- Label: 'New West Records'
- Genre: 'Alt/Country'
- Release Date: '7th October 2016'
Our Rating:
Shovels & Rope is the working name of Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst, a husband and wife duo of singer songwriters from Charleston, South Carolina.
What White Stripes are to the Blues, this couple are to Americana. Not only do they play all the instruments themselves but they also show a respectful irreverence for their musical sources rather than being slaves to tradition.
So much so that the stomping beats of opener I Know are not a million miles away from 1970s glam rock.
The upbeat mood is maintained with the spoof horror of Botched Execution, where the tongue in cheek tale of a man surviving the electric chair is matched only by the comic strip style video.
The publicity statement assures us that these story songs are all inspired by Trent and Hearst's own experiences and observations. This is hardly revelatory nor entirely credible but does emphasize the fact that they are not concerned with the world of make believe.
The mood may be affirmative but this is not superficial good-time music for its own sake. Singing "This life may be too good to survive" on the travelogue of St Anne's Parade acknowledges that the good times are all too fleeting.
These sentiments are echoed in the plaintive closing track, This Ride, a check list of the ups and downs in the 'journey' of life which can often feel "lonely and long" before reaching its inevitable conclusion.
The subject matter also takes in other serious issues like struggling to cope with the onset of Alzheimer's disease (Invisible Man) or bemoaning the excessive medication of young children (Johnny Comes Outside).
Missionary Ridge is their Civil War song but most haunting of all is BWYR a dark nursery rhyme of a song about fighting society's haters and promoting the need for racial harmony : "Let's all come together and share the dread".
Overall, the strident delivery and rousing harmonies lend a fierce confidence to these thirteen songs to make for a highly impressive album.
