Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent have been performing together as Shovels & Rope since 2008, but becoming a musical tour de force as a couple wasn’t their initial plan. Rather, they were pursuing their own individual music careers before and after marrying in 2009, but in 2012, they decided to fully commit to their musical partnership.
“It was not a planned thing at all. We had both been working on our individual careers for maybe ten years before we got married. And then once we got married, we started picking up these bar gigs in town and we would go down and make a little bit of money, and it was easy and fun. And we had twice as many songs because it was us two,” Trent said.
“It made sense too if we wanted to be a family and be married and not be in different cities all the time, that it would be more traditional in many ways just to be together in a band,” Hearst added. “So there was some ego strangling and we buried those in the backyard. And here we are, with what I think is an incredibly collaborative career and family life, just riding around doing it.”
The joint venture has worked out for them, as they’ve released ten albums, performed on Late Night with David Letterman and toured all over. One thing that makes Shovels & Rope tours a bit different than the typical band, though, is that they have their two children in tow…