Born-again Christian who names her pastor as one of her most important heroes. Even her rise to fame in the eighties was not ordinary; an English producer bootlegged one of her live performances and released the recordings in the UK. The recordings landed in the charts and earned Michelle overnight success and a record deal.

According to her wesite, “Shocked was born in Dallas, raised in Kelsey, just outside Gilmer, in East Texas’ Upshur County; living in London and Amsterdam and New York City and Los Angeles and New Orleans. . . . long before the world knew her, Michelle Shocked knew the world. First as an Army brat and then as a rambling troubadour, a truly intrepid traveler, a real East Texas rambler. She has wandered a far wider world than most of us ever will, mixing musical modes every bit as determinedly as she crossed borders, but the world she came from, is just as hard for an outsider to imagine.”

t and then as a rambling troubadour, a truly intrepid traveler, a real East Texas rambler. She has wandered a far wider world than most of us ever will, mixing musical modes every bit as determinedly as she crossed borders, but the world she came from, is just as hard for an outsider to imagine.”