Captain Swing is a misunderstood middle child. The sophomore studio effort was a bold success by any measure, with a heavy rotation single, On the Greener Sider later nominated for a 1990 MTV Award, a near-miss with (Don’t You Mess Around With) My Little Sister featured in Ridley Scott’s Thelma & Louise and a strut through American jazz/blues traditions headlining a national tour with Tower of Power. Captain Swing featured jump blues, Dixieland, Delta blues, western swing, big band, bebop and even a lime-twist of African palm-wine. Unprecedented in it’s audacity, a Texan naif was swinging for the fences in a major label showdown that bet the farm on the staying power of swing. “Swing is a feeling, everything else is just style” Michelle boldly declared on the album’s back cover.
