Digging In

The way Shovels & Rope do things? The way they want.

The husband-and-wife Americana duo recently took a rare month off from the road to record material for their third album, due out sometime this year. Unless it gets delayed.

"We're in no super rush," says Michael Trent, one half of the duo. "We're just doing it the way we've done it in the past."

"We're convinced if we do it our way, we'll get away with it," chimes in Cary Ann Hearst, also on the same conference call with her husband before a gig in Mobile, Ala.

Their previous album, "O' Be Joyful," was recorded a few miles away from their Charleston, S.C., home with some friends. The lack of a fancy studio mattered little. Their first album, "Shovels & Rope," was meant to be a one-off creation by the two songwriters, who both were working on separate music careers. But the first album earned a buzz and provided them with a name when they collaborated. The second Shovels & Rope album earned even more attention and landed them inside the Billboard 200 top album chart for the first time. That led to more exposure, including their television debut on "The Late Show With David Letterman" early last year.

The duo has resumed touring after this round of recording, and among many stops in the southeastern part of the United States, they'll appear Sunday at George's Majestic Lounge. Joining them will be Hurray for the Riff Raff, a band also scheduled to appear at the Fayetteville Roots Festival in August.

Trent says Shovels & Rope is already playing a few of the new songs on the current tour. By the time they arrive in Fayetteville, he says they may have a few more on the set list. They practice songs on the road, a habit they picked up while crossing the country together in the tiny van where they also slept most nights. One would be responsible for driving; the other entertained.

Both songwriters will make contributions to the forthcoming record, and there are songs that were written jointly. Hearst says many of the new songs feature a little bit more keyboard, and this record has a theme of water: She mentions that submarines, flooding and rivers make an appearance. Otherwise, it sounds much like what they've produced in the past.

"Narratively and melodically, everything is in place," she says.

That means the newest work by Shovels & Rope is likely to fall under the broad Americana umbrella. But they also are heavily influenced by rock 'n' roll, classical music and Elvis Costello.

"I lot of people call us a lot of things. We don't mind," Trent says.

As long as people are listening at all.

"We like to instill a little hope. That's the most important thing," he says.