Shocking Stuff from a Modern Day Minstrel

Michelle Shocked's new album, Arkansas Traveler, proves that musicians can make 'em like they used to, and they can do 'em well. Her songs ramble, laugh, moan and cry in a pleasant country and blues style. although harkening back to pre-Rock musical traditions can make for a stale record, Michelle Shocked keeps the intensity level high with quality music and stunning vocals.

The songs range from winding country melodies to light folk numbers to blackface minstrel songs--a genre with a strange place in the history of popular American music. The arrangements of the songs vary, but are all thickly textured with instruments rarely present in popular music today such as fiddle, mandolin, banjo, "field snare" and "bones." Shocked Iyrics are clever and ironic, only sometimes focusing on traditional country and blues lyrical themes.

Every song on the album is well worth repeated listenings. "Prodigal Daughter (Cotton Eyed Joe)" is a quiet country number about the double standard accorded to men and women and about pregnancy and abortion: "Look, here comes a prodigal son/ Fetch him a tall drink of water/ But there's none in the cup/ because he drak it all up/ Left for a prodigal daughter/ Singing, Oh Cotton Eyed Joe/Had not've been for the Cotton Eyed Joe/I'd have been married a long time ago," The sad harmonies match the pain and irony of the song without being overdone.

On a lighter note, "Strawberry Jam" is a slow wink of a song about culinary self reliance in a cold corporate world. "We have Welches, Smuckers, Knott's Berry Farm/ But a little of homemade jam never did a body no harm/ A little local motion is all we really need/ to close down these corporate jam, straw berry jam/ If you want the best jam, you got to make your own."

"Jump Jim Crow," one of the minstrel songs on the album, features a sparse arrangement of guitar and mandolin which complements Shocked's simple vocals. Towards the end of the song, Shocked signs "Zip-a-Dee-Doo Dah" in a soft, shrill voice reminiscent of early 20th century popular music. Moral and political implications of the blackface minstrelsy aside, "Jump Jim Crow" is one of the most successful songs on the album.

With Arkansas Traveler, Michelle Shocked covers old musical ground with sensitivity and lyrical skill. She offers an elegant tribute to a controversial body of music