To Heaven U Ride
Artist: Michelle Shocked
Label: Mighty Sounds

For some time, there have been rumors about Michelle Shocked having headed in a Gospel music direction, both in her muse and in her private spirituality. To Heaven U Ride is her coming out. This recording is a live concert from 2003's Telluride Bluegrass Festival, and it is an hour of southern gospel blues, funk reggae and preaching, and boy can Michelle preach! In the set list the traditional Spirituals like "Strange Things Happening Every Day," "Ain't Gonna Study War No More," and "Wade in the Water" sit alongside what Shocked calls 'secular Gospel' songs like The Band's "The Weight" and Billie Holliday's "God Bless the Child," and this is all embellished by her own "The Quality of Mercy" written for the _Dead Man Walking_ soundtrack, "Good News," and "Can't Take My Joy." With a black Gospel unit playing and singing behind her, this is a fabulous celebration of Gospel to a crowd who would not have been expecting it.

When it comes to the preaching, there are two significant things that Shocked wants to say: first, that her heroine and guru Sister Rosetta Tharpe had no qualms about taking the Gospel into the bars and clubs of her day. If there were people who didn't come to church that needed the Good News, then she would go to them. Second, there's the old punk political Shocked, one of whose album covers has her being lifted by the police during a protest wants to link her faith to politics. She does this marvelously in her story about the Globalised industries causing human disease in Cancer Alley, an area along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, in the River Parishes of Louisiana, She tells the story of a Christian woman who went out and prayed that a Japanese company would not move in and over time the prayer was answered in the affirmative as far as the protesters were concerned. Who did they thank? Jesus! It is a moving inspiring story and Shocked uses it to show that faith and politics ride together.

It is intoxicating stuff. If you are laid down with some illness and can't attend church, it would be the best recorded service you could be sent. Brilliant musicianship, passionate performance from shocked and a deep core of belief running right through it.

Steve Stockman

Steve Stockman is the Presbyterian Chaplain at Queens University, Belfast, Ireland, where he lives in community with 88 students. He has written two books Walk On; The Spiritual Journey of U2 which he is currently updating and The Rock Cries Out; Discovering Eternal Truth in Unlikely Music. He dabbles in poetry and songwriting and he has a weekly radio show on BBC Radio Ulster (listen anytime of day or night @ www.bbc.co.uk/ni/religion/rhythmandsoul). He has his own web page--Rhythms of Redemption at http://stocki.ni.org . He also tries to spend some time with his wife Janice and daughters Caitlin and Jasmine.