| Product Summary | | Label: Palmetto Records | | UPC: 00820692100624 | | Release Date: 5/26/2009 | | Buy.com Sku: 61706702 | | Item#: MP3CR9 | Format:  CD |
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| Song Listing |  |
Disc 1
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. 33 RPM Soul With Pops Staples - (with Pops Staples) ~ Michelle Shocked |  | | 2. Come A Long Way ~ Michelle Shocked | | | 3. Secret To A Long Life - (with The Band) ~ Michelle Shocked | | | 4. Contest Comng - (with Red Clay Ramblers) ~ Michelle Shocked | | | 5. Over The Waterfall - (with Hothouse Flowers) ~ Michelle Shocked | | | 6. Shaking Hands - (with Uncle Tupelo) ~ Michelle Shocked | | | 7. Jum Jum Crow - (with Taj Majal) ~ Michelle Shocked | | | 8. Hold Me Back - (with Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown) ~ Michelle Shocked | | | 9. Strawberry Jam - (with Doc Watson) ~ Michelle Shocked | | | 10. Prodigal Daughter - (with Alison Krauss) ~ Michelle Shocked | | | 11. Blackberry Blossom - (with Norman Blake) ~ Michelle Shocked | | | 12. Weaving Way - (with The Messengers) ~ Michelle Shocked | | | 13. Arkansas Traveler - (with Jimmy Driftwood) ~ Michelle Shocked | | | 14. Woody's Rag - (with Dollar Bill) ~ Michelle Shocked | | | 15. Worth the Weight - (with Dan Crary) ~ Michelle Shocked | | | 16. Come A Long Way ~ Michelle Shocked | | | 17. Blackberry Blossom - (with The String Cheese Incident) ~ Michelle Shocked | | | 18. Weaving Way ~ Michelle Shocked | | | 19. Down in the Arkansas - (with Jimmy Driftwood) ~ Michelle Shocked | | | 20. Introducing Dollar Bill ~ Michelle Shocked | | | 21. C-H-I-C-K-E-N - (with Dollar Bill) ~ Michelle Shocked | |
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| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Personnel includes: Michelle Shocked (vocals, guitar, mandolin), Vanessa Holmes, Hermanita Jones (vocals), Steve Connelly, Mark Goldenberg (guitar), Jimmy Driftwood (guitar, vocals), Dollar Bill (mandolin), Mickey Raphael (harmonica), Leo Barnes (saxophone, Hammond B-3 organ), Bill "Foots" Samuels (baritone saxophone), Terry Townson (trumpet), Mitchell Froom (Hammond B-3 organ), Bob Murphy, Peter Bull (keyboards), Jerry Scheff (bass), Hassan Kahn (bass), Jerry Marotta, Kenny Aronoff (drums). | | Additional personnel: Jerry Douglas, Mark O'Connor, Alison Krauss, Jack Irons, Garth Hudson, Tony Levin, Uncle Tupelo, The Hothouse Flowers, The Red Clay Ramblers, Alison Brown, Bernie Leadon, Byron Berline. | | Producers: Michelle Shocked (tracks 1, 3-14); Don Was (track 2). | | Engineers: Glenn Rosenstein (track 1, 4, 6, 8-11, 13-14); Rik Pekkonen (track 2); Tom Cook (track 3); Hugh Padgham (track 5); Mark McKenna (track 7); Alan Thorne (track 12) | | Includes liner notes by Michelle Shocked. | | All songs written by Michelle Shocked Except "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" (Gilbert/Wrubel) and "Woody's Rag" (Woody Guthrie). | | Personnel: Michelle Shocked; Doc Watson, Alison Krauss, Roebuck "Pops" Staples, Taj Mahal, Uncle Tupelo. | | Liner Note Author: Michelle Shocked. | | Recording information: Bennett House Studios, Franklin, TN (1991); Bill Schnee Studio, Los Angeles, CA (1991); Commissary Antique Store, Rising Fawn, GA (1991); Dreamland Studios, Woodstock, NY (1991); Driftwood Barn, Mountain View, AR (1991); Folk Music Hall Of Fame (1991); Jack's House, Chapel Hill, NC (1991); Merle Watson Memorial Festival, Wilkesboro, NC (1991); Mountain View Stage, Charleston, WV (1991); Ocean Way Studios, Hollywood, CA (1991); Piney Woods Pickin' Parlor, Mineola, TX (1991); Steamboat Springs (1991); Sun STudios, Memphis, TN (1991); Szene Wien, Vienna, Austria (1991); The Spirit Of St. Charles, St. Charles, MO (1991); Trafalgar Studios, Annandale, Australia (1991); Trax Recording, Chicago, IL (1991); Windmill Lane Recording Studio, Dublin, Ireland (1991). | | One may feel a certain pity for Mercury Records when it took delivery of Michelle Shocked's third album for the label, Arkansas Traveler. Mercury had signed the feisty country-folk singer/songwriter in the wake of the hoopla surrounding her first album, The Texas Campfire Tapes, an impromptu collection recorded on a cassette player at the 1986 Kerrville Folk Festival. Shocked eschewed a hefty advance in favor of greater artistic control and then delivered the well-received Short Sharp Shocked (1988), followed by Captain Swing (1989), something of a swing-band genre exercise. Both albums reached the Top 100 in Billboard and spent six-plus months in the charts. At first, Arkansas Traveler must have sounded like a breakthrough effort; it was certainly ambitious. Shocked was adapting old folk and country material such as "Soldier's Joy," "Frankie & Johnny," and "Cotton Eyed Joe" with new arrangements and lyrics, and she was conducting sessions around the world with a host of impressive partners. In Australia, she collaborated with Paul Kelly's backup band, the Messengers, on "Weaving Way," and she went to Ireland to record "Over the Waterfall" with the Hothouse Flowers. In the U.S., there were sessions in Chicago, IL, with Pops Staples of the Staple Singers ("33 RPM Soul"); Woodstock, NY, with Levon Helm and Garth Hudson of the Band ("Secret to a Long Life"); Chapel Hill, NC, with the Red Clay Ramblers ("Contest Coming [Cripple Creek]"); St. Charles, MO, with Uncle Tupelo ("Shaking Hands [Soldier's Joy]"); Los Angeles with Taj Mahal ("Jump Jim Crow/Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah"); Memphis, TN, with Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown ("Hold Me Back [Frankie & Johnny]"); Wilkesboro, NC, with Doc Watson ("Strawberry Jam"); Franklin, TN, with Alison Krauss & Union Station ("Prodigal Daughter [Cotton Eyed Joe]"); Rising Fawn, GA, with Rising Fawn String Ensemble ("Blackberry Bottom"); Mountain View, AR, with Jimmy Driftwood ("Arkansas Traveler"); and Mineola, TX, with Dollars, Taxes, featuring her father, "Dollar Bill" Johnston, on mandolin (Woody Guthrie's "Woody's Rag"). | | The music ranged from folk-rock to old-timey country, and Shocked interacted well with her many guests, reinvigorating the traditional tunes and remaking them in her own exuberant style. If they had a chance to think about it, the executives at Mercury might have dreamed of a PBS special featuring all the musicians and a home video to further expose and promote a release that might have seemed like a potential cross-genre smash. Then would have come the bombshell. Shocked, it seemed, had been inspired in her conception of the album by an interest in the history of blackface minstrelsy, which provided the source of such songs as "Jump Jim Crow," and she wanted to appear in blackface on the cover of the album. Despite her contracted artistic control, Mercury rejected this desire, which of course would have constituted commercial (and perhaps career) suicide, but the label did allow her to write a sleeve note about her intentions and then felt required to add a disclaimer to the effect that her views "do not necessarily represent those of the musicians who have generously contributed their time and talent to this project." One could certainly listen to and enjoy Arkansas Traveler while ignoring all this small-print, handwritten commentary in the album's booklet, but of course critics couldn't be expected to do that, and while praising the music, they also commented on the artist's no doubt well-intentioned, but seemingly confused -- or at least confusing -- concept. As a result, Arkansas Traveler failed to sell and became Shocked's last major-label effort. ~ William Ruhlmann | | Michelle Shocked is nothing if not a roots-conscious artist. She initially made her name as a hard-traveling neo-folk troubadour a la Woody Guthrie, early Bob Dylan, et al. After her mainstream breakthrough with the relatively pop-oriented CAPTAIN SWING, she used her newfound celebrity to further explore her roots on the follow-up, ARKANSAS TRAVELER. The 1992 album is essentially an Americana sampler, wherein Shocked teams up with different rootsy artists on each cut. Bluegrass is a heavy influence, and she's joined variously by Doc Watson, Alison Krauss, and other bluegrass greats. On other cuts, she partners with everyone from the Band to Taj Mahal. | | While many artists would have made a trad-folk covers album out of such an endeavor, Shocked was talented enough to come up with a brace of original songs that captured the flavor of her influences, while remaining original and distinctive. The 2004 reissue of AT adds seven bonus tracks to the deal, including live cuts, demos, and alternate versions, effectively expanding Shocked's all-American saga. | | Michelle Shocked is nothing if not a roots-conscious artist. She initially made her name as a hard-traveling neo-folk troubadour a la Woody Guthrie, early Bob Dylan, et al. After her mainstream breakthrough with the relatively pop-oriented CAPTAIN SWING, she used her newfound celebrity to further explore her roots on the follow-up, ARKANSAS TRAVELER. The 1992 album is essentially an Americana sampler, wherein Shocked teams up with different rootsy artists on each cut. Bluegrass is a heavy influence, and she's joined variously by Doc Watson, Alison Krauss, and other bluegrass greats. On other cuts, she partners with everyone from the Band to Taj Mahal. | | While many artists would have made a trad-folk covers album out of such an endeavor, Shocked was talented enough to come up with a brace of original songs that captured the flavor of her influences, while remaining original and distinctive. | | One may feel a certain pity for Mercury Records when it took delivery of Michelle Shocked's third album for the label, Arkansas Traveler. Mercury had signed the feisty country-folk singer/songwriter in the wake of the hoopla surrounding her first album, The Texas Campfire Tapes, an impromptu collection recorded on a casse |
Musical Guests | | Levon Helm | | Albert Lee | | Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown | | Roebuck "Pops" Staples | | Doc Watson | | Taj Mahal | | Norman & Nancy Blake |
| | Artist Overview | | In the mid-'80s, Shocked represented the acceptable face of the iconoclastic "anti-folk" movement, but her bare-bones acoustic sound soon gave way to a larger ideal that incorporated bluegrass, roots-rock, and even swing. Though her media star dimmed by the mid-'90s, her music remained as powerful as ever. |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 07/25/2005 | | Original Release Date : 1991 | | Catalog ID : 1006 | | Label : Mighty Sound | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00820692100624 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Rolling Stone (5/14/92, p.105)
- 3.5 Stars - Very Good - "...This kind of generation-busting hasn't seemed so right since the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band gathered the tribes for WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN..."Entertainment Weekly (4/17/92, p.60)
- "...mostly bluegrassy, countrified numbers...Shocked's voice is as clear as dewdrops on honeysuckle..." - Rating: B Q (5/92, p.84)
- 3 Stars - Good - "...Shocked is a highly accomplished guide, displaying an understanding of, and commitment to, the roots she's unearthed..." Option (July-Aug./92, p.122)
- "...succeeds in consolidating the varied strains of Shocked's first three albums into one context, making a whole from her excursions into folk, folk-rock, and rhythm & blues..." |
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