Short Sharp Shocked  / Short Sharp Shocked

Michelle Shocked made the leap from the lo-fi approach of her debut album into a fully produced setting on Short Sharp Shocked, an excellent set that remains her best-known release. The Texas-bred singer/songwriter teams up with producer Pete Anderson (of Dwight Yoakam fame) to achieve an appealing fusion of folk and alt-country sounds, with a dash of punk tossed in. Shocked comes to grips with both old memories and new realities here — there’s a hard-won wisdom in these tracks, conveyed in Michelle’s jazz-tinged delivery and the wry humor embedded in her lyrics. “Memories of East Texas,” “Gladewater” and “V.F.D.” examine the pleasures and limitations of small-town life with a knowing eye. Shocked rocks righteously on the bluesy “When I Grow Up” and the thrashing “Fogtown” (a team-up with punk unit MDC); she gets political on “Graffiti Limbo” and asserts her trad-folk credentials by covering Jean Ritchie’s “The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore.” Most of all, the album is defined by “Anchorage,” a bittersweet look at the distance between old friends.