Category:
Folk

Try if you like:
Franc, Joan Baez, Tim Buckley

Recorded without the knowledge of the artist at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2003, To Heaven U Ride is a document of, what? A Christianized Michelle Shocked, complete with in-between song talk delivered in a fake black preacher voice? A set of gospel wannabe, complete with tired and uninspired cover choices (“The Weight”, “God Bless The Child” “Wade in the Water”) and even sermon-esque style raps? I’ll take someone sharing their newfound faith on record everytime over their knocking on my door, but here Chocked seems unsure how to express hers without devolving into clichés and slightly Al Jolson-esque parody. At least when Dylan went Christian he pissed people off with the sincerity of his fundamentalist views, not by pretending to be a black gospel singer, embarrassing vocal-inflections/impersonations and all.

Too harsh? What makes this disturbing is that Michelle Shocked has made a career out of fearlessly fighting the good fight against a slew of social injustices; what separated her  crusades from those of, say, Joan Baez or Bono was the feeling that she was one with those in the trenches, not a slumming richie with a messiah complex. “To Heaven U Ride” is bizarre and disturbing in that it celebrates Shocked’s faith in God as it shakes faith in her sincerity. And who thought that would ever be a problem for her?