95th Anniversary Guest
Performers
Michelle Shocked
MICHELLE SHOCKED’S GOSPEL ROOTS INFORM NEW ALBUM,
ToHEAVENuRIDE
Live set pays tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Staple
Singers and Billie Holiday; set includes traditional spirituals
as well as and original several new original 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.
For more information on Michelle Shocked, please contact
conqueroo:
Cary Baker • (818) 501-2001 • cary@conqueroo.com
