Shovels & Rope, the musically adventurous husband-and-wife duo of Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst, had plans to follow up 2019’s raucous By Blood with a simple, quiet, bare-bones album. But that idea went out the window when the pandemic hit and afforded them a rare opportunity to explore and experiment in their home studio.
“We’ve been going so hard for the past 10 years,” Trent tells Rolling Stone during a joint interview with Hearst. “You have to stay on the road to make living in the business, and we didn’t get a chance to take a breath until the pandemic. It was forced, but it was good for us and good for our family to be in our house together.”
At the same time, Hearst was regularly turning over her tarot cards. When the strength card appeared, with its image of a manticore — a mythical man/lion/scorpion beast — the songwriters had an epiphany.