Consider this my notice….. 

I am in a band called Shovels and Rope that is going to be touring all around for the indefinite future. 

I have struggled for years to figure out how to reconcile what i record with what i preform and i have decided that i am not beholden to the recordings. I never have been , why start now. 

At some point you will see me on a stage again with a big old band. I will periodically play with the Shrimp Records crew or some awesome special guests. But for now and for as far as i can tell, its gonna be me and mike on the road, playing both our songs in our two piece band.  Thats the best way we can make a living doing this. 

SOOOOO…. the band formerly known as Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent is now formally, offically, and eternally till we die known as Shovels and Rope. It will be on posters, tee shirts and records. You will have to remember that it is us. I will remind everyone for a little while, but most of y’all already thought we were shovels and rope, or hoped we were or at least saw it on a record and thought it would be a good name. I mean, come on, it looks so much better on a poster. 

LETS DO IT!

Mike and i literally just rolled into the house after a five day run on the Unchained Tour of Georgia. We have been road tripping with a bunch of amazing story telling characters. We have three more shows on this tour after our two day break. We have crissed crossed the state with barely a interstate hwy to ride on. Its been county and state roads the whole way, and we have had time to meander and its been nice.

The Unchained Tour is destined to eventually ride around on the restored 1975 Blue Bird School Bus pictured below. It worked the first day and, being a 1975 School Bus, it blew a radiator, a carb, had bad fuel lines and it blew a head gasket. 

At least it lived long enough to be heckled hatefully by some rednecks in a gas station! It was rural Georgia after all.  So the school bus is in the shop, 

One monkey dont stop the show, and the show carried on in mini vans and sedans. When the bus broke down we (they) lost their lodging too, but we got creative. Mike and i camped out in several lovely state parks, and the crew and the racounteurs were put up in folks homes and an odd hotel room or so. We worked it out. AND WE HAD A TREMENDOUS ADVENTURE. Georgia really is a quirky, charming, kind place for a traveling circus of literary bohos.  The Novel Experience  Bookstore in Zebulon and the The Bookshelf and Gallery in Thomasville were two lovely bookstores that we really enjoyed hanging around! There was a really good book-y community in both of those places. The Theatres in Statesboro and Macon were OH-MAZING… and were a perfect frame for the voices of our racounteurs. It was fun hi-jacking a library in Newnan. This whole tour has been a pants-swing… you know? When you just work it out moment by moment? That is not the say it wasnt well planned. It has been perfectly catered by loving volunteers, no one involuntarily slept out in the cold, and mike and i even heard Georgia Public Radio promoting the series of shows. Its just that when you travel with a group of people, you never know what kind of situation you are gonna find yourself in… there are just lots of x factors.  These folks have proved to be excellent punch rollers. We just gonna keep on rolling… in three cars on the back roads of Georgia telling stories and meandering. 

boo ya.

My favorite Waylon Jennings song (written by Cowboy Jack Clemett i think)

We do this too. 

THIS IS WHAT WE DO!

SHOVELS AND ROPE!!!!!!!

I gotta tell you , i want a divorce from myspace. Every morning I wake up to myspace and i think, i’m stuck with you for the rest of my life and you get uglier ever day. If myspace and i went to therapy i  would say that myspace doesn’t communicate with me, tells all my business to eveyone, gives out my number to losers who spam me AND does not do what i ask it to, like PLAY MY SONGS. Myspace is going through a mid-life crisis where it wears ugly outfits that are not fit for a professional. Myspace is suffering from feelings of inadequecy. 

Frankly, i wish it would die and we all could collect the insurance money. In the meantime i suspect that i will get a crappy note from myspace that says the problem was fixed but i have no idea why the songs aren’t playing. It’s like myspace went out and got drunk at an ex girlfirend’s house and didn’t come into work today. Thats why i hang out with facebook on the side. 

finally the video for hells bells. 

I TOO am excited to be working with the Vulcan Army. They book the show with grace AND style!

michaeltrent:

VERY excited to be working with the fine folks over at Vulcan Army Booking!  lovely folks.  go say hello 

www.facebook.com/vulcanarmybooking

www.twitter.com/vulcanarmyshows

You better stay outta these chain stores, they’ll ruin you as sure as your born. 

Rev. J.M. Gates