And then, we did it, sing the song. The way she relaxes into low notes on that last line makes it sound far more like an unembarrassed confession than a complaint. I own one of his guitars and. I guess for awhile youve been looking for the exit. GROSS: Well, in 2020, you and your husband, Jason Isbell, recorded a duet of a song you wrote called The Problem. And the song is from the perspective of a teenage couple. I heard witchcraft in the whispers and I knew my time had come. Home to the Grand Ole Opry from 1943-1974, the Ryman earned the moniker \"Mother Church of Country Music\" as the genres of country and bluegrass developed on its stage and found a national audience on radio and television. Shires wrote the song a few years ago and originally imagined it as a conversation between several women, but revamped it to feature her collaborator and husband. I was doing fine, and then, I was just like no sound would come out of my mouth. But I thought, what am I going to do about that, in the event that she does go into country music? The Highwomen were tapped as last-minute fill ins, though founding member Amanda Shires was unable to attend as she continues to recover from an emergency It could be something you played. Its pretty obvious.. People forget, Shires says. On top of that, Shires notes, the pro-life stance doesnt typically extend past birth. Did you actually meet him? Her new album of original songs is called Take It Like A Man. She also co-founded the country supergroup the Highwomen, which includes Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris and Natalie Hemby. Im Terry Gross. GROSS: Lawrence Rothman produced your new album. Her latest album is called Take It Like A Man. Well be right back. And it was a Carrie Underwood song from it was, like, six years before that or something. For those who are unfamiliar, it is impossible for an ectopic pregnancy to go to term. How did you decide to say that these songs are really about a bad period of your marriage? And here it sits. The subject isnt talked about enough, Shires says. Shes not really a rock & roll kid, for lack of a better term. And hes saying, you know, basically that hes going to support her and hes there for her. GROSS: That your Father had spent 25 years in Alcatraz? And Id sit on his porch. And one day, we wound up in the studio, and we cut the song. In the decade-plus that Shires has been making solo albums in addition to working as a side person with Billy Joe Shaver, Justin Townes Earle and, eventually, her husband and fellow singer-songwriter Jason Isbell she's expressed self-consciousness about the shivers and tremors in her singing voice, tried to smooth them out of her delivery and ultimately embraced its untameness. Singer, songwriter and fiddle player Amanda Shires still remembers the moment she fell in love with the fiddle. This is FRESH AIR. Some people are upset at the way iPhones charge. So lets hear a song about when things werent so all right. Or did you keep the songs, like, kind of secret for a while? She was going to school. So I couldnt really get into it. (Playing guitar, singing) Like a common loon, I started hearing birds, birdsong everywhere. Lets start with a track from the new album. Isbell said he had to cancel his Asheville shows scheduled for Jan. 11-12, but he and his team are working to reschedule shows in Louisville, Columbus, Wilkes-Barre and Wilmington. Im on your side. Essentially, shes just a good person. SHIRES: I forced myself in that position. Here was my life five years ago, and heres my life now. When it reopened, he was in the first 200. ", Shires and Isbell have a toddler daughter together, and thanks to gendered assumptions about the distribution of their parenting duties, Shires has fielded more than her share of questions about how she balances motherhood and music-making. I laid hands upon the world. SHIRES: I mean OK Im going to call her up after this, too. I never wouldve thought that before, but now I know its true. And Tommy said, if you can hold down that lower third harmony and Id love to, you know, have that spot filled. Rock & roll kids just let decisions make themselves. If youre just joining us, my guest is songwriter, singer and musician Amanda Shires. As Delta Variant Spreads, Artists and Venues Scramble to Keep Concerts Safe (Rolling Stone), Live Nation Allows Artists to Require Vaccination or Proof of Negative Test Result for U.S. Concerts (Variety), This is a BETA experience. Her new album is called Take It Like A Man.. The Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and guitarist from Green Hill, Ala., made headlines in 2021 for requiring proof of vaccination or proof of a recent negative COVID test to attend his concerts. I wouldnt go back and change it. Shed been learning to play classical music on the violin at school when her music teacher introduced her to some of Frankie McWhorters fiddle tunes. I dont understand why its such a big issue, as big of an issue as it is. Other than that, I think were all right. Its an often-times divisive topic, and I dont want to bring any hurt to my family by doing something like putting out a song about this topic, but I lost all that fear when I got angry. I would have died had this procedure not been available to me. Its yet another thing that, when policing does happen, is going to happen haphazardly and ruin lives. While Shires might not have set out to make an album that reminds us of the power of women pursuing their own impulses, desires and ambitions with abandon, that perspective enlivens this bracing 10-song set. WebBEHIND THE SCENES with Amanda Shires | Backstage at the Ryman Presented by Nissan | Ryman Auditorium 11,820 views Jan 1, 2019 92 Dislike Share Ryman Auditorium Is a chrysalis a butterfly? And then it was never like, oh, they have to be on a record once I do record them. SHIRES: Oh, I would have had to find somebody to drive me to Mexico or somewhere else. And in this certain period of time, there was a lot. I like the way these lines kind of happened in our lives and like tributaries in a way that we dont realize are happening. And I said, OK, well, Ill be the healer. But I think folks forget that access to abortion and reproductive healthcare is not just about terminating unwanted pregnancy. And I remember the first time I sang ever, Leon Rausch had to hold my hand. I think she probably knew 100%, but.. You could say its all my fault. And if you want a doctor, Ill examine every inch of you. FRESH AIRs executive producer is Danny Miller. To keep the newness from wearing off, for every start theres gonna be a stop. And sometimes Tommy would show me stuff on guitar, like a melody to play, and then see if I could memorize it or retain it or whatever. Isbell said everyone attending the bands shows would also be required to wear a mask. The song is called Empty Cups.. Why werent you accepting it? On August 9, 2021 my fallopian tube ruptured. I dont have certain kinds of fatigue. And he said, try playing this one. SHIRES: No, not until a couple of years ago. And then coupled with the pandemic and all that, he was on self-preservation mode, and I was too. Is that right? You used to lean in like I was whispering, any excuse to get near again. GROSS: Well, thank you for doing that. Victoria is scheduled to open for Isbell on this tour. requiring proof of vaccination or proof of a recent negative COVID test, even facing backlash from his fellow artists, Buy newspaper front pages, posters and more. The election is November 8. A woman threw a house party with 65 men she matched with on Tinder and Hinge and connected with the man she's been dating for a year. Like, I know that in all of the searching that he did still believe that there was something bigger out there, so I dont have to go trying to learn all these other things. It was it took Dave Cobb and it took Brandi, and then it took Natalie and Maren Morris. He has since learned to tell the story of his recovery. We followed a coyote through the dust of Mexico. And he was there for 25 years. Im all for freedom, but I think if youre dead, you dont have any freedoms at all, Isbell said. We want to hear it. You can just say Im crazy. It goes, (singing) I woke up this morning, and I looked out my door. And the reason I think that my grandmother knew is because also lately, we found out that my moms oldest sister isnt doesnt have the same dad as her, as my granddad. But anyway, he just grabbed my hand and held it. In 2019, she founded a country music supergroup called The Highwomen alongside Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris and Natalie Hemby. My family left Honduras when they killed the Sandinistas. What happened between now and then? In 2020, The Highwomen won Album of the Year at the Americana Music Honors and Awards ceremony. And it took me back to the reason I came to writing and doing music in the first place, which is expression and trying to do something for me that could make me make sense, I guess. But this part of my life in our marriage was difficult. In 2016 there was 13% representation of women to men on country radio, and now it still sits pleasantly at 16% on a good week. On August 9, 2021 my fallopian tube ruptured. Yet, Isbell noted, the problem is that many of the venue owners are getting so much pushback from some of the governors of certain states who want to kowtow to their political base.. SHIRES: Ive listened to all of his records. 99.99%. GROSS: You know, youve said that a lot of the songs on this album come from a troubled period of your marriage to songwriter and singer Jason Isbell, who you perform with and who plays on this album. Elizaveta Porodina/Courtesy of the artist I was learning orchestra and classical music in school and privately. Chris Tompkins, a high school friend who has co-written mainstream country hits including Carrie Underwoods Before He Cheats and Florida Georgia Lines Get Your Shine On, says Isbell seemed on a different level even back when they were covering Stairway to Heaven together. Subscribe: http://bit.ly/1lq9aEQTour the Ryman: http://bit.ly/tourtherymanVisit the Ryman Calendar: http://bit.ly/rymanconcertsAbout the Ryman Auditorium:Established in 1982 as the Union Gospel Tabernacle and renamed for the visionary who constructed it, Captain Tom G. Ryman, the Ryman Auditorium is a National Historic Landmark and cultural epicenter of Nashville, TN. Which brings up the question, why were Jason and I, and Margo Price, the biggest celebrities quasi-celebrities at the march in Nashville? Im so glad you wrote it. I hope that if Roe v. Wade is overturned, it causes such a fucking uproar that we end up with more rights than we had before. We found music, and then being in the Shoals area just gave us an early look at all the places music can take you. The song is named "Parking Lot Pirouette" for its protagonist's graceful forwardness, her decisive movement to prolong a pleasurable dalliance. How are we going to police that? I could just trust based on how Leonard Cohen did all that work for us. Here's why. And if you want another kind of love, Ill wear a mask for you. So heres my guest, Amanda Shires, and Jason Isbell singing her song, The Problem.. I would have died; my daughter, Mercy, would have lost her mother; my husband, Jason, would be a widower. I had no problem taking direction, but and I had no problem helping when I needed to help, so. SHIRES: The audience really never went wild over me because it took me a minute to really learn how to improvise. But finding a voice now and sharing their stories now is as good as any time. Whereas before, I would just, in my mind, wish it was something different like Etta James or something. The Problem wraps up by driving home the weight of the decision for her character. Amanda Shires and Jason Isbell depict a couple having an honest, difficult conversation about abortion in the new song The Problem.. GROSS: I think its time for another break. I accept it now. And Natalie said, I want the one about preaching. And I was like, thats what I want to do, because you play this song. When youre trying to make a tough decision, you need a lot of support. And luckily, my teacher was one of those good and rare teachers that notices when you know, when a student needs a little more help. I got up to sing, and I was like, oh, crap. When it came down to it, when I finally got it done and recorded, Amy Coney Barrett had gotten sworn in. Being from Muscle Shoals is kind of like having a cool tattoo or something., After getting sober, writing and recording the new album felt more natural to me, says Isbell, lighting a cigarette as seagulls caw overhead. (In "Wasn't I Paying Attention," a tale of dramatically staged, small-town suicide, for example, the way she sings the word "attention" amplifies the narrator's unsettled state.) Ive listened to all of his records. Abortion Bans Are A Human Rights Crisis That Violate International Law, Groups Tell UN, Fallout As FIFA Appoints Supermodel Adriana Lima As Fan Ambassador Of Womens World Cup, SpaceX Rocket Launches Astronauts From U.S., Russia And UAE To International Space Station, Teslas Investor Day Is Long On Time, Short On Useful New Details, Biden Not Confident Supreme Court Will Uphold Student Debt Cancellation, RFK Killer Sirhan Sirhan Denied Parole For 16th TimeReversing 2021 Decision, Scott Adams Undoing: A Timeline Of The Dilbert Cartoonists Fall From Grace, New Warning About Zero-Calorie Sugar Substitute: What Experts Are Saying About Erythritol, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Could Face Subpoena To Testify Before Congress, Bernie Sanders Says, Republican Sen. Mike Lees Twitter Account Briefly SuspendedAnd Its Not Clear Why, Saudi Investment Chief Ordered To Appear In Court As PGA-LIV Golf Legal Drama Heats Up, 2023 Layoff Tracker: Alphabets Waymo Self-Driving Unit Cuts Over 130 Employees, Reports Say, Havana Syndrome Likely Wasnt Caused By Foreign Adversary, Intelligence Report Finds, Women Still Make 82 Cents On The Dollar Compared To Men, Study Finds, Alex Murdaugh Murder Trial Jurors Make Rare Visit To South Carolina Crime Scene, Will Santos Be Expelled From Congress? And then I thought about Waylon [Jennings] and Kris [Kristofferson] and them of The Highwaymen, and I was like, They were kind of speaking about ageism. I said, Itd be cool if I had a band, The Highwomen. Then I told my friend Dave Cobb about my idea and he really liked it and he said, Im going to have you meet Brandi Carlile. And we met. Like, dont cry; dont show your emotions; be stoic; be strong; everything else is weakness. You can call it serious trouble cause thats what I want. I just feel like that invites a lot of conversation and questions, you know, into our marriage and our relationship. Fully renovated in 1994, the Ryman has never been more vibrant, attracting entertainers and fans from around the globe to enjoy its now legendary acoustics and rich history.Connect with the Ryman Auditorium:Like the Ryman Auditorium on FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/rymanfbCheck out the Ryman Auditorium on INSTAGRAM: ttp://bit.ly/RymanInstagram Follow the Ryman Auditorium on TWITTER: http://bit.ly/tweettherymanBEHIND THE SCENES with Amanda Shires | Backstage at the Ryman | Ryman Auditoriumhttp://www.youtube.com/user/RymanAuditorium#AmandaShires, #Ryman, #TheHighwomen, #RymanAuditorium, #BackstageattheRyman As they talked, For my children, I did what I had to do. Yeah without you asking. So since they are personal songs, you had to decide to say that. If you see my milk cow, please drive her on home cause I had no milk and butter no since my cows been gone. And you got your start professionally at age 15 playing fiddle with the Texas Playboys. Im glad to be a listener and also glad to see folks from those generations supporting the right to choose. How did you manage to do that? Im a big, big fan. I believe thats when that that became not an option. I remember I used to think the force was strong with him, says Tompkins, who signed his first publishing deal when he moved to Nashville at 22. Is there a song that you could play a Leonard Cohen song you could play an excerpt of for us in tribute to him since were both such great fans? Also, during this time when I was leaving, I was thinking about how Mercy was you know, picked up a kazoo, and she could play a kazoo. Amanda Shires has become a coveted presence at the intersection of nervy artistry and activism, folk and country acclaim, rock attitude and Nashville influence. GROSS: Were you nervous about being on stage or just about singing? GROSS: Amanda Shires, how did you decide you wanted to write a song about abortion? Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. On August 10, my life was savedthese are some dark days.. It was there I found, beside the Alamo, enchantment, strange as the blue up above. Having recently moved to Nashville with Shires whose own fourth solo album, Down Fell the Doves, comes out next week the newlyweds will sequester themselves in different corners of the house to write new songs, then play them for each other. I just fell in love with the music, is what happened. OK. And he married my grandmother. Amanda Shires opens her new album To the Sunset with a strikingly different scenario. GROSS: What would the right voice for you like, whats wrong what doesnt match? But they took me seriously, but they also knew the seriousness and the impact of the help that they were giving me. SHIRES: Theres a medication that you cant take right now after, you know, about two weeks after this happened to me. Amanda Shires. Amanda Shires (born March 5, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter and violin player. She has performed as a member of the Texas Playboys, Thrift Store Cowboys and Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, as well as in a duo with Rod Picott. Shires has released six solo albums, her most recent To The Sunset on the Silver Knife label in 2018. Its not competition, Isbell makes clear with a chuckle. And her latest album is called Take It Like A Man. Well be right back after a short break. My best hope is that people continue to get angrier and that the folks who have been fighting so hard for so long, and are already tired, find some strength to keep fighting and also to mobilize others, especially youth, along the way. Boosted and very grateful for it., When a fan asked how his wife Amanda Shires and their daughter are feeling, Isbell answered, Mercy is negative with no symptoms and Amanda didnt come with me on this run, shes negative at home. One is a Honduran asylum-seeker who died while trying to cross the border. SHIRES: Oh, yes, Mercy is my daughter. I could just trust based on how Leonard Cohen did all that work for us. While the idea was mine, it wasnt only me that made this Highwomen be a thing. Refunds at point of purchase but were working on rescheduling. If writing came easier sober, playing live was terrifying at first, he says. GROSS: Oh, thats great. You may opt-out by, U.S. And I thought if Im going to get any rest, Im going to have to do something about this. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. Shires has an MFA in poetry, and she's exacting in her use of imagery to portray sensuality as a force both internal and physical. Because thats not how I go into songwriting. Me and @JasonIsbell RCA studio B making a musical recording. (SOUNDBITE OF AMANDA SHIRES SONG, HAWK FOR THE DOVE), GROSS: Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Trending Got myself a breakthrough case of Covid, the Alabama-born artist tweeted Tuesday. Tommy Duncan was the singer. Shires, an incisive songwriter and solo artist and occasional member of husband Jason Isbells 400 Unit band, has been vocal about protecting a womans right to choose in the past. SHIRES: Well, that was that parts a secret, Terry. Is there a song that youd like to do? I said, itd be cool if I was The Highwomen or maybe had a band The Highwomen. So when I would write the songs, I dont know whats going to come out, but sometimes, it was so I was just so down that the only way I could get better was to take it out on writing a song. Can you play something that you think kind of epitomizes the style that you learned and fell in love with? And I got awarded a scholarship to be able to go to those. And then more recently, just about a year ago, in August of 2021, you had an ectopic pregnancy. You can keep the car and the house. Were you in Texas at the time? After trailing off there, she draws a thorny conclusion about the web of intimate, familial dependency: "Maybe being human is an orphaned condition and what's missing isn't what should be found. Sign up for Rolling Stones Newsletter. Shires character wrestles with the decision and the right thing to do in her situation, while Isbells character offers his support for whatever decision she makes. SHIRES: Thats well, see, Im accepting that it sounds like its supposed to now. GROSS: The bail bondsmen are often their offices are often located in a very low-rent part of town. SHIRES: Honestly, a lot of times, my thoughts come to me just in pictures. You know, its Jimmy Webbs song originally, but. I heard in 22 songs, one womans voice I heard. And these guys are in their 70s and 80s, and it was very much like hanging out with lots of granddads. Thank you for performing for us. I am Terry Gross. GROSS: What I hear in your voice is that it rings out. And then I thought about Waylon and Kris and them of The Highwaymen, and I was like, they were kind of speaking about ageism. And we had a TV that wed watch, you know, Saturday Night Live on Saturdays. They might not have had a voice before or might have been cast out into the streets without any place to sleep had they mentioned it earlier in their lives. I cant see a thing from here. Probably nobody enjoys it as much as I do, but its not a necessity for survival. She performs in several settings and has received awards in each of them. Jason Isbell performs in Gulf Shores, Alabama. She has performed as a member of the Texas Playboys, Thrift Store Cowboys, and Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, as well as in a duo with Rod Picott. And we would be quiet so that she wouldnt get in trouble because it was a lot then to be a single mom and deal with the difference in pay for men versus women. GROSS: Whoa. In my case, I blame the education system, but I didnt even know what an ectopic pregnancy was. 1,286 talking about this. SHIRES: Thank you so much. I know I can take it like a man. My daughter was about a year old, and I was getting into my touring van because I hadnt worked my way into a bus yet. When the band step back from their microphones to begin the extended breakdown, Isbell smiles like a boy on a great adventure. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. They all feel good, he says of making records, and they all feel really bad when youre working, simultaneously.. They arent helping. SHIRES: I just I have never been a fan of the way my voice sounds. We have to work hard now to mobilize and help people vote. Cancelling shows feels awful, I know. AL.com spoke to Isbell last September about when he decided implementing these COVID restrictions at his shows was the right thing to do, how this stance has affected the relationship with some of his fans, what its like to finally hit the road and play again and what it will take for Alabama to have a change of heart on getting vaccinated. I recorded my interview with her last week. It took Dave Cobb and it took Brandi and then it took Natalie [Hemby] and Maren Morris. And she came over and I showed her. GROSS: Was this your mothers father or your fathers father? Fellow singer/songwriter Aimee Mann tweeted well wishes to Isbell: Im so sorry. Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. Theres a lot of things you do with your hands, but it struck me the most is matching the feeling of desperation or even begging. For the past decade or so, Amanda Shires has sung about the dark shades of relationships lapsed communication, broken trust, fading intimacy with a devastating eye for detail. My daughter was about a year old, and I was getting into my touring van because I hadnt worked my way into a bus yet. The singer, songwriter and fiddler found comfort with an unexpected collaborator and plumbed new depths on her latest album, Take It Like a Man. Amanda Amanda Shires and Jason Isbell depict a couple having an honest, difficult conversation about abortion in the new song The Problem. The tracks release coincides with International Safe Abortion Day and proceeds from its sales will go to the Yellowhammer Fund, a reproductive justice organization based in Alabama. And as it happened, eventually the auxiliary cable quit working in the van so I was left to the radio choices of sports ball and Top 40 country music. And because of that, I felt like we should make it something thats as safe as it can possibly be. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Kitty Eisele adapted it for the web. But through the process of making the record and, you know, all the things that go with that, the hours and the tedium, it got easier for us to have conversations, not because we were doing the work of addressing the problems but because we were found common ground on something again, which has always been music and words. GROSS: Without him asking? I was like, Thats what I want to do, because you play this song and then you get to improvise you just play what you feel within the chord. During the #MeToo moment, much emphasis has been rightly placed on the need for women to guard themselves against the unrestrained appetites of male perpetrators. And how come you didnt know before? Curled up on the floor with it all. How Trump's Team Conned Susan Collins Into Dooming Roe v. Wade, Add Abortion to the List of Things Republicans Are Blaming for Uvalde, Want to Know What Politics Looks Like After Roe? You dont see a lot of men speaking up, and every voice is helpful. So I started just taking notes on the radio because I heard it. Lawrence Rothman has been a model of self accepting themselves. I mean, only just now nine months later, interestingly enough have I returned to having normal periods. Do you think you would have been able to have the surgery if abortion had already been banned in Texas? Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (each updated 1/26/2023). SHIRES: I didnt know anything about them. When she paints a picture of motherhood in the subdued jangle-pop number "Charms," she doesn't dwell on its oft-idealized and sentimentalized facets. BRANDI CARLILE: (Singing) I was a Highwoman and a mother from my youth. Shires started playing fiddle professionally when she was 15 with the band the Texas Playboys, which used to be led by Bob Wills, the father of Western Swing. If you want a driver, climb inside or only want to take me for a ride, you know you can. However, Rapinos memo notes that Live Nation and artists can only make vaccines a requirement where permitted by law. Artists performing at government-operated venues in states where lawmakers have prohibited vaccine mandates will be prohibited from enforcing such measures. Teaching himself to hear his own songs objectively has been one of the harder lessons to learn, he says: Its impossible to get that distance for me. And I know I can take it like a man. And then she wanted to know if it was real, so she hired a private investigator and all this.
Is Rick Tocchet Married, Farewell Plaque Wording, Safe Grabs Net Worth 2021, Puerto Rican Singers Female, Cheers Furniture Parts, Articles A