The education of Michelle Shocked

In the end, Shocked's fourth album, 1994's Kind Hearted Woman, never saw the fluorescent light of a record store; instead, Shocked sold the disc only at her concerts. It's actually not a complete record, but a sparse sketch of one that's not so different from Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska; she has, however, re-recorded it with members of the Hothouse Flowers, fleshing it out with larger arrangements.

Now, she has to decide whether to release it herself, license it as a one-off deal to a distributor or label, or make it the first record of a new deal with another label. But she is in no hurry to buy back into a system that tried to sell her out, so she waits patiently. She has all the time in the world, and she needs it.

Michelle Shocked performs April 26 at Deep Ellum Live.