Shovels & Rope at the Codfish Hollow Barn -- September 28.
Saturday, September 28, 8 p.m.
Codfish Hollow Barn, 5013 288th Avenue, Maquoketa IA
Touring in support of their September release Something Is Working Up Above My Head, which Glide magazine lauded as "a dynamic collection" and "a taut, energized set," married singer/songwriters Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearts bring their musical project Shovels & Rope to Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn on September 28, sharing the indie-folk talents that led Rolling Stone to praise the duo's “inimitable vocal harmonies” and combined ability “to find joy in unexpected places.”
Based in Charleston, South Carolina, Trent and Hearst spent several years prior to their emergence as Shovels & Rope pursuing solo careers, providing tour support for like-minded artists such as Justin Townes Earle, Hayes Carll, and the Felice Brothers. When they officially joined forces musically and laid down tracks for their first album as a team, the resulting O' Be Joyful – a singular blend of country, bluegrass, blues, and indie rock – was released in 2012. The couple's album debut was an immediate critical and commercial success, and at the 2013 Americana Music Honors & Awards, it led to Shovels & Rope being named Best Emerging Artist and their “Birmingham” cited as Song of the Year. The duo's second album Swimmin' Time was released in 2014, the same year that saw the debut of a documentary about the duo, The Ballad of Shovels & Rope, winning the Tennessee Spirit Award at the Nashville Film Festival.
In 2015, Trent and Hearst released Busted Jukebox, Vol. 1, in which the duo covered songs by their favorite artists in collaboration with like-minded musicians, among them Shakey Graves, the Milk Carton Kids, JD McPherson, and Butch Walker. Busted Jukebox Vol. 2, a collection of 10 cover songs with other artists including Brandi Carlile, Rhett Miller, and John Moreland, followed in 2016, along with that year's widely lauded Little Seeds, which The Guardian hailed as “reflective and exuberant” and “an outstanding album.” The compilation vinyl Predecessors subsequently arrived two years later, and with 2019's By Blood, Shovels & Rope again earned spectacular reviews from music critics. Calling the duo “one of our most important bands,” Glide magazine praised the musicians' “honest, literate, and narrative lyrics,” while PopMatters stated, “Much of their passionate singing on this record is at the further register of emotion, nakedly raw, on the absolute edge, unmusical, and all the more powerful for it.”
Since then, Shovels & Rope released Busted Jukebox Vol. 3 in 2021 and Manticore the following year, returning earlier in September with Something Is Working Up Above My Head. At ShovelsAndRope.com, the duo states, "Less means more. That’s kind of always how it’s been with us. This time the rules were simple: we can only use what we work with live and whatever we put down on tape must be accomplishable on a stage in a live setting. That’s always seemed to be when we’re at our best. Or most twitchy. Many times we’ve made records that we loved and then, after figuring out how we’d perform it live, we end up falling in love with the live arrangement because being a two-piece band it took some real risk and struggle which led to innovation which gave it a whole new life. (Consider the tortured grape.) So with this one we just started there and worked backwards. The result encapsulates, more than anything we’ve done before, the sound of our live performance. Resulting in what one might consider by definition, a definitive album."
Shovels & Rope headlines their Maquoketa engagement on September 28 with an additional set by Al Olender, admission to the 8 p.m. concert is $40, and more information and tickets are available by visiting CodfishHollowBarnstormers.com.
