Details
Track Listing
1. 33 RPM Soul
2. Come a Long Way
3. Secret to a Long Life
4. Contest Coming (Cripple Creek)
5. Over the Waterfall
6. Shaking Hands (Soldier's Joy)
7. Jump Jim Crow / Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
8. Hold Me Back (Frankie & Johnny)
9. Strawberry Jam
10. Prodigal Daughter (Cotton Eyed Joe)
11. Blackberry Blossom
12. Weaving Way
13. Arkansas Traveler
14. Woody's Rag
Album Notes
Personnel includes: Michelle Shocked (vocals, guitar, mandolin), Vanessa Holmes, Hermanita Jones (vocals), Steve Connelly, Mark Goldenberg (guitar), Jimmy Driftwood (guitar, vocals), Dollar Bill (mandolin), Mickey Raphael (harmonica), Leo Barnes (saxophone, Hammond B-3 organ), Bill "Foots" Samuels (baritone saxophone), Terry Townson (trumpet), Mitchell Froom (Hammond B-3 organ), Bob Murphy, Peter Bull (keyboards), Jerry Scheff (bass), Hassan Kahn (bass), Jerry Marotta, Kenny Aronoff (drums).
Additional personnel: Jerry Douglas, Mark O'Connor, Alison Krauss, Jack Irons, Garth Hudson, Tony Levin, Uncle Tupelo, The Hothouse Flowers, The Red Clay Ramblers, Alison Brown, Bernie Leadon, Byron Berline.
Producers: Michelle Shocked (tracks 1, 3-14); Don Was (track 2).
Engineers: Glenn Rosenstein (track 1, 4, 6, 8-11, 13-14); Rik Pekkonen (track 2); Tom Cook (track 3); Hugh Padgham (track 5); Mark McKenna (track 7); Alan Thorne (track 12)
Includes liner notes by Michelle Shocked.
All songs written by Michelle Shocked Except "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" (Gilbert/Wrubel) and "Woody's Rag" (Woody Guthrie).
Michelle Shocked is nothing if not a roots-conscious artist. She initially made her name as a hard-traveling neo-folk troubadour a la Woody Guthrie, early Bob Dylan, et al. After her mainstream breakthrough with the relatively pop-oriented CAPTAIN SWING, she used her newfound celebrity to further explore her roots on the follow-up, ARKANSAS TRAVELER. The 1992 album is essentially an Americana sampler, wherein Shocked teams up with different rootsy artists on each cut. Bluegrass is a heavy influence, and she's joined variously by Doc Watson, Alison Krauss, and other bluegrass greats. On other cuts, she partners with everyone from the Band to Taj Mahal.
While many artists would have made a trad-folk covers album out of such an endeavor, Shocked was talented enough to come up with a brace of original songs that captured the flavor of her influences, while remaining original and distinctive.
Industry Reviews
...succeeds in consolidating the varied strains of Shocked's first three albums into one context, making a whole from her excursions into folk, folk-rock, and rhythm & blues...
Option (07/01/1992)
...mostly bluegrassy, countrified numbers...Shocked's voice is as clear as dewdrops on honeysuckle... - Rating: B
Entertainment Weekly (04/17/1992)
3 Stars - Good - ...Shocked is a highly accomplished guide, displaying an understanding of, and commitment to, the roots she's unearthed...
Q (05/01/1992)
3.5 Stars - Very Good - ...This kind of generation-busting hasn't seemed so right since the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band gathered the tribes for WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN...
Rolling Stone (05/14/1992)
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