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In person Michelle Shocked is the exact opposite of the dour persona portrayed in her publicity photographs.

From the moment she strode on stage and burst into "When I Grow Up," her rolling eyes and aw-shucks Texan drawl won the audience completely.

By the third song, the reflective "Memories of East Texas," the audience was singing quietly, as if they were afraid of intruding on the song’s delicate melody. Shocked followed up with the rest of her “East Texas trilogy” which was made up of four songs – that’s right, four songs – the cheeky swing of "VFD" and "(Making the Run To) Gladewater," then moved into a selection of songs from her current album, Captain Swing.

Shocked brought her father, who also had a mandolin, on stage and together they treated the audience to “an old fiddle tune”.

Shocked returned to the guitar and the pair gave a lovely rendition of blues legend Leadbelly’s [sic] song about how world boxing champion Jack Johnson was stopped from boarding the Titanic because of his color.