Michelle Shocked

**Michelle Shocked** (born Karen Michelle Johnston; February 24, 1962) is an American singer-songwriter. Her music entered the Billboard Hot 100, was nominated for Grammy award for Best Contemporary Folk Recording, and received a Folk Album of the Year at the CMJ New Music Awards.

Shocked was born at the Baylor University Medical Center. Her stepfather was in the US Army and the family moved from base to base, eventually settling in Gilmer, Texas. Her mother was Mormon and she was raised in that faith. Her mother had her committed to a psychiatric hospital for a time during years of drug abuse. Johnston went through a punk rock phase, wearing a Mohawk hairdo and squatting in abandoned buildings in San Francisco, California.

In 1984, Johnston adopted the stage name "Michelle Shocked," a play on the expression "shell shocked," she said in a 1992 interview with Green Left Weekly: "The term 'Miss shell shocked' is a direct reference to the thousand-yard stare, which was a term that they first used to describe the victims of shell-shock in World War I. These people from outward appearances had survived the war quite well when in fact inside their minds were blown. I first used that name in 1984 at the Democratic Convention in San Francisco where I was arrested for protesting and demonstrating against corporations who contribute money to both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party campaigns."

Shocked received her first international exposure after Pete Lawrence recorded her performance on a portable tape recorder at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas. Lawrence released the tape in Europe as The Texas Campfire Tapes (1986) (later released as The Texas Campfire Takes). The album's success brought major labels asking her to sign a contract. Shocked was resistant to what she saw as the machinations of the music industry, and worked to retain a degree of creative control.

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## Links to Kershaw

According to Ken Garner's In Session tonight book, Kershaw discovered the singer when Pete Lawrence of Cooking Vinyl brought into John Walters office a cassette 'of this woman he'd recorded at the Kerville Folk Festival in Texas,' recalls Andy. 'We listened to a bit of it, it was a sort of a female Woody Guthrie, and you could hear trucks rumbling by, train whistles in the distance, crickets chirping. Pete wanted to get her over here to re-record the numbers. Great idea, I said.

'Anyway, the tape burbled on, crickets chirping away; and I suddenly thought, look, if we're sitting here enjoying this so much will all this noise on the tape, why not just put it out as it is? It's just the right environment for these songs anyway.' And later, that's precisely what Cooking Vinyl did, releasing Michelle Shocked's Texas Camp Fire Tapes; yet only after they were convinced by the overwhelming response they got, when part of it was heard first as a Radio 1 session. Andy had believed in this idea to the extent of contracting in four of the numbers, which were first broadcast on 25 September 1986.

On his 11 April 1992 show, Andy was miffed that London Records hadn't sent him a copy of the latest Michelle Shocked album ("Arkansas Traveler"), despite the role he played in breaking the artist in the UK.

## Sessions

1. Recorded at the Kerville Folk Festival: 1986-05-31. First Broadcast: 25 September 1986

* 5am In Amsterdam / The Incomplete Image / Who Cares / The Secret To A Long Life (Is Knowing When It's Time To Go)

2. Recorded: 1987-04-30. First Broadcast: 14 May 1987. Repeated: 18 June 1987

* Contest Comin' / Woody's Rag Medley / Strawberry Jam / Leavin' Louisiana

3. Recorded: 1988-09-01. First Broadcast: 15 September 1988. Repeated: 03 November 1988

* Anchorage / Must Be Luff / A Wintersong / Sleep / Russian Roulette

## Other Shows Played

1986
* 04 November 1986 (John Peel): 5 a.m. In Amsterdam (LP - The Texas Campfire Tapes) Cooking Vinyl

1987
* 05 February 1987: (Don't You Mess Around With) My Little Sister
* 09 July 1987: If Love Was A Train (12") Cooking Vinyl

1992
* 14 March 1992: Contest Coming (Cripple Creek) (LP - Arkansas Traveler) London

## External Links

* Wikipedia
* Discogs
* Official Website