Charleston, SC · americana · folk rock

Shovels & Rope

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A husband-and-wife duo who swap instruments mid-song and make scrappy, hard-swinging Americana far louder than two people should manage.

Cary Ann Hearst was born in Mississippi in 1979, raised in Nashville, and moved to Charleston in 1997 to attend the College of Charleston, where she began performing solo in local bars. Michael Trent was born in Houston, grew up in Denver, and eventually settled in Charleston too, working through his own bands before he and Hearst crossed paths.

Hearst first saw Trent performing with his band the Films in 2002, and the two went on to tour with other acts, including Jump, Little Children. Each also built solo careers, Hearst releasing Dust and Bones in 2006 and Trent his self-titled debut in 2007, before they married in March 2009 and began working together full time.

Their breakthrough came with O' Be Joyful in 2012, built around the song "Birmingham," a first-person account of two broke musicians deciding to keep going. The album reached the Billboard 200, and in 2013 "Birmingham" won song of the year at the Americana Music Honors & Awards, with Shovels & Rope also named emerging artist of the year. Hearst sings with a hard country rasp, Trent takes the higher harmony, and the pair trade off guitar, drums, harmonica and keyboard, often within the same song.

Away from their own writing, they have released the Busted Jukebox albums, collections of covers recorded with guests including Shakey Graves, Lucius, the Milk Carton Kids, Brandi Carlile and John Moreland. A 2014 documentary, The Ballad of Shovels and Rope, filmed over nearly three years, followed the two of them touring in a van with their dog, and went on to win awards at the Nashville and Port Townsend film festivals.

Later albums include Swimmin' Time in 2014, which reached the top twenty of the Billboard 200, and Little Seeds in 2016. Their most recent record, Something Is Working Up Above My Head, came out in 2024 on Dualtone Records, their seventh studio album together.

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americanafolk rock