The Texas Campfire Tapes


The Texas Campfire Tapes is the first album by American singer and songwriter Michelle Shocked. The album was on a Sony Walkman during an impromptu set performed by Shocked around a campfire at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas; the recording was made by Pete Lawrence, founder of the Cooking Vinyl label, on his first visit to the USA. It was then released by Cooking Vinyl in 1986 and Shocked moved over to Europe to support and promote the album, which was subsequently released by Mercury Records. The album reached the top spot on the British independent record chart. It was remastered and reissued in 2003 as a two-CD set called Texas Campfire Takes by Shocked's own label, Mighty Sound.
Another version of "Fogtown" appears as a "hidden track" on Shocked's breakthrough album Short Sharp Shocked, where she is backed by the hardcore punk band MDC.

Critical reception

Robert Christgau wrote that Shocked "has a reporter's eye and a tale-spinner's ear." Trouser Press called Shocked "an uncertain but ambitious singer whose early style was a weave of jazz, blues and rock’n’roll as much as folk, she comes off as a talented amateur with modestly appealing songs and the hint of substantial potential."

Track listing

All tracks composed by Michelle Shocked, except where indicated

Original Album

  1. "5 A.M. in Amsterdam"
  2. "The Secret Admirer"
  3. "The Incomplete Image"
  4. "Who Cares?"
  5. "Down on Thomas St"
  6. "Fogtown"
  7. "Steppin' Out"
  8. "The Hep Cat"
  9. "Necktie"
  10. " My Little Sister"
  11. "The Ballad of Patch Eye and Meg"
  12. "The Secret to a Long Life "

2003 Mighty Sound CD reissue (Disk two)

  1. "5 A.M. in Amsterdam"
  2. "Fogtown"
  3. "4/4 Troubador"
  4. "Steppin' Out"
  5. "Hold Me Back"
  6. "Fool for Cocaine"
  7. "Down on Thomas St"/ "Hardly Gonna Miss Him"
  8. "Hep Cat"
  9. "Necktie"
  10. "My Little Sister"
  11. "Patcheye and Meg"
  12. "Secret to a Long Life"
  13. "When I Grow Up"
  14. "Ghost Town"
  15. "Secret Admirer"
  16. "Black Widow"
  17. "Chain Smoker"
  18. "Old Time Feeling"
  19. "Stranded in a Limousine"
  20. "Goodnight, Irene"
  21. "C.C. Rider"
  22. "Contest Coming"
  23. "Lagniappe"/"Memories of East Texas"