Country Singer Amanda Shires’ New Album Takes On A Politically Divided America

As was the case for a lot of artists, Amanda Shires discovered herself at a private {and professional} crossroads greater than two years in the past when theaters and different efficiency venues had been shuttered world wide to curb the unfold of COVID-19.

Faced with an sudden abundance of downtime, the Grammy winner thought of turning her again on the music enterprise for good — that’s, till an opportunity assembly with Los Angeles musician Lawrence Rothman final yr helped encourage her to put in writing and report her greatest, most sonically numerous album to this point.

“At some point during COVID, I decided I had different boundaries, different things I was willing to fight for. I’ve recorded in the studio and I’ve been on tour with folks that aren’t easy to work with,” the singer, songwriter and fiddle participant, who relies in Nashville and the founding father of the nation supergroup The Highwomen, instructed HuffPost. “Thank God for the gift of music, because that’ll often lead you to discussions, answers and working things out. We all go through some shit. It’s not all good and it’s not all bad.”

Last month, Shires unveiled “Take It Like A Man,” her first album of unique materials since 2018’s “To The Sunset.” The 10-song assortment options the title observe and a pair of sterling singles, “Bad Behavior” and “Hawk For The Dove.” The new tracks had been produced in collaboration with Rothman, who’s nonbinary.

“They’re the big voice that helps me when I’ve tried my own patience too much,” Shires mentioned about working with Rothman.

Watch the music video for “Take It Like A Man” under.

Collectively, “Take It Like A Man” is a snapshot of Shires’ mindset as she steps again into her chosen career in a politically divided America, in addition to the highs and lows she’s skilled in her nine-year marriage to fellow musician Jason Isbell.

To longtime followers of Shires’ work, the album is, by all accounts, an emotion-awakening assertion and inventive triumph. To newcomers, it ought to set up her as a compelling singer-songwriter keen to plumb the depths of her psyche in her work, like Joni Mitchell and Dolly Parton.

HuffPost spoke to Shires earlier this summer season as she was visiting New York to carry out on the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival premiere of “Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song” forward of her new album’s launch. In a refreshingly candid chat, she shares her expertise of studying to re-embrace music after a four-year hiatus, in addition to why she’s hopeful extra Nashville artists will communicate out in protection of ladies’s reproductive well being.

HuffPost: “Take It Like A Man” is your first album of all-original materials in 4 years and your second collaboration with Lawrence Rothman after “For Christmas,” your 2021 vacation album. Tell me a bit about your relationship on stage and within the studio.

Amanda Shires: They have a method to encourage me that’s completely different than any manner I’ve been inspired. I believe they really feel empathetic to the truth that I’m normally the one lady within the room.

They’re my champion, they usually’re additionally not afraid to bop like a loopy individual. You want anyone to be excited and pleased with you. There’s a camaraderie and there’s encouragement. There’s just a little “I got your back” sort of factor.

I appreciated how they skipped all of the floor speak and went straight into emotions and issues of being a human and all that. There’s a number of good in there and a number of understanding. So I’m not doing any recordings or singing on something with out Lawrence within the room.

“Hawk For The Dove” is the album’s opening observe, in addition to its first single. Why did that track really feel like a really perfect option to launch this musical chapter?

I believe so much about our identities as we develop and alter, and I take into consideration what is efficacious on the earth we function in. Youth and sweetness are at all times valued.

My pal Millie, who helps me with my backyard, is near 80 years previous. She has these lovely blue eyes, grey hair and body. The first time I met her, I mentioned: “You might be the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen in my life.”

She was like: “Oh honey, I’m not beautiful. They quit calling you beautiful at 27.” So abruptly our elders develop into invisible? That’s sort of fucked up.

Our identities aren’t actually concerning the selections we make or the alternatives different folks make for us or placed on us. Our identities are an amalgamation of issues, and we could be any of these issues.

“Fault Lines” is a standout observe that references the challenges you’ve skilled over 9 years of marriage to Jason Isbell. How do you navigate being each intimate companions in addition to longtime skilled collaborators?

The first time Jason heard that track was within the studio. I’d despatched it to him earlier, and he didn’t hearken to it. I thought of not having the track on the album in any respect, as a result of if you knowingly put your life on the market for folks to evaluate or criticize … I used to be simply not sure if I used to be prepared to speak about that stuff. But then, Jason was like: “You should really put that song on the record, and if you don’t, you should think about why you don’t want to.”

We met as buddies first in music ― and we at all times belief one another 100% with our songs. We can hold these elements separated after we’re giving sincere suggestions on our songwriting. We’re nonetheless engaged on the language inside the relationship, although, as a result of it may be sort of tough.

John Prine as soon as instructed me that the key to a great marriage is vulnerability. You don’t need to diminish a factor that’s so beautiful in a life that you simply’ve deliberate and dreamed of collectively. But going through some truths… I simply write about experiences I’m having, and if questions come up, we’ll speak about them. We should be keen to sit down by way of the torture that’s speaking concerning the massive, exhausting issues.

I think about there are lots of causes you selected to title the album “Take It Like A Man.”

There are a number of layers to that title, positively. In the time of self-care, it must be OK to have your emotions and never be seen as weak due to them. You’re purported to “take it like a man,” however in reality, I can solely take it like Amanda.

I inform my [6-year-old daughter, Mercy Rose]: “You go have your big emotions. Go have them. It’s way healthier.” I’m not going to say: “Oh, suck it up. You’re too emotional,” or any of these issues people inform you. It’s concerning the consequence of alternative.

In 2020, you shared that you simply’d had an abortion in an essay for Rolling Stone, and earlier this yr, you opened up about your expertise with an ectopic being pregnant whereas calling on different Nashville musicians to publicly defend abortion rights after the Supreme Court’s June overturn of Roe v. Wade. Why do you assume different artists in your style appear so reticent to take action, at the least in comparison with their pop and rock contemporaries?

People are reticent to talk out due to worry ― that’s what it’s. People are afraid to speak about it, and tackle the warmth. For me, it’s simple as a result of in any other case, I might’ve died already. I’d be already buried.

Some pregnancies gained’t get to full time period that ladies are actually going to be compelled to hold. There’s all types of issues that may go flawed.

Roe v. Wade getting overturned goes to create an enormous ass mess. What are they going to do with same-sex marriages, with interracial {couples}? I need to get to some extent on the earth the place it feels simpler for me to reside in it, and I additionally need it to be simpler for everyone else. So it’s only a disgrace. It’s actually bothersome.

Ultimately, what are you most hopeful listeners take away from “Take It Like A Man”?

Music has taught me the best way to make sense of the world as a result of I had no vocabulary for emotions or expression or emotion. I attempt to clarify issues to myself about life and the human situation and my very own shit within the hopes it resonates with anyone else who can’t discover the phrases. Even the dangerous stuff could be fairly.

This interview has been frivolously edited and condensed for readability and size.