Shovels and Rope tell the story of a hard time American town at the moment when the sun casts a long shadow from the gallows and illuminates the settling dust. A church bells sits scalded in a heap of brick and smoldering ash. A young man quietly counts his mothers tears through the arc of a hanging noose. New blades of grass begin to sprout on a fresh grave, and the sound of the rusty grinding gears of the passing train beg for changing times that never seem to come. Here, the hard fought battles between hope and desperation leave the heart weary town to buckle under its own sorrow.
Still nothing short of a bullet, or a tight noose can sway the willful course of the some hearts. Unfortunately, in this town, there is no shortage of either. The outbound locomotive wails and pulls behind it a shadow of blue darkness, scattered with stars, over the town, as its ghosts wander the empty cars searching for reminders of joy.