The Bobby Bones Show - How the beauty and grace of musician Amanda Shires led her to success.

Episode Date: June 9, 2023

The multi-talented Amanda Shires is our guest on Takin A Walk-Music History on foot.She talks about her career influences and her passion for her craft.How the beauty and grace of musician Amanda Shires led her to successMusic is an integral part of human culture. We use it in genres, ways of life, and for many purposes. Music also evokes memories, creates moods, and has the ability to change lives. Actually, music is one of the most influential forces in the world, affecting our minds, our bodies, and even our clothing. It can help you feel a certain way, give you an idea or insight you might not have otherwise considered, and subtly change your mood. Learn more in this conversation as Amanda Shires joins us.Amanda is a singer, songwriter, poet, and fiddle-playing Texan. In addition to her solo career, she performed with Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit and founded The Highwomen, a collaborative effort with Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, and Natalie Hemby.In this episode, Amanda shares about her musical career, the support of her parents, the people she worked with, and how her career has progressed. Listen as she shares tips and insights into success in the entertainment world.Tune in!Key Highlights from the Show;[00:01] Episode intro with Amanda Shires and a chat about her place of residence[03:08] Amanda’s flashback on the day she asked his father for her first musical instrument[07:51] Playing with the Texas Playboys band at the age of fifteen[15:28] Other influential people that inspired his musical career[17:25] Amanda’s attraction to Leonard Cohen and a union that was never successful[21:03] Where she got the idea of “play like it’s your last time.”[23:56] Amanda’s first encounter with John Prine[32:16] Know more about Amanda’s signature project-the HighWoman band[42:19] Are we expecting another HighWomen album?[44:28] How she operated during the Covid pandemic[48:22] The importance of music, what it does, and why it’s so much part of our lives[53:42] Ending the show and call to actionNotable quotesMusic plays a key role in your emotional wellness in times of distress.Gravitate towards real people who have real stories from experience, and you will never go wrong.Connect With Amanda ShiresWebsite: https://amandashiresmusic.com/Wikipedia Profile: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_ShiresFacebook: https://web.facebook.com/AmandaShiresMusic/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amandapearlshires/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH2bj8PyLGgwEhtr55CUzUwLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. On a recent episode of the podcast, Money and Wealth with John Hope Bryant, I sit down with Tiffany the budgetista Aliche to talk about what it really takes to take control of your money. What would that look like in our families if everyone was able to pass on wealth to the people when they're no longer here? We break down budgeting, financial discipline, and how to build real wealth, starting with the mindset shifts. Too many of us were never, ever,

If you've ever felt you didn't get the memo on money, this conversation is for you to hear more. Listen to Money and Wealth with John Hope Bryant from the Black Effect Network on the I'd Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of IHeart Media, and I'm kicking off a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Magic, stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. Math and Magic takes you behind the scenes of the biggest businesses and industries while sharing insights from, the smartest minds in marketing. Coming up this seasonal math and magic, CEO of Liquid Death, Mike Cesario. People think that creative ideas are like

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And the podcast, Eating While Broke, is bringing real conversations about money, growth, and building your future. This month, hear from top streamer, Zoe Spencer, and venture capitalist Lakeisha Landrum Pierre, as they share their journeys from starting out to leveling up. There's an economic component to communities thriving. If there's not enough money and entrepreneurship happening in communities, they fail. Listen to Eating While Broke from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey there, folks, Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes here. And we know there is a lot of news coming at you these days from the war with Iran to the ongoing Epstein fallout, government shutdowns, high-profile trials. And what the hell is that Blake lively thing about anyway? We are on it every day, all day. Follow us, Amy and T.J for news updates throughout the day.

Listen to Amy and T.J. on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. This is Buzz Night. I host the Take and a Walk. music history on foot podcast. Find us on all the podcast platforms and also you can go to our website at taken a walk.com. You could not only hear all the episodes, but you can also read the transcripts. You can leave us suggestions or feedback as well. On this Taken a Walk classic replay, let's go back to November 29th, 2022. We're just outside of Nashville, Tennessee to meet up with the amazing, awesome Amanda Shire's. talented singer-songwriter, incredible fiddle player. I remember that afternoon so well when our

plan walk was disrupted due to a thunderstorm, and you could hear the storm rumbling in the background as we're talking inside Amanda's barn. What a great afternoon it was. Stories of John Prime, Leonard Cohen, and her creative process. We'll welcome Amanda Shires next on Taking a Walk. Well, Amanda Shires, it's so nice to be with you, sort of taking a walk. We took a walk from the cars to the barn. We had a plan, but Mother Nature had its way. Yep, or one of those other gods. But we're okay.

We're inside your beautiful surroundings here, you call this. The barn of internal wandering. and why that? I think for me, part of the way my process works is that I don't try to get in the way of that part of the brain that needs to find its own way or do its own thing when you're creating. So if I wake up in the morning and I do my

I do TM, so after I do my transcendental meditation, I'll come out here and do at least five minutes of writing or 20 or however long it feels like going and then I'll be told or led to record or paint or practice or play Miss Pac-Man or go grocery shopping if I have to or garden. But every day is sort of this, let's see where it rolls. Yeah, on the days when I don't have, you know, familial obligations. Which is many days.

Well, I do. Well, I do, but I don't, you know, to balance and to be. well I find that no amount of good parenting makes up for an unhappy mother so I find that balance is super important like I do the job of mothering and I have to sort of set boundaries to make sure I don't just do that all day yeah

because it could be a day long it could be a whole day long event yeah and sometimes those days happen especially on the weekends and things like that those are definitely all for Mercy and Jason but we all have to maintain our own identities first before we could be other identities for others. So can you take us back to that moment

when you knew that you wanted to ask your dad to buy that first instrument? Yeah, it would seem random except for it wasn't random. My dad had a relationship, a good relationship with this guy named A.D. Garrett Who owned A.D. Garrett's pawn shop in mineral wells, Texas. At that time, the population was 1-4-348. And it was kind of the place where you went and traded guns or knives or, you know,

instruments or, you know, all kinds of things were bought and sold there. But he went in there specifically for a new knife for, he hunts deer with bow and arrow and stuff. But, you know, at that time, we, ate deer and squirrel and stuff. Poor folks is what I'm describing. And he needed a knife, and he went in there to get a new one because he had broke his somehow. And I saw it hanging on the wall, and I just looked at it. I walked around some, tried to feign interest in knives, and I just stood there, and then the smart salesman, the A.D. Garrett was, saw me looking at the fiddle and came and got it down for me. And then after my dad picked out his knife,

he came to get me in, and I was by that time begging for the fiddle. And I just, I just didn't know why or how it worked or anything. I just, and it was about as high up as that little little electric ukulele right there. And I just had to have it. And then my dad was like, no, I don't have that kind of money. It was $60. And then AD was like, well, you could take it home and just come back and pay me as you get it. And my dad was like, geez, okay.

And he said, you have to swear to me you're going to learn it, because I don't know this, I don't have this kind of money. And then I took it, took it back to his house and broke all the strings. And after the summer I was over, I took it home to my mom, and she enrolled me in the school orchestra. And then after that, my teacher recommended that I have private lessons. And then my private lessons teacher decided that I also needed to learn fiddle. And when he showed me Spanish Two-Step, that's when I decided I was going to be a fiddle player.

And I went to my mom's car and said, I'm a fiddle player now. And she said, as long as you maintain your classical and your orchestra learning, you can also learn fiddle. And I said, okay. And that's all that got started. That was the beginning of everything, right? You were stuck. Yeah, I don't, I try to think about why that happens. And the thunder agrees.

It's accenting my words here. And by the way, people like on this podcast the sounds. So we don't, they like... I mean, we can go out closer to it if you want. There's a bar right there and there's some birds that won't be flying. I'm very comfortable right now. Okay, cool. Awesome. Yeah, that was...

I think about it sometimes and I think, you know, there's a lot going on in my childhood and stuff at that time. and being nine and eight and nine years old, you don't really have, or we didn't have, the kind of language that we would need to teach kids, or, you know, my parents were young when they had me. They didn't have the language to even verbalize their own emotions, much less teach me how to do it.

So I had no vocabulary or no means of which to even talk about my feelings. and I think by divine intervention it was put on me to learn the insurmountable chore of what it is to play the fiddle. Did you ever doubt that you would figure it out? No, I didn't doubt I would figure it out. I knew that if anything, the worst thing could happen would be I'd be the worst in the class, but I'd still be doing something I liked, you know, or maybe I'd, not be the best one in the world, but I'd still be doing something I loved.

And then during that learning, I figured out that music helped me best when it came to expression. And that kind of helps you daily when you're going through anything, how to get the motions off yourself and figure it out. So then you're 15 years old, and you end up playing with this incredible band, the Texas playboys. Well, it wasn't quite as simple as that. I, not only to, okay, I'll start from the beginning. So in my lessons, with my violin teacher privately,

Lanny Field was noticing that I was only drawn to certain types of passages, and I would be, I would excel as certain very difficult passages, and the rest I was bored and doing poorly. You know, he said, why don't you play this, part as well as you do the other parts. I said, that doesn't interest me. And he was like, well, if you do it, you know, or when you do it, I will also show you something that I've been learning, and it's fiddle. And he was actually in the process of transcribing, actually have it here

randomly. Hold on, one second. He was in the process of transcribing old fiddle tombs from Frankie McCorder and taking him from learning him, learning them by ear, like all the parts from Frankie McCorder, who I eventually learned fiddle from two years later. I'm getting to that. Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. Kind of a lot to talk about all at once, isn't it? It's awesome.

So, Lanny was learning fiddle from Frankie, and Frankie learned from Eck Robertson, the first recorded fiddle player, 1926, and somewhere in Texas, so I think that's the right year. And, anyway, so it's

like Eck, Frankie, than me and Lanny were learning from them. But it wasn't stuff you could read on the paper, and this is what I've been studying, this reading music and classical. And so he was transcribing it so that it wouldn't get lost in the shuffle of time. Right.

And I put it on the first song I learned. And he showed me this song, and it was this song where I ran out to the card and said, I'm a fiddle player, Mom. This song, Spanish Two-Step, the Bob Will's song. And I just loved it. And it's Frankie's arrangement, but you know it's a Bob Wilson. And so he showed it to me.

And then he showed me the work he was doing and transcribing and learning from Frankie McQuarter, who played with the Playboys, who was a foreman of the Jay Abrams Ranch in Lipscomb, Texas, which is just a few miles away from Turkey, Texas. And actually, more turkeys live in Lipscomb than people. That's really funny. And incidentally, Frankie's dog was Hank, the cow dog. Oh, okay. the actual one.

And do you know Hank the Cowdog book? No. Well, there's a series of books. And this wonderful writer wrote these Hank the Cowdog children's books that I had heard of. And I thought it was the coolest thing. Frankie's actual dog was Hank the Cowdog. Oh, shit. So I eventually, after becoming very interested, decided to tell Lanny that I was going to help him, you know, with all this.

and play music with him and Frankie and I was going to learn by year two and all this so my mom would drive me down there to Frankie and through Frankie and Lanny I met Tommy Alsup who was in charge of the Texas Playboys at that time and he was at one time in the Buddy Holly band he was the bass player

no he was a guitar player Waylon was a bass player in that band right yeah and Tommy Alsup was a fantastic producer and human and lots of lore exists about Tommy Alsup. He was the guy that flipped the coin with Richie Valens. And he had a lot of long history. He had Liberty Records.

And there are all kinds of fantastic stuff. But anyway, so through Lenny and Frankie, I met Tommy, and that's how I wound up with the Texas Playboys. They were all in their 70s and 80s during this time. And sometimes not all the fiddle players could make it. Sometimes people passed away. And I found myself in the lucky position of, of being in the group.

And all I had to do was be willing to play any of these parts in the event that somebody didn't show up. So I memorized all the parts first, the melody and the harmony and the low harmony. And most of the time I got stuck on the low harmony. And I was happy with that. And eventually they had me learning to improvise. And then I sang for the first time, which was a disaster.

And, yeah, they're my best friends. I compare everything to that experience. Now, why was that first singing experience a disaster? Oh, my God. Luckily, they were all my friends. It was like having seven grandads is what it was like. So we had talked about it, and I was going to sing, because I could sing harmony, and so they were like,

you should take lead at the Christmas show. And I was like, okay, I'll try. And we practiced it, you know, ran through it once. It was all great. The show comes around, and I stand up there to sing a little walk with you Sure Would Go Good, which is the first line of the song, Sure Would Go Good, the song that I first chose to sing. And, you know, we played the part, do-do, do-do, do-to-do, the little intro. And then I go up there and nothing came out. And I was like, oh, no, this is the worst. This is terrible.

And I have a picture of it. And my friend Shelby was there with me. and she took the picture, but they're all just cracking up looking down, and I'm like, oh, my God, what is happening? And then they don't stop playing, so I've learned a lot of things from them about when things happen on stage or not, they don't go right in what you do and don't do. You don't have to stop the whole song and make a big deal. So they turned it around again, and during that time, Leon Rosh, the singer of the band,

grabbed my hand, and he said, I'm going to hold your hand, and I'm going to sing it right here in this invisible microphone, while you sing it on the real microphone. And I was like, okay. And it was very wavery and terrible, I think, in my mind's eye, my memory. But I got through it. And I think that probably what got me is the fear that comes along with, you know, staying in front of a bunch of people and there's lights on you.

And that goes back to somewhere primal that makes you feel like, oh, I better run. You know, this is flight or fight or fight here. I'd better run. seems unnatural. I don't know what it was, but I was terrified. And after that, it started getting a little easier with the lead singing, but not much. It took some time. But it was a defining moment. Oh, it was, definitely. And the problem is, is that when somebody asked me to do something and I say, yes, I was, you know, my granddad drilled that into me and my dad more than anything, more than any other thing. Like, if you say you're going to do something, you do it.

If you say you're going to be somewhere at a certain time, you'd be there at a certain time. And I don't know why that seems to be so important to me, but I'd do it. And I'd told them I would do it, so I carried on. I'd say you did. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes I wonder why I say yes to things, but it's okay. I hope you're not second-guessing this interview. No, sometimes I don't think too hard, and that's like instinctive yes or no answers.

I'm like, shy to take more time and just think things through. So who were those other influences as you were growing into the business that were musical influences on you? The best ones, you know, I didn't have any kind of heartbreak in music until I was much older. The first songwriter that I fell in love with was Cindy Walker and I got to play for her 70th birthday party and become friends with her. and the first side person I ever saw that was a woman was Bobby Nelson and I recently, me and my friend Lawrence Rothman, a producer

we both produced a record on her before she passed away and we're almost done with it and it's beautiful. There's a song she wrote on it. I don't know if you're familiar with her work, but she taught Willie Nelson's brother, I mean sister, and she taught him most everything he knows about music and she was in his band and then she wasn't for a minute because they called her an unfit mother for doing that

and then, you know, went back to work and became what society calls a fit mother and and demoed him and B3 organs the one they came out and all that and then returned to his band later until the end there

and she was always playing the piano wearing the black hat and I did a we did that record on her. It came out great. She even has a song on it she wrote. Sorry, my ringer was going off. It's not a real cat. I find the alarms on phones very alarming, so I have mine on a cat sound. That's good. I like that better. I don't have a cat. I have a cat sound. You have a cat sound, do you do you? Yeah.

So you're, but the influences that you have, I find so remarkable, you are across so many different generations and types of styles. And one of the people I'm fascinated by that I know you're fascinated with is Leonard Cohen. When did that attraction occur? Oh, my goodness. Okay, so I was working at the record store in Lubbock, Texas. Because, you know, I'm a heart.

Like, this thing about the people that I meet and feel close to, I think, has a lot to do with how I was raised. So anyway, all that to say, kind of gravitate to people with real stories and real life experience. And I think I learned a lot of that from my granddad. And then my work ethic is also been bred into me from both sides. My dad's side and my mom's, my granddad was a cotton picker before he became a nurseryman, a man that grows plants and greenhouses and things. And I had pecan orchards and peach orchards, and we'd have to pick things and sell them.

But I have a work ethic, and I always feel funny if I'm not working. So when I wasn't playing with the Playboys or doing schoolwork, I would work at the record store. And this guy I was working with named Jake, all he would play was Fugazi. And I don't know if you've ever heard that, but let me just tell you, I can put up with a lot of things for a long time, but two weeks of Fugazi will drive anyone bonkers. I mean, I lost my patient. and I said, this is it. This is it.

I don't care that you're six, seven, and you weigh 300 pounds. I'm not putting up with this anymore. And he said, when the last song's over, if you don't have a record on it, it's going to be the next Fugazi record. And I ran as fast as I could to the aisle where I'd been staring

at this Laird-Cohen record. I'd never heard it or anything. I just, the picture, once again, or the look of it, looked interesting. The eyes, it was something about the eyes. And I put it on. And he was like, oh, I love Leonard Cohen.

And I was like, well, hell, yes, this is a win. I was like, who's Leonard Cohen? And then the record was playing, and then I was like, who is Leonard Cohen? So I took Leonard Cohen home with me in record form and dove in and found that a lot of our, you know, by reading and watching every documentary and interview and finding every kind of bootlegs. that I could have interviews and everything within the business that I could get my hands on. I feel like a kinship and I feel like a lot of things about, you know, him and me align,

and that we would have been a perfect couple had he not died. Yeah, no kidding. We would have been married. He would have finally found his wife. You know, he never got married because it was always supposed to be me. So you never got to come to the opportunity to meet him. No, I didn't. Would you have been in awe?

Would you have been too in awe to run into him? No, no, no. But I have met his band members and managers and all kinds of people. I found his coat hanger once, and I kept it. Still have it. It was at a club that he had left it behind on accident, so I kept it. I'd never met him, but I think that I would be comfortable just sitting there, not saying anything, and I think that he would be too.

Since he's not here to disagree, he will have to just assume that's true. Yes, yeah, exactly, exactly, exactly. Where did you get the notion that I know is important to you of play it like it's the last time you'll ever play it? That's Texas Playboys. That was from the Texas Playboys. Yeah, they also said if you're not proud of it, don't do it, Frankie specifically. play it like it's the last time you're ever going to play it because you don't get you don't it's easy to walk through things like you've done it because you've done it a few times it's easy to

think oh i'm going to play this song i play it every day but that's that's not how that's not the spirit of music you know for the real connection with people you've got to be in the song and you've got to mean it and as bobby kofer the steel player would say he got to sell it But that's a metaphor for how you live your life, isn't it really? Oh, definitely. And I think that has something to do with them coming in and me learning in my early development because, you know, my frontal lobe wasn't developed until I was like 24 or 25. So a lot of the things that they told me and taught me still stick with me to this day.

Like I could show everybody in any room where their tire pressure sticker is and how to make sure their tires are good and ready for the trip to, Lipscomb, Texas. Yeah, I can look at them and tell you. Yeah, I do live my life like that, you know. It's important. You realize that as you get older, but I also think that I realized that a lot

when I was young because my friends were very old. And you didn't just look at them as old. You look at them as wise. I didn't even really notice their age. by the way they acted you know a couple of them had many girlfriends and and I didn't say boo about it because it was understood you don't you know they were gentlemen about it the couple of them that did I do remember walking out of the hotel my hotel room wants to go to breakfast at the hotel lobby and one of

the Texas playboys was a little escorted a lady to her car and I was like I did not know that she was gonna be here all night interesting wonder what she thinks about that then I was like I'm not gonna anything and he looked at me and he said breakfast and I said yeah it was awesome but you know it was I didn't see them as old or anything they were very witty and um most of them had had great retention there was there in wonderful stories and they had you know their inner band stories and jokes and all that and it was very fun and um yeah I didn't see them as old, but I did start seeing them as old

when they started passing away. But they're still in your heart? Oh yeah, and we've still, we've got this music here. They're not gone forever. The music's still there. So when did you first encounter John Prine? Well, to know when I first heard him, it's hard

to say. I think everybody's heard him their whole lives, but it was on this, it was three days before this picture was taken. Interesting, you're asking about the things I have pictures of. So three days before this picture, I got to play my first shows with John Prime opening and then joining his band. And on the, he, he had me for three shows to try it out, you know. I was like, we're going to just have you open three shows, see how that goes. And so I went and

open the three shows and I was driving a Ford O'Connell line van, you know, and I dress up for the shows, but for long drives, I find that pointless. And so I was wearing this onesie that I found at the Target, and my friend Kelly was wearing her little leopard one, and my bass player was wearing a matching one like mine. And I got to the sound check. There was a long drive between one of these shows, and I was still in it because I didn't have time to change for soundcheck, and he had just finished his sound check. And he said, man, if they had one of those.

and a sock monkey, I'd wear it. I said, really? And I said, are you serious? Because you know, $26 is a lot of money. And if I'm going to find a if I find one there's a sock monkey, you better wear it. And then he said, if there was, I would. And on the last

day of, the last day of those three shows, I got him some white wine, because I heard he liked that, and I made him a parting gift, and then it was a sock monkey onesie. and before I went to do my set I put it in his dressing room

and then during my set he came to the wings of the stage wearing it and I was like what the hell this happened like I lost all of sense of what was happening and I was like John Prind's in a sock monkey outfit and he was in the wings he just walked off nobody believed me

and this is this is oh he had took the top down I have another picture where he's still wearing it and and I took that little Polaroid that day and he signed it. And that was our first experience together. And then

he called me to do more shows and then I toured all over Europe and the UK and Canada and you know all those places and New Brunswick

and New Brunswick and all the places I toured around with them. I only A lot of the times he would drive his own car, a rental car, and so I'd ride with him a lot, and overseas we'd take, you know, little planes here and there and drive some, but not really. Trains, we did mostly trains and flights over there, and we'd always sit together and hang out together and talk, and, yeah, we were just really good friends, and talked a lot about rhyming,

because I was finishing up my master's thesis in poetry when I was. I was on that last tour with him. And he was like, how are you doing this if you don't have any books? And I said, oh, I have my rhyming dictionary on my computer. I have all this different. I have these apps. And then he was like, you could get a rhyming dictionary on your phone. And he was like, can you do that to mine?

And I was like, yeah. And he was like, here, you can have all these books. I was like, you carry those around. But so then we started talking about that. And then we started talking about, you know, the little tools we use rhyming and all that. This is not just one conversation. That's where it started becoming like,

it was during Tree of Forgiveness, and we were, that end part where he's talking about the syphilitic critics and all that at the end. That's when we were on the plane, just seeing how far we could take the rhyme. Right. Yeah. And that was without the app because we were in the air

and we couldn't download it, which I did save him the trouble and download it for him later when we landed, but we started talking a lot about rhyme and showing each other's songs and early form and stages too, and then I got to see how he did it and how he worked. And I didn't take that lightly, you know, and I asked him questions, knowing he'd give me real answers, and he did, and I feel like I learned a lot of things from him, you know. I used to try and avoid the dead-on rhymes, and he said, it's a song.

How else are they going to remember it if you're doing near rhymes so, much. They're not going to remember the words. And I was like, you're right. And I said, well, then how am I going to make it different? And he was like, well, you've got to put the details in there, the details of the story and all. That's what makes it different to the experience of another. And he said, also, you're a

different person than the other songwriter. So it's always going to be different. And everybody's bringing their own experiences and their own take on the world to a song. And that's why another room are the same, you know? You made a deal with him when he wanted

you to go out on the road, didn't you, about a particular song? Can you talk about that? Two songs. Two, yeah. I told him, he called, and he was like, can you do this? Europe, run with me. It's about six weeks, almost seven, really. And I said, I don't know.

And it was during Easter, too, which at that time was Mercy's favorite holiday, my daughter. And she loved it because she liked to find things and also eat candy. that's what you do when you're two and three you love Easter because you like to eat candy and go on scavenger hunts digging in bushes anyway it's fun it's fun you know with motherhood you get a fresh look on what childhood really looks like that you didn't see in your own experience

and that can be helpful but all that to say I said I don't know John that's a long time to be gone you know from my family I mean his mercy and later grow up and be like you weren't here with me on Easter and all this kind of stuff

and he said she probably won't remember that at all he said I really need you to go on tour and I was like okay and he said well it'll be double duty you'll be opening the show and then joining me for the whole duration of the music and I said well you know there's only one thing I'm good at John

and that's music so I can do that but but I don't know and I was like what's it pay? He was like, you know, normal pay. And I was like, well, we've got to put something else in there. And he said, well, what do you want? And I said, well, I'll do it. But only if you bring two songs into the set.

It has to be these two songs. And he said, I bet I could do that. What songs are they? Are they my songs? And he was like, yeah, of course they're your songs. What am I going to do? Say play a Leonard Cohen song? And I said, first, we got to bring back clocks and spoons. And he's like, I don't know about that. I feel like that song is too sad for me at this point in my life. And I was like, well, it's your song.

Can't you just make it less sad? And he said, I think about that. And I said, the other song is Saddle in the Rain. I love playing that song. And he said, okay, yeah, we can play Saddle in the Rain. And then I printed the words out to clocks and spoons. And I have it in my office. And I showed it to him.

I was like, what part of it said. And he said that part about, shoot the moon right between the eyes, I'm screaming. And he said something about when he wrote that, he was in a different place than he was now, because as life happens with the good and the bad, it's all beautiful. And he said, I'm going to change that to singing. And I said, are we doing it? He said, we're going to do it. And so we did both of them.

And when we played it live from then on, we'd sing. We'd sing, shoot the moon right between the eyes I'm singing. That's awesome. So this little band that you spearheaded called The High Women, congratulations on that. Well, thank you. Thank you. It started out as a tiny idea I had in 2016 when I went on tour with John Pryne and then my own solo tours.

What an amazing triumph. and had you known your other collaborators on the high women before? No, only in passing. I met Marion when she was young, like about 12 or 13. We were playing at a festival. I was playing fiddle. I'd been playing with Billy Joe Shaver, and I saw her mom dragging her around the campfires and singing.

And she had an incredible voice. Then, you know, she's a Texan, so I'd heard she moved to town at some point. but I was touring with between writing songs and waiting tables to pay for the recordings I would do later on my own as an artist. I was also playing as a side person for Justin Towns Earl and other folks, whoever had had me, that I thought I could learn something from. And so I didn't hear from her much I would see, you know, in passing on social media that she seemed to be doing well. but the producer's friend I made Dave Cobb was the first person I told my idea to

after I'd kind of so like it doesn't seem like I sit quietly by being here with me but this is what my natural go-to around people is to get real nervous and talk but in my real spending of time I sit in here and I stare at things or I do you know

slow things thinking things play music I was working on how to describe what I wanted to do with the music and the idea and the intention of the band. I make lots of notes, and I'd been paying attention to radio stations at that time. I figured out the pictures of what I wanted to do in my mind, and I'd write notes and try to figure it out.

And in the end of 2017 or 18 beginning, I told Dave Cobb when I was there working on a session, I said, I can't remember if I was singing or playing the fiddle or what I was doing. But at the end of it, I said, so I've been having this idea. And we've been friends for a while, so he's patient and was willing to hear me out. And that's one of the great things about producers is the good ones are very patient. And they also know what it's like to try to translate what an artist has in their mind. So they're patient with you and they're listening and they're not like.

like, whoa, you look crazy. What are you saying? They never do that. That's why it's always cool if you're with a good producer that's, you know, clear at the time and you're talking seriously because they'll give you that time. But I said, I want to start this group. And I said, here's the rest. And I was scared to say it because it sounds kind of crazy. I said, I want to be called the high women.

And he said, the high women. And I was like, not like high, like is in, I got high. but like is it high as in like you know exalted like you know like you know when taking the high road and all that kind of stuff you know and he was like I love it and I said here's another thing I want to do I want to rewrite that song it's going to be like if you could picture this because this is how I describe things in pictures I said if you could picture our record it'll be like imagine that the songs are a tree so the main part of the tree is like like the main part of the tree is like, you know, there's the roots. But the

centerpiece of the record will be the high women's song that I'm trying to rewrite, you know. And the rest of it will be like other stories that come off of it, like the branches. And he was like, that's a fantastic idea. And I said, there's not going to be a tree on the cover, though.

Because like sometimes you just don't, just leave the tree out of it. I'm just trying to tell you my idea. But he's really good with that. And I don't want to be sassy music and I don't want it to look distressed. to look like what we're trying to do, but also want it to take it back to what it's supposed to be, like where we could sing about more than unrequited love or that we really miss our man or that we're going to, whatever we're going to do, go out, burn some ladies' house down,

I don't know, those are fun, but we also need to other stuff on the radio too. Or not on the radio, just that people know that we're out there and they can identify with us if they feel the same and support each other and all this. He said, that's a great idea. And I said, okay. He said, you should call Brandy Carlisle. And I didn't call her. And then next time I saw him, I thought he would have forgotten.

But he said, so did you call Brandy Carlisle? The idea is really good. And I said, I can't just cold call Brandy Carlisle. What am I going to say? Like, I'm going to start laying into this big, long, weird story about the high women idea. And what's that going to? I said, I just don't, I'm just not going to call her and talk about this. This is just a hard thing to explain over the phone, I think.

I don't know. I just don't know about this. I was like, why don't you do it? And he said, no. He said, she's playing tonight, and we'll go down there and see her. I'll introduce you, and you'll tell her then. And I said, okay, I'll go there and we'll see what happens, you know. And we went to the basement, the new basement of the time, I think.

It seemed like that's where it was. And he walked straight back into the back green. room and he said this is brandy carlyle brandy carlyle this is amanda shires and um and she was very clearly about to walk up on the stage and sing like she was like she had given her wife a hug and was walking on the stage turning up and i said i'm amanda shires and i have this idea we're going to start a band it's called the hi women and we're going to do this this and that she looked at me and she said hi amanda shires this how about we talk about this some more later i said okay and then I called an Uber and left

and Dave gave her my number and then we talked later and started talking more about it and Dave introduced us to Natalie Hemby who at that time was just we were just writing with her on different things and we were writing with different folks just to see what we could do and one of the days of the session that me and Brandy were doing. Because really it was just me and Brandy at first. But during the session Natalie came over

because we wanted her to sing because we've developed this friendship. She sang and then I got down on one knee and I said, would you please join our band? She said, oh, I don't know. And then Brandy said, you really should, you really should. We should join our band.

And she said, we're playing with Dolly at Newport and you could be in our band and go play with us and sing with and meet Dolly. And then Natalie said, well, I'm in. Brandy called Marin. Brandy called Marin. Maron was at Fallon or something. And Brandy said, hey, come sing some songs on the Highwood Men record, bring two songs that you like of yours that you think would fit what we're doing. And she said, okay, and that was such a good time that we kept her

in there and then made her join the band and wrote some more in the studio together. and yeah and then I was thinking you know wouldn't it be cool if some other people could come and go because the idea of the group too is because it's our second group to all of our own individual careers is like if somebody needed to take a break and have babies or somebody's parents were sick or if they just needed time off for mental purposes or whatever they could just go do that and we expand the platform like let somebody else come sing in their stead. And even if you weren't in the original four that made the record, we are high women and we accept all,

like whoever wants to play any instrument or sing, or even if your, you know, gender isn't, you know, female or non-binary or whatever, you could still come be in our group too. You could be in our group doesn't matter your race or creed or your, you're, gender or anything, we're open. We're high women, you know. And Jason even has the high women tattoo. That's awesome. So Cheryl Crow came and played the bass and we've had guests like Mavis Staples sing with us and just anybody that will sing with us. We do that and invited Brittany Spencer to be a part of it recently and we're going to go appear together at Marin's final

concert of this tour this weekend at the Bridgestone. That's just made up my mind. I wasn't sure what I was going to go. Yeah, we're going to sing a couple songs. And then when does this podcast air? This is now 2023. Okay, so then the next day we're going to fly down to the Kennedy Center Honors and play there in the High Women. And at the Marin Show, Brandi won't be there, but Cheryl and Brittany will.

but then the next day we're going to go play at the Kennedy Center honors and meet the president and I still have figured out what to wearer to that and I honestly don't know what to do in those kind of things have to watch some YouTube's about where the forks and knives go on the plate I'm good at sitting up still sitting up straight and having a good posture but like having not fidgeting and having a poker face at a not poker table or a not craps table or a not blackjack table is just not me

I can play I can gamble but it's hard to sit still at one of these things So will there be Another High Woman album? I think so When I think about it When I've been noticing on our phone

You know we've been playing more shows recently Making more appearances And we all put out our own records See this is how I lead with the art I'm doing it right now So I'm not forcing doing anything. But I kind of know already.

You let it kind of happen. There's less of us in the pictures of our kids and what we're cooking, and it's turned into more about like song ideas. Like even in passing at the Loretta Lynn, I think me and Natalie's had a song idea. Unconsciously, we all know that that's

happening. But that's just honesty, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, and then also not getting in the way of the intention, because it's easy. to be told by folks on the outside or by anybody, any kind of influence. Like, if y'all toured or did this, you could make so much money and all that, or if you did that and you did that, you make so much money.

Yeah, we'd make money for ourselves and others, but that's not why we started it. Like, it's our group that we do to affect change. And like I said, we do our individual artistry. That's our identities, you know. And you have to maintain your own before you can be in service of, of another identity as a different part in the bigger collective. But naturally it feels like it's that way, because if you look at it, just like from the outside,

everybody put out records and they've toured them. It kind of was a bummer after when COVID happened, because we had shows planned and things like that. And then we all took financial hits and stuff because of that, and we all survived it and made records and put them out. And, you know, it feels like the world's writing it, and in the direction where we could think, you know, happily and positively again about not getting our hearts broken that way.

Congratulations on Take It Like a Man. Oh, thanks. My God. Thank you. Now, how long of a process that was during COVID that you worked on that, right? I was disenchanted with all of it during COVID. I think I was working myself to burn out. There's all kind of things going on.

I write every day, and it's not necessarily for songs. It's just to keep the pen sharp. And I also do poems. I have a master's in poetry. I've published one and decided that I would wait until I had a whole book before I published a whole collection. And I'm not pressuring myself to finish it because I want it to be done with the right choices behind it

and not ever be influenced by things like deadlines or advances. I don't even want an advance. Just want to turn in a done book. and not have anybody say boo about it or offer their input on the collection because I'm the one sitting with it all day. Anyway, but they can't edit it

and decide which ones they want out. They just can't tell me to write more. Yeah, yeah. But anyway, so when I get there, I'll get there. The problem is this. I'm Amanda Shire's and I play the fiddle and I learn to play Western Swing and Country. I grew up doing it.

I also learned at the same time. how to play in rock and roll bands because nobody was playing country or western swing. And I also learned how to play classical because I loved it. And I also learned a little bit of bluegrass but not too much because Western swing folks would get mad. And so I was very well versed on this instrument. Now at the same time, growing up, fiddle's not a popular instrument. Where are you going to do with that? There's not a lot of lead people, lead singers and rock bands playing a fiddle.

The band had a little run with that. I mean, they did, and Bowie had a little bit of a fiddle player, but it was like you weren't the artist, though, like Charlie Daniels, but that's country and all that. And what I do is more like, I do like kind of like rock and country and, you know, folk songs and songs of the people, whatever what people now call songwriter music or Americana. But I take it kind of further.

I try to make new sounds and keep the instrument, you know, going too. Further in, like with people my own age and people younger. Because you could see classical violin. That's a thing people do and sometimes jazz. But in the mainstream part of the world, there's not a lot of folks doing it, really. Lawrence gave you some added confidence for your mission. They did. Yeah, they did.

he said, you know, a lot of people, when they see the fiddle, they want to make me more country. You know, and I like country. I love it and all that. I get it, but I'm not trying to do what's already been done. And not that all country has been done. I'm trying to, I have a thing I'm trying to do. Even though I broke my finger in 2011 and still have three pins in it on my fiddle playing finger, I can still get down and jam the hell out of it. Like if we were in a dueling fiddle situation, or cutting heads, as Jason was saying. You're having a fiddle off, or even with guitar players, I can out solo some of the best of them.

And if you don't believe me, get me on that stage, and I will show you your ass. And so what they did is they don't try to make me do, they're just like me in service of the song. They're not like, oh, we can't do effect pedals on your fiddle and do effects. Like guitar players use all these cool pedals. Why can't I?

Because it's a fiddle and you have to stay in country. And I like country, but country tends to go forward too. We're not all singing like hang snow right now. I love them, but we're not all singing like Hank Snow right now. So if somebody was just dropped onto this planet and had never experienced music in their life, how would you explain to them how important music is

and what it does and why it's so a part of our lives? What was our first language? We didn't really have a language before music. We kind of communicated with little, rhythms and grunts and sounds and, you know, apparently that's what I've been told. Singing and then connection, you know, whether or not, like, pass that idea. It doesn't matter what language you speak. Like, we've all been making joyful noises for a long time.

Like, it doesn't matter what language you speak. When you put on music, you can feel a way, a certain way. And it makes you feel things. and music also is so attached with our memories that you can remember. Like if you hear a song, you'll remember a detail about your own life or your own something that occurs to you that you haven't thought of

in a long time and might make you call somebody or think about something or change your mind about something. Music has a power to change people's minds. And more than that, like, you get in a room with people to see music, you're in that room. And it's like a synergy. It works both ways of a live concert. You've got a community in music.

When you go out to a live show, you know those people and yourself have something in common with one another. So in that room you feel less alone in the world. But if you hear songs too, it gives you language to your own emotions and feelings. Like how many times were we, even younger or even grown-ups, like now do we say, oh, I was thinking about you today, here's this song? Or, oh, I'm sorry, you're going through that. there's a song that I like to play sometimes when I feel this way, or sometimes when you have nothing to say, you can just listen to music. Not only is it the background to our lives here,

this person that we've never met that's landing on our planet. Also, do you need something different than oxygen to breathe while I tell you this story? Because if you're running low, that's cool. I heard you live in a spaceship under the water. Is that true? Okay, back to music. I was talking to our invisible alien or whoever it was. But, you know, you could even play some music for this creature that we haven't named. And they'd probably, have you ever read that book Stranger in a Strange Land? No, I know the song. I never read the book.

Is that Robert Heinlein? Yes. Yes. I have read it. That was many years ago. I could be mistaken. Is there a partner where he hears music for the first time? I haven't read about six years

That's a good one to go back on it I just wonder But there's There's a thing that happens Where you can feel it or you can tap it out or not Or you can just hate it Like you could listen to Fugazi for two weeks And just want to turn it off

I don't know There's things to like about it Because it led me to Leonard Cohen But it is If you can't sing or even hold it to And you don't have to play an instrument to enjoy it it's a place where you can oftentimes find common ground or conversation with folks

if you have nothing to talk about it you can generally talk about music I don't know many people that you can't talk to about it of course except for the hearing impaired and there's a different way for music with that for sure but then we'd have to get to specifics of what type of music we're listening to but anyway all that to say it's a connective and it's universal

and it's, I treat it very seriously. Like, I don't take myself seriously, but I take the music seriously. Because it's an energy. Like, if you're going to sing something, that energy goes somewhere. I like how you take a question inside out. Do you find something on the end of it to nip and tuck and poke at? That's a fun way to take a question. I wasn't on my best behavior for it at first,

but hopefully I'm learning the Amanda Shire's way. I just, I've been told I'm a non-linear thinker. Totally. Totally. Yeah. So your attraction... That's part of myself acceptance. I'm working on it. Because for a long time, I didn't like any part of the music business.

That wasn't the music because the interview part would freak me out because I always get in my head about, they're not going to understand me. And then I just, the floor itself, they're like, if they care, if they care enough to interview you, they're going to put up with your non-linear joke. Of course. No, it's very linear. And it's in a circle. It's a steady circle. It is, it is. But it's not a boring circle.

By any stretch of the imagination. You can ask me anything now. So what about birds? So it's about freedom, and it's about the way they look, and it's about their traits and their unique to them things, like, you know, with the crows and they can make tools. It's all very fascinating to me, how they, they're different bird calls and what they mean, all that.

I just, I can't get over it. Well, I think it's about the joy of them, too. The joy of, they're magic, though, aren't they? I mean, the joy is spectacular, you know. And they don't seem to want for much, you know. It's not like they're seeking a new car or a shiny new birdhouse. Right. Well, I think the great joy of being able to have this opportunity to speak to you on my podcast,

I can't thank you enough. Amanda Shardis. I'm really so glad that you'd have me. Really? This is so special. I'm so grateful. And thank you for this, but thank you for your music as well. Oh, no problem. I'm just now starting to settle down,

so I promise I'll talk less about me and more about y'all. I know this is an unnatural thing in the interview where we just talk about me. It feels funny, but I'm doing it. Well, you did a terrific job. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. I had a coffee and lots of candy. Thank you,

and if you ever need a break, you just say, hold on, I got to eat this candy. Taking a walk with Buzz Night is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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