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Rather than spew bitterness and bile, Michelle Shocked finds an affirmation to carry on the art of music following four years of struggle with her former record company over the business of music.

The Texas-born singer-songwriter has emerged on the Private Music imprint with a new version of her previously self-released album, Kind Hearted Woman, along with a compilation from her old label called Mercury Poise, short for “Mercury Poisoning” – her choice for a title. So, what does she do in concert? She spends the first third of the evening playing all new numbers full of liberating spirit, bountiful in rhythm.

At more than 2 ½ hours, the expansive performance showcased a woman who will not be bullied and reined in by the often-limited musical mind of commerce. Once mis-tagged a neo-folkie, her palette is far more extensive. She has a tough reputation, but it’s tempered by compassion. Shocked and her husband have lived in New Orleans the past couple of years, and the new home is reflected in her latest music.

Playing electric guitar and backed by the Oakland band Casualties of Wah, Shocked’s lively new songs were seasoned in “Big Easy” blues and jazz flavoring, colored by rollicking piano and punchy trombone and trumpet.

Lively new songs such as “Poor Boy,” “Oh Cleveland,” the James Brown-funky “Tabloid” and the thumpy ‘70s disco beat of “You Are So Good to Me” make for an album that ought to be issued next year at Mardi Gras time.

Shocked also touched on her earlier years with the journey-woman’s chronicle “Come A Long Way,” a homey reading of her letter from an old friend, “Anchorage,” and a bluesy shuffle take on “If Love Was A Train.” Solo, she sang several of the quiet, intimate vignettes from the current album, then brought part of the band back for the moving “Child Like Grace,” about a mother’s loss of her 4-year-old daughter, and the more mainstream pop-rock of the biographical “The Hard Way.”

A natural performer, Shocked has a little preacher in her, with a lot of comic wit and the enthusiasm of a camp counselor as she led chorus sing-alongs during various songs. Ever the honest raconteur as well, she was equally glib and sincerely thankful to the crowd for all the support during her toughest times, not so much a kind, but a truly good-hearted woman.