NEW
YORK (Mighty Sound Records) - 2005 will be a big year for Michelle
Shocked, who will release a new trilogy of albums in June on her own
Mighty Sound label through Ryko Distribution.
The two-time
Grammy nominee will present the "JAMS Project," a series of producer
collaborations, which continues the "American Trilogy" concept of her
first three Mercury albums.
The three new albums - titled
Don't Ask, Don't Tell; The
Memphis Minnies; and Baby Mine - chronicle a
tumultuous time of life -- including her recent divorce. This isn't to
imply that the songs are bitter. In fact, to the contrary they're
executed with humor, imagination, irony and empowerment --
and
in voices most have never heard from Michelle. There's rock and
after-hours blues and hardcore punk and twang shading her sly lyrics.
The
first of these albums, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, is a rock album, full of
guitar and guts, produced by man-to-watch Dusty Wakeman (Dwight Yoakam,
Anne McCue.) The story of what she's gone through is in there, but so
are a lot of other stories and emotions. Early comparisons have been
drawn to Richard Thompson's Shoot out the
Lights with the chromatic
eclecticism of an album like Los Lobos' Kiko.
The second album
titled The
Memphis Minnies was inspired by Shocked's devotion to
'30s/'40s country blues matriarch
Memphis Minnie. Guest artists who
contributed to the project include Rickie Lee Jones, Lucinda Williams,
Alice Stuart, Lydia Pense,
Victoria Williams, Anne McCue and Janet
Robin, with more still coming on board. Producer is Mark
Howard (Bob
Dylan, Lucinda Williams.)
And the third album, Baby Mine, is a
Western swing twist on Disney music produced by Nick Forster (Hot Rize,
etown.) For young and old alike, the album is a collaboration with
Disney artist
David Willardson, with whom she will combine performances
of painting and music.
According to Shocked, "I never really
intended to release three albums at one time. But I do tend to think in
concepts of trilogies, tryptichs, trios. It seems like a complete cycle
to me."
And you're hearing it here first: There are three more
albums right behind these, completely different than these, including
gospel/electronica and Latin/blues and New Orleans style jazz. She
says, "You can't stop creative momentum. When it hits, you gotta roll
with it..."
Shocked is set to perform at the South by Southwest
(SXSW) music festival in Austin in March, date and venue TBA. She will
also speak on the conference's Artist Panel, also to be TBA.
