Personnel: Michelle Shocked (vocals, guitar); Pete Anderson (electric guitar); Paul Glasse (mandolin); Don Reed (strings); Beverly Dahlke-Smith (clarinet, baritone saxophone); Zachary Richard (accordion); Steve Grove (tenor saxophone); Lee Thornburg (trumpet); David Stout (trombone); Freebo (tuba); Skip Edwards (keyboards); Domenic Genova (acoustic bass); Dusty Wakeman (electric bass); Jeff Donovan (drums); Lenny Castro (percussion).
Pretty much abandoning the folkiness of her first two records, Michelle Shocked positioned her third album, 1989's CAPTAIN SWING, as a genre exercise, celebrating '40s jazz, jump blues, and swing. Truthfully, despite the presence of a full horn section on most of the songs, the album has even less to do with Louis Jordan or Benny Goodman than albums by '90s neo-swingers the likes of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.
Which is not to say that CAPTAIN SWING is a bad album, just that it's closer to the country-pop style of Shocked's other albums than its reputation suggests. Opening with the slightly smarmy "God Is A Real-Estate Developer," the album quickly hits its stride with the second track, "On the Greener Side." A surprise MTV and radio hit, this is probably the best song Shocked ever recorded. Though the following nine tracks aren't quite this good, they're largely pleasant and tuneful.
