Shocked's motivation political
Michelle Shocked will play her first Auckland concert at the Town Hall next Wednesday.
From an austere, fundamentalist family, the oldest of eight children, Shocked ran away from home at 16 and went to Dallas in search of her father, whom she described as “one of those hippy atheist guys.”
He encouraged her to play guitar, so she listened and learned from his old bluegrass and blues collection; musicians such as Doc Watson, Leadbelly [sic], Big Bill Broonzy, Norman Blake, and Guy Clark.
She went to Austin in 1981, a time when local songwriters gathered regularly for open mikes.
“I thought, if the scene was this great in Austin, imagine what I would find if I started travelling,” Shocked says.
She hitched to San Francisco, New York, and Amsterdam, where she became involved in squatters’ movements and the politics of the homeless. She drifted back to Austin where her mother had her committed to a psychiatric hospital in Dallas until the insurance money ran out.
“Shocked” was her reply to the Republican National Convention in Dallas in 1984, where she was arrested. “Michelle Shocked, because that’s the way I felt. That said it all.”
Politics is central to Shocked’s motivation and she is particularly concerned with issues surrounding racism, the environment and housing.
She has performed benefit concerts and lent her support to such organisations as Shelter, WOMAN and YCND.
Added to Library on February 25, 2022. (131)
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