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When it started on October 2, things were all set. Taj Mahal, The Band and Uncle Tupelo were signed on until November to play with Michelle Shocked on her Arkansas Traveler Revue tour.

But a week later, it was quitting time, at least for some of the tour members. After an East Coast show, The Band abruptly walked off the tour. Soon after that, Uncle Tupelo quit too, partly as a show of solidarity (they had joined the tour to meet their idols in The Band). A spokesman for Uncle Tupelo said that the main problem was Shocked’s overbearing manager.

So, at this point, the show is on very shaky ground. Although Taj Mahal is sticking with the tour and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and his band, Gate’s Express, has signed up for at least the Ann Arbor date, the future of the rest of the tour is uncertain. Dates may be scraped, and no one yet knows who will be playing at what show, if indeed there will be shows. But what do we care about that since the show is indeed coming to our town?

The Revue is based on Shocked’s most recent record, Arkansas Traveler, which she describes as third in a trilogy that includes Short Sharp Shocked and Captain Swing (she doesn’t count The Texas Campfire Tapes, released without her knowledge, as one of her records).

In Shocked’s handwritten (mass produced, don’t get excited) press release she explains: “Some folks think I keep changing styles. Nah. I’ve tried to show where my musical sources come from – Texas songwriters like Guy Clark, up-tempo blues/swing like Bob Wills and Louis Jordan and homemade jam like I grew up playing with my dad and brother. I don’t know where this road goes from here. I’ve just tried to explain how I got here.”

The record was recorded with different musicians in different studios all over the country and is filled with jams of old bluegrass folk songs – with Shocked twists. She rewrote many of the lyrics for the traditional tunes. For example, after a Shocked makeover, “Cotton Eyed Joe” becomes a song about abortion.

Although the biggest surprise of the Arkansas Traveler Revue is that it is still coming to town after all the turmoil, you can expect to see and hear some yee-hawing out-of-the-ordinary stuff. On a club tour last year, Shocked brought an audience member on stage and showed the stranger how to play Woody Guthrie’s “Woody’s Rag” on mandolin.

“I wanted to take the magic out of it and show people that music is just a matter of putting your fingers on the right strings,” Shocked told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I call it my ‘Strawberry Jam Manifesto’ (after a song on Arkansas Traveler). Music and politics are too important to be left to the professionals.”