During Michelle's 2001 US tour copies of the 15-track version were sold at her shows hand-relabeled as "The Texas Sharecropper Tapes" (ie. the word "Campfire" is struck out and "Sharecropper" is written, apparently in Michelle's handwriting, in black permanent marker across the photo of Michelle).

Credits:
All songs composed by Michelle Shocked except + Paul Simon (Pattern Music Ltd.) and ++ Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter (Tro-Essex Music).
All songs copyright 1986 Cooking Vinyl except * copyright 1987 Cooking Vinyl.

Michelle Shocked - guitar & vocal

Producer Pete Lawrence
Engineer Tony Engle, Howie Weinberg
Edited by Tony Engle at Ideal Sound Recorders.
Recorded on a Sony Walkman.
Sleeve by John Liepins.

Liner Notes:
"It's difficult to imagine a more idyllic setting for a festival than Quiet Valley Ranch, Kerrville, tucked in amongst the rolling hills of West Texas.

I'd only been there a few hours and already the campfires had started up and I was marvelling at some of the best music I'd ever heard when she stepped forward, fiddle in hand and transformed our session into a stomping joyous celebration with one of her cajun tunes.

Later we were sitting watching the winners of the new folk contest and she turned to me and said "I'm fantasising about being up there on the stage next year". Her demo for the songwriter contest had got lost in the post and her appearances were limited to a couple of guest spots and a session under the Ballad Tree....not forgetting those campfires.

Finally I plucked up courage to ask her to record a few songs on my walkman and she agreed. We retreated to a far corner of the site with only the crickets and the distant rumble of passing trucks for company. She filled a whole tape around the dying embers of the fire with her charming vignettes.

These songs tell the life story of a girl from Gilmer, Texas who spends a lot of time on the road. She has a gift for words and a unique turn of phrase.

Sit back and lose your heart to the hills of Texas.

-- Pete Lawrence, September 1986"

Note: The lyric sheet lists Track 3 as "The 4/4 Troubador (Incomplete Image)".

Credits:
All songs written by Michelle Shocked except * written by Jean Ritchie. All songs copyright 1988 PolyGram Songs, Inc (BMI) except * copyright 1963 Geordie Music Pub. Co. (ASCAP)

Herself (Michelle Shocked) - acoustic guitar, vocals; Pete Anderson - electric guitar, six string bass (Hopeville); Jeff Donavan - drums; Domenic Genova - electric and acoustic bass; Skip Edwards - piano, hammond organ; Mike Tempo - percussion; Al Perkins - dubro; Byron Berline - mandolin; Don Reed - fiddles Rod Piazza - harmonica (Courtesy of "The Mighty Flyers"); Kristina Olson - hammered dulcimer; Banjo Jim Croce - banjo; Sophia Ramos - vocals (Courtesy of "The Crunge"); M.D.C. - vocals on "Fogtown" (Mixed by Peter Doell)

Produced and Arranged by Pete Anderson
Engineered by Peter Doell at Capitol Studio B, Hollywood, CA.
Additional Engineering by Leslie Anne Jones.
Mixed by David Leonard at Lardbee Sound, L.A., CA.
2nd Engineer Andy Batwinds
And the Sound Castle, L.A., CA. 2nd Engineer Bobby Lacivita
Mastered by Eddy Schreyer at Capitol Studios, Hollywood, CA.
Production Asst. Michael Dumds

Special Thanks to Peter "Lube Job" Lubin, Martin Goldschmidt, Tom Greenhalgh, Banjo Jim, Sophia Ramos, Pete Lawrence, Rod Kennedy, Sue Drew, M.D.C.

Cover photo by Chris Hardy. Courtesy of the San Francisco Examiner. Thanks to Suzanne Locke. Creative and Printing Services by Chris Hardy. Back Cover Photo by Jeffrey Katz. Design Layout by Helen Namm

Notes:
On the back cover, in the bottom left-hand corner, the following phrase appears: "(but anybody who sings these songs is a friend of mine)".

M.D.C. perform live versions of Fogtown and Secret To A Long Life on their 1989 album, "Elvis - In the Rheinland" on German label, Destiny.

Credits:
Written by Michelle Shocked
Produced and Arranged by Pete Anderson
* Designed by Helen Namm

Live track recorded at Glastonbury Festival during 19-21 June 1987.

Credits:
All tracks written by Michelle Shocked
All tracks Produced by Pete Anderson except + Produced by Pete Dauncey
+ Original sound recording made by BBC Enterprises Ltd

Live tracks recorded at Metroplex, Atlanta on 12 Oct 1988.

Credits:
All titles composed by Michelle Shocked
Track 1 Produced by Pete Anderson
Sleeve design by The Complete Works

Live track recorded at ? on ?.

Credits:
Written by Michelle Shocked
* Produced by Ian Kearey and Charlie Llewellyn
* features Accidental String Quartet
** Recorded digitally on location by Clive Gregson
Designed by Graham Moore

Liner Notes:
"For information on the campaign for a Nuclear Free Pacific contact
Greenpeace U.S.A.
1161 Connecticut Avenue N.W.
Washington DC
20009 U.S.A."

Track 1 recorded live at ? on ?. Tracks 3, 4 & 5 recorded live at the Kerrville Folk Festival, Texas on ? May 1986.

Credits:
Written by Michelle Shocked
All songs written by Michelle Shocked except + Paul Simon (Pattern Music Ltd.) and ++ Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter (Tro-Essex Music).
* Recorded digitally on location by Clive Gregson
** Produced by Ian Kearey and Charlie Llewellyn
** features Accidental String Quartet
Designed by Graham Moore

Recorded live at the Paradiso, Amsterdam on 15 Dec 1988.

Credits:
All titles composed by Michelle Shocked except ** by Leadbelly
* produced by Pete Anderson
Photography - Dan Burn Forti
Sleeve design - Mark Millington for The Complete Works
Illustrations - Chris West

Recorded live at the Paradiso, Amsterdam on 15 Dec 1988.

$ Not included in tracklisting on rear of sleeve

Credits:
All titles composed by Michelle Shocked
* produced by Pete Anderson
+ arranged by Pete Anderson
Photography - Dan Burn Forti
Sleeve design - Mark Millington for The Complete Works
Illustrations - Chris West

Credits:
Written by Michelle Shocked
Produced and arranged by Pete Anderson
Drawings by Lindsay Namm
North American Management - Jane Friedman, A.I.R., Inc.
International Management - Martin Goldschmidt, Cooking Vinyl U.K.

Liner Notes:
"Unauthorized Copying, Reproduction, Hiring, Lending, Public Performance and Broadcasting Prohibited (but anybody who sings these songs is a friend of mine)"

Live tracks recorded at Metroplex, Atlanta on 12 Oct 1988.

Note: Live tracks include more of Michelle talking and telling stories than on any other release.

Credits:
Written by Michelle Shocked
Track A1 Produced and Arranged by Pete Anderson

Credits:
Written by Michelle Shocked
Produced and arranged by Pete Anderson

Credits:
Written by Michelle Shocked
Produced by Pete Anderson

Credits:
All songs written by Michelle Shocked except * music by Michelle Shocked and Mat Fox. All songs copyright 1989 PolygGram Songs, Inc. (BMI)

Hersailf (Michelle Shocked) - vocals, acoustic guitar; Pete Anderson - electric guitar; Skip Edwards - keys; Jeff Donavon - drums; James Cruce - drums on 'Greener'; Dusty Wakeman - electric bass; Domenic Genova - upright bass; Lenny Castro - percussion; Freebo - tuba; Zachary Richard - accordian; Lee Thornburg - trumpet; David Stout - trombone; Beverly Dahlke-Smith - baritone sax and clarinet; Steve Grove - tenor sax; Paul Glasse - mandolin; Don Reed - strings; John Begzian - emulator program

Horn arrangements by Lee Thornburg
Chiropractor to the Stars... Ty Essegian
Vocal coaching by Suzanne Kiechle

Produced and Arranged by Pete Anderson
Recorded by Peter Doell at Capitol Studios
Mixed by David Leonard at Skip Sailor Recording, Sound Castle Studio, The Enterprise
"Too Little", "Streetcorner" and "Luff" mixed by Don Murray
Additional Mixes by Peter Doell and Charlie Paakkari
Mastered by Stephen Marcussen at Precision Lacquered
Custom drums and tuning by Ross Garfield of Drum Doctor
Production assistance by Barb Hein
Special thanks to Jane Friedman and Steve Martin, Martin Goldschmidt, Pete Lawton, Dick Asher and the folks on the home team, Dollar Bill and Max, Pete 'Lube Tube' Lubin and my buddy, Pete Anderson.

Cover art by Jaime Hernandez, Courtesy of Fantagraphics
Photos by Beth B and Chris Kehoe
Layout design by Diana Lynn Perez

Liner Notes:
"This album is dedicated to my grandma, Margaret Z. Shocked"

Note:
Quotation on back of CD booklet says: "Swing is a feeling... Everything else is just style." - Capt. Swing

* Originally released on the On The Greener Side single.
Tracks 12-20 (acoustic demos) feature Donny Reed on fiddle.
Track 21 written by Robert Parker.

Liner notes:
In a career trajectory marked by radical doglegs and reversals of expectation. Michelle Shocked's Captain Swing was enough of a bump in the road to sidetrack even the most resilient fan. Her first album, The Texas Campfire Tapes (1986) -- recorded exactly where it says by a "journalist" at the Kerrville Folk Festival -- was already atop the British charts by the time they bothered to tell her it had been released. Looking to restore a measure of control over this new unanticipated career, Michelle designed an elaborate trilogy to accommodate her wide-ranging musical influences. Short Sharp Shocked, despite its punk rock/electroshock title and civil disobedience cover art (a wrenching photo of her arrest at the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco), was filled with the sort of backwoods ballads and small-town tunes that echoed Texas troubadours like Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt, earning her the label "folk waif" from the keepers of the categories. Then out of left field, Captain Swing (1989) featured a horn section on half of its tracks, and somehow sutured the Texas swing of Bob Wills to the jump-jive of Louis Jordan, which left a lot of people scratching their heads -- not least of all her record company. By the time of Arkansas Treveler (1992), a travelogue of the old-time string band and fiddle tunes she grew up playing in East Texas and their blackface minstrelsy underpinnings, trendspotters and marketing teams alike were in freefall.

Not that any two pieces of her life have followed a straight line. Raised in the Piney Woods of East Texas in a large, extemely poor fundamentalist Morman family, Michelle escaped to Dallas in the in the summers to live with her hippie-atheist biological father. She left home for good at 16 and put herself through the University of Texas at Austin, where her innate contempt for authority led her to pursue the most impractical degree she could imagine -- Oral Interpretation of Literature. ("It still gets me to this day that it became my career," she confesses.) After graduation, she spent time on the San Francisco hardcore scene, in New York's East Village and among squatter communities in London, Amsterdam, Milan and throughout Europe. This served to bolster her burgeoning activist politics and sensitized her to the plight of the homeless, which she defines as 'diminishing self-esteem in the face of diminishing resources.' After her family had her committed to a mental hospital ("for 30 days untilthe insurance ran out"), a social worker told her "'Chel, you're not crazy, you're just poor."

Intent on subverting the system from the inside out, Michelle signed with Mercury Records, but refused an advance in exchange for retaining ownership of her master recordings (making their re-release possible today). When the label stonewalled her fourth record -- steeped in gospel from her experiences attending an African-American church in Los Angeles -- she sued them under the anti-slavery provisions of the 13th Amendment, long before Prince or Courtney Love thought to do the same. Mercury settled with her on the day of the trial. Michelle currently lives in Los Angeles, and is active in numerous social causes, including "Save Africa's Children", which addresses orphans caught in the AIDS pandemic on the African continent.

By design, Captain Swing presents a cross-country inventory of swing musical styles -- from Dixieland to Western, Big Band to BeBop. The album was initially to be called The Swing Vote, a political survey threaded through the working conceit that swing, despite its wide-ranging musical manifestations, is ultimately a sensation -- as in, "it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing." "Swing is a feeling," the album cover proclaimed; "everything else is just style." Then Michelle learned about the Captain Swing of legend. In 1830, workers in the south and west of England staged a series of riots over the Poor Laws, which kept them hungry and destitute, and the encroaching industrialization which was taking away their jobs. Resembling an early version of the Earth Liberation Front, angry mobs torched newfangled threshing machines, and farmers were reminded of their responsibilities to labor in letters signed by the eponymous "Captain Swing," under threat of winding up on the wrong end of a rope.

Michelle devised a military persona to carry forth this surreptitious political message -- part Emma Goldman, part Betty Grable; dancing militant and partisan pin-up -- figuring, why preach to the converted when you can entertain the troops? Relying on producer Pete Anderson, with whom she had worked on Short Sharp Shocked, she set out on a series of session recordings of swing styles, "blues with an upbeat," which spanned the continent and the century, genre-busting so rambunctiously that she left a new genre in her wake. Whether by misdirection or willful perversity, it allowed her agitprop agenda to virtually walk through undetected. So "On the Greener Side," a roiling New Orleans mambo (with its MTV-biting, Robert Palmer backlash video, featuring an all-cabana-boy backup band), is actually a paean to the Green Party. The infectious rockabilly of "(Don't You Mess Around with) My Little Sister," with its "Train Kept-a-Rollin'" intro figure and Elvis authoritarianism, is actually an anti-1984/Big Brother defence of Central and South America. There's a "homeless trilogy" (trilogies within trilogies): "God Is a Real Estate Developer," a bluesy roll combining the deist notion of God as an absentee landlord, with some Isaac Newton thrown in for good measure; "Cement Lament," a fanciful 'swing shift' concept of urban overload; and "Streetcorner Ambassador," a bit of word jazz that posits panhandlers as emissaries of an invisible culture, the "change" they're canvassing for of the philosophical variety. Along the way, "Too Little Too Late" echoes Fats Domino, "Must Be Luff" marshals a dixieland doodle in the service of a maritime metaphor, "Sleep Keeps Me Awake" gets the full-throttle Otis Rush/Memphis Horns treatment.

This new Mighty Sound reissue features an additional 16 tracks, including seven acoustic demos with fiddle phenom Donny Reed which foreground the later arrangements, a couple of "lost songs" ("Early Morning Saturday" and "Fairy Tales") from her travels in New York and London, a throwaway boho crawl titled "Hepcat," live a cappella salvos at both Reagan/Bush ("Garden Salad Diplomacy") and Thatcher ("The Poll Tax Song"), two acoustic duets with her Dad (Leadbelly's "The Titanic" and cowboy chestnut "Old Paint"), a preview of 1992's Arkansas Traveler ("Worth the Weight"), and a fiery version of the Robert Parker soul chestnut "Barefootin'" with Tower of Power at the Newport Folk Festival that's probably as good a (wo)manifesto as exists on why holding musical artists to their assigned taxonomy is probably not a good idea.

In the decade since Michelle's initial releases, time has revealed many of these choices as less perversity than a kind of oblique prescience: The Texas folk she was initially celebrated for has established a deep beachhead in Nashville and elsewhere, from Lucinda Williams to Steve Earle to Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Swing as a dance and lifestyle phenomenon hit hard mid-decade, as Swingers-style hipsters embraced the boho revisionism of Cherry-Poppin' Daddies and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, even as the anti-corporate agrarian reform of Captain Swing's central conceit mirrored the anti-NAFTA, anti-globalization stance of the Seattle or Cancun WTO riots ten years after. The neo-traditionalism of Arkansas Traveler portended the unlikely mass movement that spun off of O Brother, Where Art Thou?, putting such icons as Ralph Stanley and Norman Blake back on top of the charts. And her subsequent forays into gospel with Kind-Hearted Woman and Deep Natural look suspiciously like the next big thing, as Dallas's 24-member Polyphonic Spree sweeps England and heads stateside. Hear them again -- for the first time.

--Paul Cullum

Credits:
+ Written by Michelle Shocked
* Written by Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter
** Traditional (arranged by Pete Anderson)
All tracks Produced by Pete Anderson
+ Recorded by Peter Doell at Capital Studios
+ Mixed by David Leonard at Skip Sailor Recording Sound Castle Sudio
* and ** Recorded and Mixed by Dusty Wakeman at Mad Dog Studios
* and ** Dollar Bill - vocals, mandolin
Sleeve by The Leisure Process

Credits:
Written by Michelle Shocked
Produced and Arranged by Pete Anderson
Art Direction - Michael Bays, Dane Venable

Credits:
All tracks written by M. Shocked except * by Michelle Shocked / Mat Fox
Produced by Pete Anderson
** Arranged by Pete Anderson
** Recorded and Mixed by Dusty Wakeman at Mad Dog Studios
Sleeve by the Leisure Process
Original sound recording made by Polygram Records Inc.

Credits:
* Written by Michelle Shocked/Mat Fox
** Written by Michelle Shocked

Credits:
Written by Michelle Shocked except * by Michelle Shocked / Mat Fox
Produced by Pete Anderson
Sleeve by Photo X...

Credits:
Written by Michelle Shocked
Produced and Arranged by Pete Anderson

Recorded live at the Apollo Theatre, Oxford, England on 12 Dec 1989.

Credits:
All songs written by Michelle Shocked except "The Ballad Of Penny Evans" written by Steve Goodman and "God Is A Real Estate Dewveloper" written by Michelle Shocked / M. Fox

Captain Swing Band: Duane Jarvis - guitar; Jeff Donavan - drums; Lee Thornberg - trumpet; Jim Pollack - saxaphone; Skip Edwards - keyboards; Pete Anderson - lead guitar; Dusty Wakeman - bass guitar

Director - Tony Vanden Ende
Producer - Roger Hunt, Vivid Productions
Executive Producers - Jim Greenhough, Bob Jamieson
Producers for Polygram - Chris Main, Annette Cirillo

Captain Swing thanks Bart Bull, Helen Cohen, Barbara Hein, Rachel Gottschalk, Jeffrey Taylor Light, Michael Oppenheim, Peter Warrener

Recorded live at the Oxford Apollo, London on 12 Dec 1989.

Credits:
All songs written by Michelle Shocked
BMI except * Copyright Control
Mixed by Judy Clapp

Liner Notes:
"I was in East Berlin a few months after that city's 750th anniversary celebrations. The demand, "The Wall Must Go!" seemed hopelessly empty and impossible then. Now, less than a year later, the Wall is gone. I think when you're on the streets demanding change you should ignore the ones who tell you that "the grass is always greener on the other side." Something I think we have overlooked far too long now is the fact that the grass _is_ actually greener on the greener side."

Note: Track 5 incorrectly spelled 'Lagniape'.

Credits:
A Jettisoundz Production
All tracks Polygram music
3rd-i-design 1991

Live track recorded for the Mountain Stage radio show, Jones C. Edwards Playhouse, Huntington WV on 6 May 1991.

Credits:
* Produced by Michelle Shocked
# Co-produced by Don Was

Liner Notes for the "CD Single Collectors Double Pack": "This Special Package containing the Michelle Shocked single 'Come A Long Way' on CD has been designed with a second flap (at the back) for you to store the second picture CD single of this series (catalogue number LOCDP 316) which will be available from next week and contains previously unreleased live tracks."

Live tracks recorded for the Mountain Stage radio show, Jones C. Edwards Playhouse, Huntington WV on 6 May 1991.

Credits:
All tracks written by Michelle Shocked
Michelle Shocked - guitar & vocals
Special guest Dan Creary - Guitar on **
* Produced by Michelle Shocked
* Co-produced by Don Was

Live tracks recorded for the Mountain Stage radio show, Jones C. Edwards Playhouse, Huntington WV on 6 May 1991.

Credits: All tracks written by Michelle Shocked
Michelle Shocked - guitar & vocals
Special guest Dan Creary - guitar on **
* Produced by Michelle Shocked
* Co-produced by Don Was

Credits:
Written by Michelle Shocked
Michelle Shocked - guitar, mandolin & vocal; Mark Goldenberg - guitar; Mitchell Froom - B-3; Jerry Schoff - bass; Kenny Aronoff - drums; Mickey Raphael - harmonica; Byron Berline - fiddle
Produced by Don Was

Note: The disc has the words 'Selections from "Arkansas Traveler"' but isn't specifically marked as being a promo.

Live tracks recorded on The Cutting Edge Radio Show on ? 1992.

Credits:
All tracks written by Michelle Shocked
Track 1 produced by Michelle Shocked
Tracks 1,2,3 produced by Rob Stevens

"Krispy Korn Flakes" box promo kit containing "Come A Long Way" PAL video (but in "A Few Notes On The Arkansas Traveler" slipcase), "Come A Long Way promo CD (Mercury 864 073-2 -- see above), 14 track "Arkansas Traveler" cassette (Mercury 314 512 101-4 with different artwork), packet of cornflakes & explanatory flyer.

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