December 11-17, 2003

musicpicks

Michelle Shocked

Rock/pop

Musical iconoclast Michelle Shocked is feeling especially celebratory, having won her years-long battle against Polygram Records to regain ownership rights over the albums she released on the label, beginning with her stunning 1988 debut Short Sharp Shocked. "I've wrestled control of my career and my musical vision," Shocked says. "It feels great." A born-again Christian and soon-to-be divorcee, Shocked's re-releasing her major label CDs in staggered intervals under her own Mighty Sound label. Short Sharp Shocked now includes 21 additional tracks, including alternative versions, live performances and covers of tunes by Johnny Cash, Rodney Crowell and Steve Goodman.

"I'm touring the Short Sharp Shocked album, actually," Shocked says. "I'm going totally back to my roots." The East Texas native's well-publicized life story contains more innate drama than her songs: Raised in a strict Mormon home, she spent time in a mental institution, squatted throughout Europe, survived a rape, recorded her first album singing around a campfire -- and quickly earned a reputation as one music's most genre-defying and politically outspoken talents.

"I have so many songs in me," Shocked says, adding that her decade-long membership in one of Los Angeles' predominately African-American churches has enriched the diversity of what she calls her "completely unclassifiable" roots music. "Before I was a funky white girl -- now I'm a soulful funky white girl."

Thu., Dec. 11, 8:30 p.m., $27, Tin Angel, 20 S. Second St., 215-928-0770.

—Nicole Pensiero