In April of 2012 ANTIGRAVITY sat down to talk with a couple from South Carolina. They called themselves Shovels & Rope and they were down-to-earth, talented road warriors just starting to make a name for themselves. They had burned up a few clubs around town and converted some of our own (Meschiya Lake and Hurray for the Riff Raff ’s Alynda Lee Segarra, just to name a few) into lifelong fans. 17 months later, we’re catching back up with them in advance of their gig at the Voodoo Music + Arts Experience to discuss where they’ve been and what they’ve seen since we last spoke.
Michael Trent seems to be an insular fellow. When he speaks, he is clear and concise. On stage, he sweats and flails, cracking an occasional smile in the direction of his effervescent wife, Cary Ann Hearst. For her part, Hearst combines gutsy, blustering vocals and a barefoot sweetness—she is homemade buttermilk biscuits and a slap in the face. Together with their dog, Townes Van Zandt, they are laying waste to America’s highways and carrying the gospel of rock’n’roll to the masses.
The record that served as your real breakout, O’ Be Joyful, is just over a year old now. How does that feel?
Michael Trent: Great! They grow up so fast…
Cary Ann Hearst: It’s been such a whirlwind and we have a gagillion wonderful memories. It feels like there is just no way it could be a year old, but we were driving through Ohio the other day and we said to each other, “Well, the corn’s coming in again!” We’ve seen the corn come in, get replanted, covered in snow and then come up again, so I guess it really has been a year. [laughs]
You guys tour like beasts. It makes me tired just to think about it. Are you at all getting tired of playing songs from O’ Be Joyful? Or does it still feel fresh?
MT: The good thing that we’ve got going on is that we have a big back catalog of music as well. We have the first Shovels & Rope record and we play stuff off both of our solo records as well. And we’re always working on new music, so we can throw a couple new songs in here and there. Every night is different and that’s one thing I think that we have in our favor, as opposed to other bands that just come out with one record and have to keep doing the same songs every night. We try to keep it fresh.
Speaking of new stuff, is there anything in the works that we might get to hear at Voodoo?
CAH: Yeah, definitely. Michael and I think they’re pretty good songs. We’re excited about them and we’re trying that stuff out on the crowd, a couple songs a night. It would be pretty indulgent of us to do all the new stuff when the good people really do wanna hear the songs that they love. But they seem to be well- received by people so far, so that’s good. We haven’t really decided when we’re gonna get around to making the record, but it feels really good to know that the songs are there and we haven’t forgotten how to write while we’re on the road.
You guys bring your dog along a good bit––he even popped up at your NPR Tiny Desk Concert the other day. How does he like touring?
MT: He loves it. I think he just likes to be with us, honestly. And we have a nice routine. We get up and go throw the ball a little bit in the mornings. We have a two-man crew that comes with us and they both love him. He doesn’t want for a whole lot, you know?
He doesn’t get antsy about being in the car for that long?
CAH: The great thing about the RV is that there is a lot of space for all the animals that live in the RV to stretch out their legs and move around. [laughs] But when we had the 15-passenger van, which was difficult to climate control, he’d have to be stuck in the hotel while we played and that was kind of a bummer. He was alright––he just goes to sleep because he’s kind of amazing that way. But having him with us in the RV and being able to walk him all day long and bring him into the club… I mean, he just runs wild all day except for the drive and then we’re all kinda in it together, you know?
What kind of dog is he and how did he find his way to you?
CAH: I was having a birthday five years ago and Michael and I were about to get married, and… I don’t know, there was just something missing in our lives. So we went down to the SPCA in Summer– –which is kind of a rural town outside of Charleston––and we picked up this brindle-colored ball of… just the cutest little thing, he was so small. We thought he was a pit bull mix and we were really interested in giving a pit bull or a pit bull mix a home and as he grew up, one day his ears and his nose just sprouted right out of his head—and he has this high- pitched raccoon dog bawl. And we said, “this is not a pit bull!” [laughs] He is a mix of a Plott hound and something else. The Plotts are North Carolina’s state dog and they are good for treeing bears and raccoons and are great hunting dogs and great companions––super playful and agreeable. And it turns out he’s the best dog we could have ever asked for.
[pullquote]Nobody’s giving out any prizes to lazy musicians who can’t get back to work![/pullquote]And his name is Townes, right?
CAH: His name is Townes Van Zandt!
Does he get the full thing when he’s in trouble?
CAH: He just gets Townes, but he has a million nicknames.
There is a documentary in the works [The Ballad of Shovels and Rope by Jace Freeman & SeanClark] that chronicles the process of recording O’ Be Joyful. How did it come about?
MT: Shortly after we decided that we were going to do this band for real, a friend told us about these guys that make videos kind of on the cheap, so we checked out what they were doing and it looked really great. We decided to go into this warehouse for a day and we just played live and got a bunch of stuff out of it that we could use. Then they called us back a couple of weeks later with this idea that they wanted to do a documentary about us. And we weren’t that sure about it at first because it was going to be all these dudes following us around with cameras and they’d come over to our house… But they ended up being a couple of really great dudes. We started it just as our band was really starting out and they filmed us for a couple years through the whole process…
CAH: It was supposed to be three months! That’s where the story gets interesting. All it was supposed to be was “Here’s this little DIY band. Aren’t they cute? Here’s their songs. Maybe something will happen. Who knows? Here’s the songs and here’s how they make a record and here’s how they go on tour––good luck guys!” And it became kind of a “Hold on… something’s going on here. So let’s see what happens.” And they stuck around to see what happened… Basically the guys made this thing on their own. We didn’t really have anything to do with it except to be in it. It wasn’t intended to be promotional material for the band. So we haven’t even seen the final cut of it.
You guys have some really strong ties to New Orleans and some of our best-known local talent can be counted as rabid fans of yours. Any chance you’ll pop up somewhere outside of Voodoo while you’re in town?
CAH: Our schedule doesn’t necessarily permit it on this trip, but we love New Orleans very much. We’ve always been your peripheral coastal cousins. We have a lot of friends there and we cherish getting to come down and get the inside, personal treatment when we visit.
Each time you guys complete a set, you turn to each other and shake hands before bowing to the crowd and leaving the stage. At Hangout Fest earlier this year, my boyfriend made the comment that he saw that as sort of the termination of your business relationship––perhaps a way to separate your life as a married couple from your life as bandmates. What’s the story behind that move?
CAH: Your boyfriend is very thoughtful. I’ve never thought about it that way. We do it every time and we do it on purpose. Because the show is equal parts fun self-expression and physical struggle. I feel like we’re two boxers on the same side and the music and the show are the opponent in a certain way. Not in a bad way––just in that it’s something to conquer. So I think it’s just the way that, at the end of the show, we’re able to tell each other, “Battle well-fought, comrade.” It’s a way to thank each other for putting it all out there again. But I do like his idea. It doesn’t necessarily turn the marriage switch off and on, because those things kind of work in tandem, but I like it. I think it’s good sportsmanship on Shovels & Rope’s behalf to shake on it at the end of each show.
The chemistry that you two share––not only as musicians, but just as human beings––is evident on stage, but I have to wonder… what are shows like on nights when you’ve just had a fight? Like maybe someone stole all the covers the night before or drank the last of the coffee or put the toilet paper roll on wrong. Does that come out on stage? Or are you above that now?
MT: I think they’re the same. Actually, they might be better.
CAH: I think we’re generally pretty agreeable. And we’re lucky because there’s almost no time for fighting. Our schedule is pretty insane. However, I do agree with Michael that the energy probably comes across and maybe we’re kinda working it out up there on stage.
That’s better than throwing drumsticks at each other. Most people couldn’t perform on stage with their partner night after night.
MT: It’s not for everyone.
You guys just won both “Song of the Year” and “Emerging Artist” at the Americana Music Awards. Are you still basking in the afterglow?
MT: We kinda hightailed it out of the afterglow. We’re in the middle of a tour and we flew down there to go do the ceremony and then the next day we were playing a show in Michigan and then we had like five in a row. So really, we haven’t had any time to think about it. We’re grateful that it happened, but we’re really more focused on touring and putting on good shows, staying healthy and keeping our minds right.
CAH: I agree. It was a totally awesome thing to have happen. But we totally had to get right back to work. Nobody’s giving out any prizes to lazy musicians who can’t get back to work!
Do you feel like “Americana” is a more apt description for what you do than “Country”? Or do you even see a difference?
[pullquote]we’re two boxers on the same side and the music and the show are the opponent
[/pullquote]CAH: I think it’s a word for when your genre’s a little bit homeless and it doesn’t have a place to go. Americana takes in all the sonic orphans of country music, rock’n’roll and blues. You know, just good stories.
Sometimes I feel like it’s the hipster-accepted version of country. Like you’re not really allowed to say you like country music, so you say Americana instead.
MT: I dig that, except that we feel like we bounce around a good bit. I wouldn’t call us necessarily country. We put on more of a rock show than anything. It feels like rock’n’roll when it’s coming out.
CAH: But we sure aren’t ashamed to tell people that we love country music. I feel like there is a little bit of that, “I don’t even like country music, but I really like this…” going on and I wanna say “Well son, what you like is music.”
Exactly. I like good music. I like authentic music. Whether that comes on the back of an electric guitar or a banjo or a Hammond B3 matters little to me.
CAH: Yes ma’am!
The last time we spoke with you, it was spring of 2012. O’ Be Joyful was just about to be released and AG guessed that you were about to explode. Our last question to you was “What’s the last thing you’d like to say before you hit it big?” Your response was “Forgive us in advance.” So what we want to know is, do you have anything you’d like to apologize for?
CAH: I always feel like I have something to apologize for. [laughs]
MT: Maybe it’s yet-to-come.
CAH: Yeah, you know. Michael and I, we kinda do what we’re gonna do. You come along and things change and the context of your performances––like the size of the audience or what your booking agent is hustling up for you––becomes a big change in your world. But you as people do everything you can not to change or have it affect you, because it can fuck up your music if you listen too much to what people say or read too much of what people write. If you let it change you, you might have something to apologize for, but you also might have something to apologize for if you ignore all that stuff and proceed as normal, not reacting at all to people’s expectations. We’re not very self-congratulatory as people. We don’t really pat ourselves on the back too much because we feel like we’re swinging from the fences every day and we don’t know how long it’s going to last or if people will always love us. But to answer your question, I don’t think we have anything to apologize for. If people think we have something to apologize for, they may be shit out of luck.
Shovels & Rope play the Voodoo Music + Arts Experience on Friday, November 1st. For more info, visit worshipthemusic.com or shovelsandrope.com
