Basic Folk 40 – Amanda Shires

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Amanda Shires, Texas born, Nashville based, sideplayer turned songwriter, turned force of nature in Americana, folk and alt-country world. Her partnership with Jason Isbell is legendary. Her most current project, The Highwomen, is well on it’s way to legendary status. Starting her career at 15 with the Texas Playboys, Shires found herself on the road for the first time with a group of 70 & 80 year old gentlemen. She cut her teeth and learned plenty in that experience. Moving to Nashville to establish her songwriting career, she got close to her friend Jason Isbell after a serious injury to her left ring finger. Isbell offered to drive her to doctor’s appointments and their relationship grew from there.
Amanda radiates a friendly, goofy and open hearted personality that translates into her playing and writing. That all comes through the minute you meet her, whether you talk to her for 2 minutes or are her best friend on the road with her (hi Kelly!). We get some great stories from her during this interview like her asking Brandi Carlile to start The Highwomen with her moments before Brandi Carlile had to perform on-stage and the anger she feels at her husband when he tries to use her Leonard Cohen guitar. Also in the Lightning Round, we learned that Amanda loves rap & hip-hop and when she was learning Texas fiddle, she really wanted to be a hip-hop fiddlist. Amanda Shires is so fun and cool! Enjoy this interview.

The Highwomen – “Redesigning Women” (Amanda Shires, Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris & Natalie Hemby)

Amanda’s recent solo record, “To The Sunset”