Michelle Shocked’s life story of Army brat turned homeless squatter to deeply political activist to unlikely rock star was at times more interesting than her music.

But she turned out some indelible songs along the way, too, from the personal letter “Anchorage” to the broad Americana of “Arkansas Traveler.”

A long battle with her record company put her in a kind of 10-year musical exile, though she never stopped performing.

“Deep Natural” is a declaration of resolve musically and business-wise it’s the first ambitious release on her new label.

Despite any animosity that grew over the years, she declares early on that “the seasons of human nature cannot take my joy from me,” and indeed, most of the strong new work stresses how joyful the touchstone of music remains for her at 40.

The phrase “Joy” appears in more than one track, and more than that, it is felt on nearly every track, which bounds from an echoey dub reggae style to acoustic straightforwardness to biting Chicago blues or smooth Memphis soul.

Elsewhere on the album, she gets a jam band-style funk going on “Peachfuzz” and reflects an uncanny soulfulness on “Little Billie,” about a mother dancing in defiance on a son’s grave.

Shocked isn’t afraid of switching genres, adding a pedal steel to the reggae horns in the opening “What Can I Say” or adding a New Orleans flavor to Jimi Hendrix’s “House Burning Down.”

Her love of the immersion of music is felt even more deeply on the accompanying disc, “Dub Natural,” on which she treats the listener to freewheeling instrumental and dub versions of the songs on the main disc. In arrangements that are mostly minus vocals, the sheer musicality wins one over, if that hasn’t already happened.