No video link to my song choice today. There are live versions of Michelle Shocked's "(Don't You Mess Around with) My Little Sister", but they aren't great - certainly not as good as the recorded version.
Taken from her 1989 Captain Swing disk, it is a good amalgamation of what she was best at: rock, country, folk, alternative and a little swing thrown in.
Most folks know Shocked from her one "hit", 'Anchorage'. And it's a good song, but she has much better songs that weave stories. Where the art of telling stories is rare anymore in music, Shocked did it well. Now it is just almost meaningless words set to some track that artists and companies hope a radio station will play and pay off handsomely. To me, that's never what music has been about.
Truth be told, this isn't necessarily one of those storyteller moments, but it's two and one half minutes of fun.
Two albums after Captain Swing, she'd start to veer into more spiritual/gospel music, which wasn't a big draw for me - though her song "the Quality of Mercy" from the Dead Man Walking soundtrack is incredibly good. Kind Hearted Woman was the last disk I bought from her.
On a similar note, those of you who listen to NPR's Marketplace might recognize other music from this disk. I'd say once a week or so they will play a few chords of Shocked's "Looks Like Mona Lisa".
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