DATE:    August 12, 2003

FROM:   MITCH SCHNEIDER/MARCEE RONDAN/LATHUM NELSON

MICHELLE SHOCKED TO RELEASE DELUXE

RE-MASTERED VERSION OF

CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED DEBUT STUDIO ALBUM

‘SHORT, SHARP, SHOCKED’

SEPTEMBER 23;

  Package WILL FEATURE BONUS DISC

OF 21 live recordings, rare radio sessions

and studio outtakes;

  ALBUM IS SECOND IN RE-ISSUE CAMPAIGN

ON SHOCKED’S OWN MIGHTY SOUND LABEL

MICHELLE SHOCKED, one of the most absorbing singer/songwriter/musicians in contemporary music, will release a deluxe, re-mastered version of her classic 1988 debut studio album SHORT, SHARP, SHOCKED September 23 on her own label, Mighty Sound.  SHORT, SHARP, SHOCKED--out of print since 1998--is packaged with a special bonus disc of 21 live recordings, rare radio sessions, and studio outtakes. 

MICHELLE launched Mighty Sound with her acclaimed 2002 album DEEP NATURAL and followed it earlier this year with the deluxe re-issue of her pivotal 1986 release TEXAS CAMPFIRE TAPES. 

While SHOCKED continues to work on new material for release in mid-2004 as well as tour, she also wears the hat of founder and CEO--or, as she prefers, “Big Boss With The Hot Sauce”--of Mighty Sound.  There will be two deluxe reissues per year until her entire catalog--all of which has been out of print for years--is again available.

Shocked, an artist rights advocate, is the only known major label artist to now own and publish their complete catalog.  Instead of accepting a large advance when she was signed with PolyGram in November 1987, Michelle negotiated instead for ownership of her work. After long years of legal battles, the control is back with its rightful owner.

A pioneering, punk-edged mixture of the music she grew up on--bluegrass, blues, Texas swing and singer-songwriters--SHORT, SHARP, SHOCKED received ecstatic praise from the critics upon its initial release: 

“…folk rooted singer songwriter is a talent of the first order…on Short, Sharp, Shocked, the singer’s rich, intoxicating alto alternates between coquettish Southern-belle reminiscences of humorous incidents…and the thoughtful, almost dreamy delivery of reflective songs about friendship.”

        --Holly Gleason, ROLLING STONE, Nov 3, 1988

“Sure, the words roll lazily off her tongue, much in the style of Billie Holiday.  The guitar accompanies them with the studied precision favored by Robert Johnson and other bluesmen…Shocked has a serious voice and an artistic way of presenting the world.”

        --Tom Moon, THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, August 14, 1988

“On Short Sharp, Shocked proves herself as real and imaginative as any fold predecessor.  But her traditionalism is firmly tied to the contemporary.”

--Tom Lanham, THE SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER-CHRONICLE, September 25, 1988

“…I can hear the quickening of an honest American voice…Shocked’s songs gel, moving outward from specifics, she speaks boldly about her times in a manner that calls Woody Guthrie to mind.”

        --Leslie Berman, VILLIAGE VOICE, September 27, 1988

“Every once in a while a voice emerges in pop to blow the music’s pretensions and formats out to sea.  Such is the voice of Michelle Shocked…Shocked blooms under his (co-producer Pete Anderson’s) guidance and attacks each song with precision bringing out the inherent attitude and emotion with the right touch of instrumentation.”

        --Marty Racine, HOUSTON CHRONICLE, October 2, 1988

“Michelle Shocked is simply the brightest new voice unearthed from the American roots-music landscape in a long while.  With an ear to the ground and a thumb to the wind, she has taken the oral-tradition torch handed down by troubadours like Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan and recast its male vocabulary in a post feminist light that erases sexual dividing lines…Short Sharp Shocked is a vibrant work, full of character and informed by a political conscience.  Michelle Shocked is a true trailblazer who knows how to play with fire, and Short Sharp Shocked is a scorcher.”

        --Janie Matthews, ROLLING STONE, November 3, 1988

The complete track listing for the CDs is as follows: 

Track Listing Disc One:

When I Grow Up

Hello Hopeville

Memories of East Texas

Gladewater

Graffiti Limbo

If Love Was a Train

Anchorage

L and N Don't Stop Here Anymore

VFD

Black Widow

[Fogtown]

Track Listing Disc 2:

When I Grow Up (demo)

Memories of East Texas (live)

Yamboree Queen (live)

Strawberry Jam (live)

Graffiti Limbo (demo)

If Love Was a Train (alt)

Anchorage (radio)

The L&N Don't Stop Here (alt)

VFD (live)

Black Widow (alt)

Leaving Louisiana...(radio)

Disoriented (UK single)

Lovely Rita (UK compilation

Ballad of Penny Evans (live)

Remodeling the Pentagon (live)

Fred's Winter Song (radio)

Prince of Darkness (with Mekons)

One Piece at a Time (UK compilation)

5 AM in Amsterdam (live)

Campus Crusade (live)

Irene Goodnight (live)

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