Videos by American Songwriter
Shovels & Rope have revealed details of their new covers album, Busted Jukebox Vol. I (out Nov. 20), in an interview with NPR.
The 10-track effort, which is a surprise release, sees the duo of Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent tackling songs by Neil Young, Loud Reed, Guns N’ Roses, Nine Inch Nails and more. To help with the project, they enlisted friends and collaborators including Shakey Graves, The Milk Carton Kids, JD McPherson and J. Roddy Walston. Some of the collaborations with artists who had been friends with the band for years, like Shakey and Butch Walker, but some, such as the cover of GN’R’s “Patience” with The Milk Carton Kids, were new experiences for the duo.
“When we were coming up with the idea for this record, we had some very specific ideas of who we wanted to guest on what songs. And then we also had two columns on a page: One was a list of artists who we really wanted to get on here (and who might actually consider it), and the other was a list of songs that we thought would be fun to try for this project,” the duo told NPR. “(‘Patience’) came about via those columns. The Milk Carton Kids + Shovels & Rope + Guns n’ Roses was the subject line of the email we sent over to those guys — I know, no need to read the rest, right? — and they were kind enough to get on board without really knowing how it was gonna end up sounding.”
Head over to NPR to read the full interview and to hear the album. Below, you can watch Shovel & Rope’s acoustic duet with J. Roddy Walston that was rerecorded for Busted Jukebox Vol. I.
