Break Me Off A Big Piece of That Love Stuff | Shovels And Rope Live Review w/ Caroline Rose | The Social Orlando | January 21 2015

by Dainon Moody • January 27, 2015

With how often songs and albums get passed around and shared (and only occasionally because either are very good), it’s sometimes hard to pinpoint exactly when a band actually elbows past the rest of the ilk and manages to get through to you. (What year was it again? How’d it happen?) But like the relationships that truly matter—for the friends who land in your life unexpectedly one day and end up feeling like they’ve always sort of been at your side—so it goes with the best kinds of music. A good song can seep into skin, leave an impression akin to a birthmark behind.

Lucky for me, I can retrace my steps to when Shovels & Rope introduced themselves to me. Not that they came around knocking on my door in order to make a formal introduction, but it sure felt like that. A video of them performing “Boxcar” ambled its way into my life and made its acquaintance—passed on by a friend, attached to a blog, something—and I was changed in the first two minutes.

On the one hand, the music video couldn’t have been simpler: it was just a man and a woman, singing together in some kind of deserted warehouse and little more. It looked so boring at the onset that I almost passed on it before it properly began. But there was more there than what was on display at the beginning. I ignored my original inclinations and kept on listening. Like poet Dorianne Laux once said, “Any good poem is asking you simply to slow down.”

So I gave it a second. Good thing, too.

Here was a husband and a wife who’d found one another and discovered they sounded best when they were blending their talents together. Two people making up a band that sounded a whole lot bigger than those who had five and six players on its roster. It wasn’t a soft sound, not by any stretch of the most vivid imagination, but each of them was singing their hearts out, egging each other on, refusing to hold anything back; the louder they got, the more pure things felt. This was real. I saw some kind of magic in those two, but I felt deep and resonating joy.

This is why I had to see them when they came to Orlando two tours ago (and especially because they invited Shakey Graves along for that ride). This is also why I had to see them when they came to visit once again to a sold-out group of fans at The Social on Wednesday. I didn’t much question not going. I knew that I needed all they had to offer, even if I had attach myself to a crowd of strangers and peer over the tall sorts in back.

Shovels & Rope has a new album to share with the world (Swimmin’ Time) and had plenty of new songs to perform, too, but I can’t say it’s the reason I went. I sort of went to see this couple of music-makers sing in one another’s faces until they flat ran out of steam. It took them a while to get that point, but I’m sure I enjoyed that journey as much as the other Orlandoans in my midst. On the way, the band took some time to laugh and share stories and play musical “chair” (sometimes she sat at those drums, sometimes he did). There was harmonica blowing. There was tambourine shaking. They even crowded around the same standing microphone and combined their terrific voices, hailing back to the times of Johnny Cash and June Carter (and, you know, there needs to be lots more of that).

Maybe it’s too idealistic of me to assume that everyone who’d pushed their way into The Social in the middle of the working week had done so for the very same reasons I had. Then again, maybe not. Maybe they needed to see some unrestrained love on a stage, one that thankfully came with a Southern accent and more than a few striking Dolly Parton similarities (denim dress with fringes, big curly hair, bigger personality). It’s completely possible everyone was there because they wanted to feel what it was these two felt for one another and hear it set to music.

And, my god, it was as beautiful to see as it was to hear. I left fulfilled and filled up. Shovels & Rope may as well have been holding us in a long embrace from the time they showed up until the time that four-song encore got tacked onto the tail end. It was that kind of embrace where you didn’t want to be the first to let go, the sort where you’re undeniably sad when they’re the ones that finally do. Yes, like that.

Am I thankful I found the video that led me to Shovels & Rope? That’s a yes. But let’s take things one step further, yeah? I’m even more thankful/glad/ecstatic that Michael Trent and Carey Ann Hearst found each other and had the wisdom to know exactly what it was they needed to do together. Their union is our gain.

Shovels And Rope Live Review by Dainon Moody.
Shovels And Rope Live Photos by Lindsay Tompkins.
Caroline Rose Live Photos by Lindsay, captions by Dainon.