Michelle Shocked will simultaneously release three albums -- Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Baby Mine and The Memphis Minnies -- on June 7th through her Mighty Sound record label.

The eclectic singer-songwriter has been recording the material, dubbed the "JAMS Project," in her Los Angeles home studio since December. The dissolution of her thirteen-year marriage proved to be the catalyst for the most personal of the three albums, the rock-oriented Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

"Like many divorces, it was a fertile ground for creativity," Shocked says. "And by the time you get a divorce, you know it's over. The grieving is long passed -- it's just the inertia of getting out of a bad situation. Some people are like, 'I'm so sorry,' and I'm like, 'No, if you know anything about divorce, you'd say congratulations!'"

Baby Mine is a collection of Disney cover tunes fashioned in a Western-swing sound. Shocked, inspired by a new love affair with a former Disney illustrator (whose work she describes as "fine art meets Jackson Pollock") composed the songs after a trip to Japan, where a crowd gathered in awe of his portraits. Taken by the experience, Shocked plans to merge their artistic expressions in a performance. "While he's painting," she says, "I'm gonna be playing them."

Lastly, The Memphis Minnies is an all-star tribute to late blues legend Memphis Minnie. Fellow women of folk Lucinda Williams, Victoria Williams and Rickie Lee Jones will each contribute a track, and Shocked is also recruiting R&B singers.

"It's my long-standing desire to build bridges between what I call the hipster blues crowd and the neo-soul crowd, because they have so much in common," she says. "Worlds don't always intersect, so I'm taking this opportunity with The Memphis Minnies to throw a party where everyone's invited."

Despite a rather tumultuous three years since her last album, Deep Natural, Shocked claims to have found a kind of peace two decades into her career.

"I've come to a resolve because I'm much wiser, certainly older," she says. "I've gone through the fire, and I learned the lessons I went in to learn. I didn't put my money on fame and fortune . . . I put my money on love."

Shocked will perform and speak at the South by Southwest Music Festival, March 16th-20th in Austin, Texas, followed by a tour in support of the June albums.