Michelle Shocked - Blessed Blues
You've got to love this time of year...
It's festival season and that means an amazing array of performers find their way to our shores. Making a welcome return to Australia is perennial favourite, US singer/songwriter Michelle Shocked.
It's hard to pigeonhole Michelle. With more than twenty years in the business, her music has taken many different directions. As life has thrown all sorts of ups and downs at her, these changes have been reflected in her music. But she has always been strong in her beliefs and stayed true to herself - a quality that has led to a problem or two with record companies as she struggled to keep creative control over her music and its direction.
As Michelle takes time out to chat to The Dwarf, she lets slip that it’s been a late start to the day.
She spasmodically suffers from insomnia, and last night was one of those times. It hits her at certain times of the month and used to make her angry, but over the years Michelle has learnt to accept her body and the way it works, and just go with the process. "I'm a woman and we function differently from men." Michelle says, "It's not a barrier, we are just different."
Every morning she swims. It's her time of the day to relax and meditate and pray. So if it’s been a sleepless night, she still swims. She just gets up a little later and swims a little later.
Born Karen Michelle Johnson, in February 1962 in Dallas, Texas, University graduate Michelle has always been politically aware and a vocal activist. The cover of her album Short, Sharp, Shocked shows a photograph of her being restrained in a choker hold by the San Francisco police during a 1984 protest march.
So the current political situation in America is especially exhilarating for her. No matter what the outcome, there are big changes on the way. "It's an exciting time." she says. "The amount of energy that is in US politics at the moment hasn't been around for ages."
What started as a curious person listening to a gospel choir in a Pentecostal Church in Los Angeles helped lead to Michelle's latest offering- ToHeavenURide, a gospel album. It was recorded live at the Telluride Bluegrass festival, originally without Michelle's knowledge. But luckily existence of the recording came to the attention of Michelle and her management, and now it has been released.
The album contains eleven songs, four of which are originals, and showcases Michelle where she shines the brightest - live on stage. And the album also embodies her natural honesty and integrity. Not only is it a genre she has wanted to record in for a long time, but also due to the fact that as she was unaware of the recording, it shows this soulful, multitalented musician as she really is when she performs.
A gospel album seems a far cry from the alternative, politically motivated music she used to make. But this is where her life journey has taken her now. Michelle seems to have overcome the turmoil of her past to be at a place in her life where she seems at peace with who she is and where she's at. Originally raised a strict Mormon, it was probably only a matter of time before religion became important in her life again. But the difference is now it's on her terms.
Her songs have always had a sense of morality to them "God has given me a conscience." Michelle says. She sees God in everything, the good and the bad, and realises you cannot recognise one without the existence of the other. She has taken what she sees as a leap of faith, and has chosen to believe that she will ultimately be judged by her own actions.
Michelle sees her creativity as a gift - a God-given gift that she is compelled to put to good use. It is a gift that cannot be pinned down to one particular entity with her creative process ebbing and flowing as it sees fit. There is no standard formula with her song writing. As she speaks to The Dwarf she reveals her excitement about her latest song writing experience, ‘Audrey’- a song inspired by Audrey Hepburn. Its conception took patience, introspection and months to write. And yet in direct contrast, one of her most famous songs, Anchorage was written in a matter of minutes. The creative process is different with each song, and inspiration often strikes in obscure places and times, but Michelle has just learnt to go with it, recognise her gift and use it wisely.
On an almost non-stop touring schedule before hitting our shores, Michelle's tour will have taken her all over Europe and South Africa during February and March. Her Australian part of the tour sees her playing shows at The Blues and Roots Festival in Byron Bay, The Southern Roots Festival in Hobart and dates in Sydney and Melbourne. Then it's back to the States for more touring throughout April and May.
