On Thursday, July, 21th, Michelle presents her classic album “Arkansas Traveler” in its entirety - backed by her band, 1000 Yard, comprised of Josh Chambers & Lucas Ruedy, and featuring the greatest young bluegrass players to ever emerge from the hills and hollers of Washington County, NY.
The 21st of July will be a bloody, whiskey-soaked night of head-cutting, flatpicking, and ragged, flag bearing emotional revelation. Feel the earth quake and the blue grass blossom in brilliant set pieces such as “Come A Long Way”, “Prodigal Daughter”, and “33 RPM Soul”.
“Arkansas Traveler” is widely considered by music critics, players, and tastemakers to be the pinnacle of Michelle’s anthropological dig into roots music and Americana. It is a devastating masterpiece, and demands to be heard live.
This summer, Grammy Award winner Michelle Shocked returns to the stage after a 3-year hiatus with a tour of “The Mercury Trilogy”. The performances will showcase Michelle's classic albums: "Short, Sharp, Shocked", "Captain Swing", & "Arkansas Traveler". These albums will be played in their entirety at each concert and will incorporate an unprecedented theatrical dimension yet to be experienced in Michelle’s work.
Michelle has chosen the artistic nexus of Saratoga Springs, NY, as the staging ground for this historical event. The Saratoga shows will be followed by various stops throughout the Northeast in June and July, culminating in a 24-night residency at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the largest arts festival in the world.
At Edinburgh, Michelle will play The Mercury Trilogy over 24 consecutive nights, playing each album in sequence in three-day intervals. After each three-day cycle, she will augment her backing band with top players from around the world, as well as local Scottish talent, to create an ever-evolving accrued sonic density. This experience will reach its cathartic and celebratory apex as she performs the trilogy over the final three days of the festival with a monumental collective of performers behind her.
Immediately following the Edinburgh Festival, Michelle will embark on 8-week tour of Ireland, England, and Scotland, bringing the spirit and anarchic core of the residency on the road.
Michelle Shocked is a traveling troubadour whose musical talent is so eclectic it is difficult to categorize. As a young feminist, she left Texas to travel, Kerouac-style, and was caught up in Reagan-era grassroots politics. Her musical career was ignited by a bootleg recording made around a Kerrville Folk Festival campfire on a Sony Walkman. In a 30-year career that has seen critical acclaim at every juncture, she famously escaped major-label indentured servitude in 1996, subverting the artist-label relationship that helped lead to the current trend toward artistic self-containment.