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On her first tour of Australia last year, Michelle was accompanied onstage by her father, highlighting songs from her albums, The Texas Campfire Tapes and Short Sharp Shocked.

For this tour, Michelle will be performing material primarily from her most recent PolyGram LP, Captain Swing, accompanied by the respected Australian band, The Messengers.

Discovered four years ago while working as a non-performing volunteer helper at a Texas folk festival (the location of Texas Campfire) – a record producer taped her singing her songs on his Sony Walkman – Michelle will also perform selected songs from her earlier albums, some new songs that she has written for her next LP, and two songs written by Paul Kelly (the singer The Messengers are primarily known for working with).

“This will be my first experience touring Australia with a band, and I’m lucky to be working with such a great one,” she said.

“I can think of lots of international musicians who should have stayed home, but Paul Kelly and The Messengers are the only band I know who deserve far more international attention than they presently receive.

“If it’s OK with Paul, I may even do some recording with The Messengers myself while in Australia.”

Michelle was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1962. She spent years travelling around Army bases until 1977, when her stepfather retired and moved to Gilmer, Texas.

“At 16, I ran away from home and in 1979, I went to live in Dallas with my father,” she said.

“I had always spent my summers with him, going to bluegrass festivals and back porch picking sessions.

“This was my first introduction to music beyond the fundamentalist environment of my mother’s house.

“Two years in Austin (’81-’83) proved the catalyst for my songwriting, an interest and talent that gave me stability in the years that followed.

“Leaving the Republic of Texas in 1983, I did not adjust well to Reagan’s America. From my first days as a runaway, I continued to exist close to the edges of homelessness.”

The success of the basically put together Campfire Tapes created the opportunity for Michelle to record for PolyGram Records and in 1988, there was the second album, Short Sharp Shocked.

“The best music, no matter what style, always has that swing, an organic whole greater than the sum of its parts.

“Among the principles of Green politics is my aspiration for this album, Unity Thru Diversity.”

Michelle Shocked will be at the Enmore Theatre on Friday, March 22.