Field Recordings

Shovels and Rope’s third album, Swimming Time, is a romp through American musical styles. It doesn’t feel like a history lesson, but Shovels and Rope take us to school. With their dual voices, their garage rock percussion, and their shake, rattle and roll, Shovels and Rope could be described as Americana or roots music, but Shovels and Rope are bigger than Americana, they are rock and roll. The opening track “When the Devil is All Around” is a radio friendly mid-tempo gospel tinged number that would fee right on a country music station or the local rock station. The tempo picks up a little with “Bridge on Fire” a love song as arson rocker that showcases the duo’s darker side lyricism, “The old bridge is on fire, and I’m the one to blame, a stone cold igniter.” But the jewel of the first fourth of the record is “Evil,” which could easily cue up on your bad day playlist. “But every now and then I get evil, I’m ashamed in the shadow of a steeple, I’m a lunatic looking throug...