If you’re a fan of folk music and grew up in the 1980s and ’90s, chances are you’ll know of Michelle Shocked. Hopefully it’s her soulful take on storytelling, country, and rock’n’roll you recall, or the three times she was nominated for a Grammy.
But perhaps more likely, it’s the “God hates faggots controversy” that erupted across global news outlets after an ill-fated gig in San Francisco a few years ago, almost wrecking her career.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and we’re not going to get too deep into it here. As far as we’re concerned, it was a sort of creative, spur-of-the-moment experiment that backfired to the point where the fallout overshadowed who Michelle is as a performer and what she’s all about.
We’ve heard first hand what she has to say about it, and as two equality-minded, atheist, lefty gays, we feel entirely comfortable calling Michelle our friend and ally.
We met Michelle at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe, when we invited her to join the cast of our hit show Joe’s NYC Bar as the guest band. She nailed it on the night and we invited her back, laying the foundation for a beautiful professional relationship, and a new friendship.
Michelle went on to perform three gigs at the New York City run of Joe’s NYC Bar in January 2017, and she also guest starred as our house musician for the full Orlando Fringe run of the show in May 2017.
In August 2017 we produced Michelle’s show Truth vs Reality at the Edinburgh Fringe, helping her notch up two 4-star reviews and make lots of fans very, very happy.
Truth vs Reality is a retrospective of her Grammy-nominated albums, wrapped up in an exploration of her controversial career.
What’s next for Michelle…
In addition to our friendship, we’re thrilled to have an ongoing professional relationship with Michelle and look forward to working with her on various gigs and other projects in 2018 and beyond.
Texas’s badass Godmother of Americana touches the third rail yet again. Arrested for peaceful protest. Ridiculed for dissecting the censored history of blackface. Blacklisted for antagonising virtual-media zombies. Notoriously blacklisted as the world’s greatest homophobe. This August, triple Grammy nominated artist Michelle Shocked celebrates the 30th anniversary since the launch of her Mercury Trilogy (Short Sharp Shocked, Captain Swing, and Arkansas Traveler) with a triumphant victory lap bringing her electrifying shows to a self-medicating world that needs to wake the f*ck up.
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