When it comes to international popularity, it might be fair to argue that the Americana scene is the strongest it’s been in some time. Not that they’re perhaps the best examples of the genre (nor from the South), but nonetheless, the popularity of artists like Hozier and Mumford and Sons has helped solidify the sound of the American South back amongst commercial ears. It’s on this precedent that Live Nation have brought out two of the scene’s finest rising stars – Shovels & Rope from South Carolina and Shakey Graves from Austin, Texas – for a special co-headline tour in Australia dubbed “Two For The Road”.
Up first was Australia’s own Ruby Boots, the pseudonym of Bex Chilcott. Hailing from Perth, the emerging singer/songwriter has been adding her flair to the local roots and Americana scene for years now – and she’s been doing it with a world of style and sass. It’s no wonder she’s become to go-to talent for like minded artists when they tour our country. Over the years we’ve seen her accompany the likes of Justin Townes Earle, Nikki Lane and Father John John Misty – all to great acclaim. So it’s no surprise she did an impeccable job opening up the occasion tonight, accompanied by Lee Jones on the guitar and backing vocals. The pair worked well together as they entertained the crowd with great music and banter, closing things up with the excellent track “Wrap Me In A Fever”.
“I’m Shakey Fucking Graves from Austin, Texas, and we’ve come to play you some music. We hope you enjoy it”. With these words, Alejandro Rose-Garcia aka Shakey Graves and his drummer “Boo”, set off on a music journey with great energy and incredible songs taken primarily from his record And The War Came. Boo added an extra dose of rock to his first tracks, opening with “The Perfect Parts”, though was absent for much of the set, as Shakey performed solo, becoming his own percussionist with a tambourine and a stomp box at his feet. He moved gracefully between the loud and the soft, the electric and the acoustic – which one might expect would prevent the night from enjoying some flow, though his banter and mannerisms helped ensure we were transfixed no matter what direction he headed, be it the acoustic “Tomorrow” (a set highlight), dedicated to the “16 year old shithead in all of us” or the high energy “Roll The Bones”.
Shakey Graves is a musician who can move his hips, put you in a hypnotic state and then give you room to move – but he’s also an artist who finds fascination in the silence; letting a track linger before returning to the motions. It makes for an incredible performance. Boo joined again for the final two tracks, closing the set out with his magnificent track “Dearly Departed”. It was spellbinding from start to finish, one that makes you feel like you really were seeing a new talent being born. I had flashbacks to seeing The Black Keys many years ago and can’t help but think that this will be the sort of gig I’ll be remembering in years to come, saying “I’m so glad I was there to experience that…”
Closing out the night were South Carolina’s Shovels & Rope, who opened up proceedings with one of the more popular tracks off their latest album O’ Be Joyful, “Birmingham”. The husband and wife duo were hard at work for the entirety of the set, as they multitasked to impressively recreate their polished record, with Michael Trent opening up on the drums – while simultaneously playing the Harmonica and the Keys. “Wow – now you’re just showing off mate,” you ponder, “that’s seriously impressive and you’re making everyone else look bad.” Except for his wife of course – Cary Ann Hearst – who proved she can pretty much do exactly the same, and look like a bad-ass rock n roll chick in the process (having some Deap Vally flashbacks). And it went on like that through the set – the pair jumped between instruments as one would relieve the other of their impressive multi-tasking and somehow made it all look effortless in the process.
They gazed into each others eyes as they played and barely had a moment without a smile on their faces, feeding off the energy in the room. Their set incorporated tracks off their two well known records O’ Be Joyful, which was released last year, as well as Swimming Time. They also played a couple of tracks off what ended up being their self-titled debut record (Shovels & Rope was originally the title of a collaboration record rather than the name of the project itself), “full of murder ballads and adventure”, including “1200 Miles” and “Swing Low”. Highlights from the night included “The Devil is All Around” and “O’Be Joyful” and their main set ended with “Hail! Hail! Rock n Roll”, before they returned for a brief and very enjoyable encore with Shakey Graves – as he added harmonies to Neil Young’s “Unknown Legend”.
The pair were electrifying, and if they and Shakey Graves represent the future of the music coming out of the American South, then count me in for the long haul. This is music inspired by all the great music to come of of that region in the last century, but made completely their own and at the end of the day, it’s all just some good ol’ rock n roll… and there ain’t nothin’ wrong with that.
