Shovels & Rope Team With The Milk Carton Kids On Guns N’ Roses Cover

Earlier today, folk-rock duo Shovels & Rope surprised fans by announcing a new album of covers is due on Friday and premiering a stream of the LP, titled Busted Jukebox, via NPR Music. The 10- track LP features a diverse set of covers and a number of special guests.

The album opens with a cover of Neil Young’s “Unknown Legend” featuring special guest Shakey Graves. Butch Walker joins the pair for a rendition of his own “Bullet Belt” on Busted Jukebox, which also contains a version of Elvis Costello’s “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding” recorded with Lucius, Toussaint McCall’s “Nothing Takes The Place of You” recorded with JD McPherson, Nine Inch Nails’ “Last” recorded with Caroline Rose and five other covers featuring Shovels & Rope’s signature sound.

One of the covers that immediately got our attention was the duo’s take on “Patience” by Guns N’ Roses featuring fellow folk-rock duo The Milk Carton Kids. Here’s what Shovels & Rope had to tell NPR about “Patience”:

“This one was a lot of fun to put together. The road is long, but it is narrow, so if you’re out there working, you’re gonna bump into the same people quite a bit, which is how it’s been with us and The Milk Carton Kids. We have been friends and fans of theirs for the past few years, and it’s been really great to watch them grow and achieve a lot of well-deserved success. 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.

This one 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. The result is a kind of duo-duet with them taking a verse and chorus and us taking a verse and chorus, and then we all sing together at the end. Kenneth Pattengale of TMCK adds some really great guitar on here, as well. you’ll know it when you hear it. Spoiler alert: We do the ending.”

Take a listen to Shovels & Rope and Milk Carton Kids’ “Patience”:

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=455751783&m=455759884

Head to NPR to hear the rest of the album.