Shovels And Rope

I mentioned this Carolina twosome a few weeks back in the "What Are You Listening To..." thread. A kind of rustic White Stripes.

Shovels & Rope - O’ Be Joyful

Shovels & Rope - otherwise known as Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst who strum, beat, shake, blow and hack 90% of the instruments on the album between them, as well as the vocals.

Don’t know how, but seem to have fallen into boy/girl combos lately, but these are “chalk an’ cheese” comapred to Little Hurricane. Hailing from S.Carolina, this is a 2nd or 3rd outing for Michael & Cary and are really best summed up by the comments on the album cover:-

“Full of back-porch folk, twang’n'bang country stompers, swampy blues and thrift-store garage-rock grit; filtered through a minimalist DIY ethos.” - “A helluva beautiful racket.”

With lyrics like - ” Machete in a tree stump, hound dog on a chain
                  Wooden legged woman playing the banjo in the rain”
I couldn’t describe it better.

Well, they're coming over in May for a few dates:-

Fri 10th May
  Dingwalls; London 
Sat 11th May
  Night & Day Cafe; Manchester 
Sun 12th May
Stereo; Glasgow 

Latest release, O' Be Joyful is a gem.

Try this if you've got 20 mins:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0Y63UaWNIE