Review: Shovels & Rope thrash around at Lewisburg’s Carnegie Hall

The sticky August heat fell from my shoulders as I crossed the threshold. It had been 25 years or so since I had last wandered into Carnegie Hall, a space first constructed in 1902 and which replaced one of two buildings of the Lewisburg Female Institute. The tragic fire of the year prior prompted a new vessel, and the 100 years that have since passed, the sweeping but intimate setting lives and breathes as the creative backbone of the community. Lewisburg is nestled among the rolling hills of West Virginia, and while it’s not necessarily my hometown (I grew up in Renick), it did serve as the commercial hub of the area.

“The space is smaller than I remember it,” I muse as I make my way to my seat, which is tattered from years of use. The accommodations are meager, but don’t be fooled. Once the music begins to pulse up and over our heads, the building comes alive with monstrous roars and seems to tower over everything around it. The valley is swept up in a kind of magic that is deafening. On Saturday evening (Aug. 18), blues-rock Americana duo Shovels & Rope, of Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst, both supreme players and singers, gnawed on the venue’s echoes, spitting them back into our eardums. While not including “Botched Execution,” a sterling cut from their 2016 studio album Little Seeds, is an unforgivable act of treason, the set bolted along at a rate that left the entire crowd breathless and damn-near lifeless from exhaustion and pure bliss.

But before we could even prepare for the headliner, folk singer-songwriter Becca Mancari injected the night with her free spirit and penetrating voice. Her gaze was equally as cutting, and armed with songs like “Arizona Fire” and “Golden,” which is undeniably her finest composition of her career to-date, lifted from 2017’s debut LP Good Woman, the Nashville transplant is a mesmerizing enchanter. Seated simply and elegantly, dressed up in a sizzling, western-stitched red jacket, Mancari pieced together some of the most discerning introspections of life, love and loss. “There you go again turning golden right there in front of me,” she wept profusely, her fountain of metaphorical tears gushing down the aisles and washing upon our feet as a vessel onto the shores after its maiden voyage. Her talent was nearly surpassed by her tricky wit, doling up humorous anecdotes of her youth and sage wisdom Hearst once gave her many years ago. “She told me, ‘Give ’em hell, kid,'” said Mancari, who first met Hearst and Trent in their very early days. “She probably didn’t even remember me then, but I remembered her…”

And Mancari sure did give us hell. So much so, we may never fully recover.

Teetering between lyrical genius and live musical dynamism, Shovels & Rope then strangled the audience with convulsing percussion, trading off duties on the drum kit and hand percussion. The other was then left to tinker with the piano and electric and acoustic guitars, swapping out when necessary and dousing the songs with sinister slithers as if they were two dancing cobras on the concrete just outside the front doors. “The Devil is All Around” writhed from the outset, imprinting the tone of their performance with a stunning combination of dark-flecked gospel and their sun-broiled Americana. Their harmonies pinned each syllable together with such flamboyancy and flair that it is hard to imagine from where they draw such untouched power. It’s witchcraft of the utmost kind. Hearst’s voice is peerless, and Trent’s tenor balances her out. It’s an unforgiving combination, best demonstrated with “Evil,” mischievous yet playful. “St. Anne’s Parade” and “San Andreas Fault Line Blues,” which began the encore after an unruly and well-earned standing ovation, permitted the pair to demonstrate great, vulnerable restraint. Even in such subtle, nuance shadows, Trent and Hearst are masters of the craft.

Make no mistake: they’re never overwrought. Their music is sometimes silky, sometimes scratching at the throat, and altogether rehabilitating. Throughout the evening, which could have easily lasted a couple more hours, they whipped out new cuts, testing the waters, so to speak. “Come on, Utah,” a story about a wall going up and coming down, tells the tall tale about a magical horse arriving to reunite families that have been torn apart and destroyed. “Calm down. It’s just a story” advised Trent to a wave of giggles. The tone shifted then with “I’m Coming Out,” drawing lines between celebrating new beginnings and the LGBT community, of which the duo have been long-standing supporters. The crowd rumbled with claps and cheers of agreement. With “Mississippi Nothing,” introduced by Trent’s humorous trip-up over trying to explain its origin, Shovels & Rope unravel a story of anger and sorrow about two boys who grow up ⎯⎯ one has become a superstar, the other has made, well, nothing of their life. Hearst snarls the words, and each line carries with it staggering observations of both sides of the fence.

If only one thing can be gleaned from a Shovels & Rope show, it’s that we don’t really deserve such raw and tremendous talent. But while we got it, we might well rinse off our souls in their moon-like pools of brilliance. Only then can we come to fully appreciate what they’re trying to tell us.

Here are the remaining Shovels & Rope 2018 tour dates:

August 21 – Maymont – Richmond, VA

August 23 – Wolf Trap – Vienna, VA

August 24 – Greenfield Lake Amphitheater – Wilmington, NC

August 29 – Asbury Lanes – Asbury Park, NJ

August 30 – Ridgefield Playhouse – Ridgefield, CT

August 31 – Prescott Park Arts Festival – Portsmouth, NH

September 1 – Thompson’s Point – Portland, ME

September 15 – The Gorge – George, WA

September 16 – HiFi Music Hall – Eugene, OR

September 18 – Cargo – Reno, NV

September 20 – JaM Cellars Ballroom – Napa, CA

September 21 – Fillmore – San Francisco, CA

September 22 – Sonoma Harvest Music Festival – Glen Ellen, CA

October 4 – The Senate – Columbia, SC

October 5 – Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts – Boone, NC

October 6 – Ryman Auditorium – Nashville, TN

October 27 – The Royal American (outdoor stage) – Charleston, SC

Photo Credit: Curtis Wayne Millard

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