Michelle Shocked
I was sitting in the hairdresser's chair in Takoma Park, MD, when the song "When I Grow Up" came on the radio. I perked up when Michelle Shocked sang, "We're gonna have a hundred and twenty babies!" This was not Top Forty Radio.

A few years later, I bought Michelle Shocked's albums, went to a concert in Chicago, and danced on stage with her band to "Arkansas Traveller." I even wrote to her a couple of times. She wrote back. She had a rapport with some Goshen College students at one point, and called in to the local college radio station. (No one told me until afterward. Punks!)

Some time later, she sued Mercury Records to get out of her recording contract, citing the 13th amendment. She won. It's hard to find her music on cd these days. She sells her new cds only at concerts, and her old cds have vanished form the record stores. (Mercury's revenge?) They can steal her royalties, but they can't steal her music. Take a look at an unofficial website in tribute to this fine musician and storyteller.