Shovels & Rope at The Stage, April 13
Before Shovels & Rope take the stage at Jefferson Theater in Charlottesville this Wednesday, April 13, they will first stop by WTJU’s Stage for an extended video session starting around 12:30 (edt) which will stream at our Facebook page and YouTube channel before later airing on the radio airwaves.
“It’s not heavy metal, but in our guts, it feels a bit like Heavy Metal,” says Michael Trent of the band’s new album, Manticore due Feb. 18. 2022 will mark ten years since Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent released their debut album O’ Be Joyful, the first formally billed as “Shovels & Rope.” That decade included the release of six full-length albums, three collaborative covers albums (Busted Jukebox Volumes 1-3), a curated music festival in their hometown of Charleston, SC (High Water), a musical film (Shovels & Rope: The Movie) and countless dynamic live performances all over the planet. But it was in the rear courtyard suite of the Decatur St. house belonging to the Preservation Hall Jazz Band in New Orleans where Michael and Cary Ann began polishing up the songs that became Manticore. There was a piano in the room and a little desk. There were piles of scattered and folded papers lying on the bed and copious digital ideas in the form of voice memos. And despite the pounding parades in the surrounding streets, it was quiet in the afternoon.
“The Americana power couple of Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst imagine divorce
and dissect fame on their most personal record yet” – Rolling Stone Country
“A vulnerable and visceral exploration of the human experience…’Manticore’ is a
sweeping, dramatic, poignantly beautiful musical portrait of real life: The kind that’s
messy and the kind that hurts…both intimate and epic” – Atwood Magazine
“With their new album, ‘Manticore’, husband-and-wife duo Cary Ann Hearst and Michael
Trent, aka Shovels & Rope, continue to hone their integrations of bar-room Americana,
heartland rock, and a DIY sensibility. Their signature vocals, as with previous releases,
remain an exhilaratingly seductive calling card.” – No Depression
