Profile of Michelle Shocked on Famous Like Me

Michelle Shocked is a singer-songwriter whose music and performances seem influenced by her Texas roots, her political activism, and a self-assured style that her first major-label producer likened to troubadors such as Joni Mitchell, Spider John Koerner, and Dave Van Ronk.

She was born Karen Michelle Johnston on February 24, 1962, in Dallas, Texas, the daughter of a carpenter and a woman who would end up committing her to a psychiatric hospital twenty-something years later. She graduated from high school in Gilmer, Texas and received her bachelor's degree in the Oral Interpretation of Poetry from the University of Texas in Austin.

Michelle's stage name dates back to the name she gave when arrested in 1984 at a protest for fair housing during the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, California. Her nickname was 'Chel, so Michelle Shocked was a play on words intended to resemble the phrase "shell shocked". The front cover of her (arguably) best-known album, Short Sharp Shocked, shows her restrained by the chokehold of a San Francisco policeman in a supposedly authentic photograph of this incident. However, some indie music critics of the time observed that the style of this image showed a strong similarity to a photo that appeared on the cover of British punk band known as Ultranegative. This led some to assert that she plagiarized the concept, but the accusation was never answered nor seriously pursued.

Her break into national reknown came with the appearance of her 1988 album Short Sharp Shocked on college radio rotations around the US, which was met with strong acclaim from listeners. On the crest of this independent momentum, her 1989 album Captain Swing in 1989 was accompanied with a strong promotional push including a MTV-aired video of the single "On the Greener Side". However, commercial success did not follow, and she returned to making music as a grassroots singer/songwriter.

Selected Discography

• The Texas Campfire Tapes (1986)
• Short Sharp Shocked (1988)
• Captain Swing (1989)
• Arkansas Traveler (1992)
• Kind Hearted Woman (1994, with label release in 1996)
• Artists Make Lousy Slaves (with Fiachna O'Braonain, 1996) sold only at performances, now issued as CDR's and MP3's at michelleshocked.com
• Good News (1998) sold only at performances, now issued as CDR's and MP3's at michelleshocked.com
• Deep Natural (2001)
• Dub Natural (2001)sold only at performances, later issued as a bonus disc with "Deep Natural"

Starting in 2002 with the release of Deep Natural, Michelle established her own label, Mighty Sound.

She plans to re-issue expanded versions of her entire catalog, a plan made possible by having been sharp enough to retain ultimate ownership of her work when she signed with Mercury Records in 1987. The label got her work for a ten-year period. After litigation which dates back to Mercury's refusal to release a gospel record she wanted to work on, ownership has now reverted back to her. Shocked sued on the basis of the violation of the 13th Amendment (anti-slavery). As of 2003, she has released the following:

• Texas Campfire Takes
• Short Sharp Shocked
• Captain Swing
• Don't Ask Don't Tell (2005)
• Got No Strings (2005)
• Mexican Standoff (2005)

Singles

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