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American singer and songwriter Michelle Shocked is back in Australia with a new set of songs on her Captain Swing album.

The songs mark a melodious change of tune for Shocked, who started her recording career with a tape of tunes sung by a campfire.

Those songs – recorded on a Sony Walkman at the Kerrville Folk Festival – became The Texas Campfire Tapes. The tapes, complete with chirping crickets, were released in 1986 and went to the top of the American and British [independent] charts.

This success led to Shocked making a second album, Short Sharp Shocked, with producer/guitarist Pete Anderson.

It proved an inspirational working relationship and the pair worked together on Captain Swing.

For Shocked, who hails from Dallas, Texas (she calls it “Dollars”), the second album gave her the chance to be more creative in the studio – however she has stayed in control of her work. Her belief in the artist being in control can be seen at every level – including her press release which includes an autobiography hand-written by Shocked.

Born in 1962, she spent her early years travelling around Army bases with her mother and stepfather. She ran away from home in 1979 and went to live with her father, who is also a musician.

She started going to music festivals with her father who introduced her to country bluesmen, Leadbelly [sic] and Big Bill Broonzy, as well as the underground folk music of Middle America. Two years in Austin, Texas, provided the catalyst for her songwriting and Shocked left Texas in 1983 to live as a runaway.

The first track on the album, the satirical “God is a Real Estate Developer,” gives some indication of her feelings about big business and little people’s rights.

Shocked was an activist with the squatters’ movement when she learned she had a No. 1 song on the charts.

“The anxieties of my first encounter with a studio made me hold very tight on the creative reins,” says Shocked in her autobiography.”

Shocked will perform in Australia with The Messengers, Paul Kelly’s band, with whom she hopes to record an album later this year.