Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. I was learning orchestra and classical music in school and privately. While the idea was mine, it wasnt only me that made this Highwomen be a thing. And usually that works. I cant see a thing from here. She was in her home recording studio with her fiddle and with guitarist Zach Setchfield, and they played a few songs. GROSS: Oh, yeah. In "Leave It Alone," a song introduced by a brittle, programmed loop and a jangly, arpeggiated guitar figure, she elegantly describes exploring a new lover's body: "Hands find the places where they've never been, to know for themselves new surfaces / And mine, they've got a mind of their own / I can't leave it alone." Im not joking. And I got awarded a scholarship to be able to go to those. SHIRES: Well, that was that parts a secret, Terry. 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. Other than that, I think were all right. Opening with solemn piano chords, The Problem features Isbells voice first, then Shires joins, and the pair trade lines as they move the story along. Do you have you do a great version of Im Your Man, his song, Im Your Man, on YouTube. As if to match it, she experimented for the first time with filtering the sound of her fiddle through effects pedals, which lends her playing a fierce luminescence. The Idol: How HBOs Next Euphoria Became Twisted Torture Porn SHIRES: Oh, I would have had to find somebody to drive me to Mexico or somewhere else. Theyre just songs because everybody goes through troubles in their relationship. And it just worked when we did it. And thats when the fertilized egg stays in the fallopian tube. And all I could think to say/Was everythings going to be OK/Its gonna be all right/Im on your side, he sings. When I would write the songs, I dont know whats going to come out, but sometimes I was just so down that the only way I could get better was to take it out on writing a song., Shires sings and plays fiddle throughout this interview. / And the fear that I feel when I see my features reversed in my own daughter's face." Well definitely get to your verse, which is the second one. And it was a Carrie Underwood song from it was, like, six years before that or something. SHIRES: I didnt know anything about them. You may opt-out by, U.S. We try to have as much fun as possible singing a bunch of sad-ass songs, he said from the stage with one of the few grins hed allow himself. How did you decide to say that these songs are really about a bad period of your marriage? And I said, yeah, I feel like theres not a lot happening there emotionally for me. Im on your side. Im Terry Gross. "Isn't it just like a daughter to make a fool of you? You can say its all my fault. Like, do you say, hey, honey, heres a song I wrote about how bad things are between us right now? Got myself a breakthrough case of Covid- feeling fine but well have to cancel the next few shows (Asheville, Louisville, Columbus, Wilkes-Barre, and Wilmington). Its not more threatening than the idea of taking away the services and the work that doctors and nurses do. GROSS: How did you find that out? Thats what I want. I hope youll join us. It goes, (singing) I woke up this morning, and I looked out my door. When do you show him the songs? It could be something you played. She co-founded the country supergroup The Highwomen, which includes Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris and Natalie Hemby. Another is a freedom rider who died during the Freedom Rides. GROSS: One of the things I love about his music is the way he combined the spiritual and the profane in his songs and the spiritual and, like, anger and resentment and despair. And Zachs going to play guitar. If youre just joining us, my guest is songwriter, singer and musician Amanda Shires, and her latest album is called Take It Like A Man. Well be right back. 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 this is the iteration of the band Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys, which got their start in they were most famous in the 30s and 40s and 50s. And I dont know how I feel about that. Former Drive-By Trucker is enjoying a breakout moment with new album 'Southeastern'. If you want a driver, climb inside or only want to take me for a ride, you know you can. And thank you for putting up with me. 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. You used to lean in like I was whispering, any excuse to get near again. 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. 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. So lets hear a little bit of that song. I dont feel like it matches whats going on inside my brain. Not standing up for folks is not helping and its not right. Dont support artists who dont support your rights. Never one to shy away from his beliefs, Isbell implored his fellow man, in Alabama or otherwise, to get vaccinated, that is, if they wanted to see him perform in person, hoping to make a difference. It sounds like you were about to leave the marriage. Grammy Award-winning songwriter Amanda Shires and bestselling author George Saunders discuss inspiration, songwriting, and Amanda's new song, "You Don't Get to Go." SHIRES: Thats all you have to say? SHIRES: About singing, yes. Girls high school basketball team forfeits a game because it refused to play against a team with a transgender player, Fox Leaders Wanted to Break From Trump but Struggled to Make It Happen, Not Going to Read That: White House Press Secretary Brushes Off DeSantis Op-Ed, Sunshine returns to SoCal on Thursday but cold temps stick around, AccuWeather: AM showers before a mild afternoon, Opening arguments heard in court for 2020 Conway fatal shooting that killed a 19-year-old. Do you think God still sees me, coming out of this twilight sleep? she asks, before the band carries the song out with a powerful extended coda. I was doing fine, and then, I was just like no sound would come out of my mouth. Rock & roll kids just let decisions make themselves. And I also want to thank Zack Sedgefield for playing guitar and also Diana Walsh, who engineered your end of the music and the conversation from your home studio in well, outside of Nashville. All Rights reserved. Why was that the verse that you wrote or sang for yourself? And I think theres more valuable strength there than there is in suppressing your emotions and poisoning yourself with your own feelings, I guess. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Amy Salit, Phyllis Myers, Sam Briger, Lauren Krenzel, Heidi Saman, Therese Madden, Ann Marie Baldonado, Thea Chaloner, Seth Kelley and Susan Nyakundi. We have Olivia Rodrigo and Phoebe Bridgers speaking up, and Ariana Grande. Snubbing the King: Why Don't Big Stars Want to Perform at Charles' Coronation? And then and neither of them told us that stuff. GROSS: Well, thank you for doing that. He has since learned to tell the story of his recovery. So lets do that. And I am still alive. I had to spend the night with her at work. And she was also holding down a day job as a single mom. GROSS: OK. 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. But theres a medication you can take that aborts the fertilized egg from your fallopian tube. The sound of silence rings in every room. He could still leave it dish in the sink, you know? 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. Soon after a Supreme Court draft ruling that would overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked last month, Amanda Shires shared some personal news on social media. It's a sentiment that Shires has echoed many times since. In a June 2022 follow-up, the artist detailed for Rolling Stone her experience of ending a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy in August 2021. So I started just taking notes on the radio because I heard it. GROSS: I think its time for another break. Probably nobody enjoys it as much as I do, but its not a necessity for survival. You know, like, how does that go? Theres nothing left to fix. 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. SHIRES: Yeah. SHIRES: She did. I also received responses from trolls. The attention hes getting for Southeastern, from the opening recovery track Cover Me Up and the brutally stark Elephant to the full-throttle raver Super 8, feels like its coming at the right time, after hed had ample opportunity to get good at what he does. On August 9, 2021 my fallopian tube ruptured. WebWe would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us. GROSS: The bail bondsmen are often their offices are often located in a very low-rent part of town. So did you ever visit her at work? I cried, I asked and I balled. I could just trust based on how Leonard Cohen did all that work for us. When it reopened, he was in the first 200. Lets get back to the interview I recorded last week with singer, songwriter and fiddle player Amanda Shires. Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires Celebrate Vinyl and Indie Retail as Record Store Days 2023 Ambassadors: Were Building the Embassy as We Speak. And then my orchestra teacher recommended me to a private violin teacher. Not saying something is not helping. So one of the things you learned, like, I think in the past few years is that your grandfather had spent years in prison. I want to talk with you about The Highwomen. When the band step back from their microphones to begin the extended breakdown, Isbell smiles like a boy on a great adventure. Isbells grandfather and uncle were both musicians, says Tompkins on the phone from Nashville. GROSS: Well, would you play Take It Like A Man for us? And we met. And I thought if Im going to get any rest, Im going to have to do something about this. 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. 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. (Playing guitar, singing) Like a common loon, I started hearing birds, birdsong everywhere. GROSS: That sounds really, really awful. I got to a certain age and realized I couldnt be Indiana Jones.. Im all for freedom, but I think if youre dead, you dont have any freedoms at all, Isbell said. So its probably important to stay alive before you start questioning your liberty.. Note: NPR's First Listen audio comes down after the album is released. On Shires' latest record, her songwriting is more fearless and vulnerable than ever but as always, it's a reflection of an artist focused intently on community, equality GROSS: Thats the title song from the new album. Sign up for Rolling Stones Newsletter. 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. And hes saying, you know, basically that hes going to support her and hes there for her. GROSS: With the Texas Playboys when youre performing with them or something that you learned from one of your teachers but that really made you fall in love with the style and that epitomizes what that style is. People dont have to come to a concert, Isbell said. Because once you have a baby, theres no social programming to help. Im going to play fiddle and Im going to sing in. So I think she did a good job. (Singing) Time was all Id want. Theres not a lot of filler, not a lot of songs I would skip through, he says. And I think they probably had conversations that you would, if you were that close to each other, about that stuff and didnt bring it up. Why didnt more people show up and speak up? Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. In 2020, she penned an op-ed for Rolling Stone about why abortion rights matter. Shed been learning to play classical music on 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.. Recently, I had an ectopic pregnancy, she tweeted. So she did daytime job. But I think she probably knew. Theres so much attached to folks thinking women treat it as a kind of birth control. Become a member of WLIW ($5 monthly or $60 annually) and get access to WLIW Passport as our thanks for your support. And this is basically, like, a country supergroup. When we overturn Roe, we risk going back to, Oh, now same-sex marriages cant happen. Some people are upset at the way iPhones charge. Wills was the father of western swing. And she also plays in her husband, Jason Isbells, band. SHIRES: Oh, yes, Mercy is my daughter. Were you just, like, the cute kid who could play but, you know that audiences would go wild over because you were a girl in the band and there wasnt much of that? SHIRES: (Singing) Im well aware of what the nights made of. GROSS: That your Father had spent 25 years in Alcatraz? 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Or is this through listening to his records that you feel like youre his disciple? They all feel good, he says of making records, and they all feel really bad when youre working, simultaneously.. SHIRES: I forced myself in that position. And Lanny Fiel, he would say, youre really, really great at the parts you love. AMANDA SHIRES AND JASON ISBELL: (Singing) Everythings going to be OK. Its going to be all right. And these guys are in their 70s and 80s, and it was very much like hanging out with lots of granddads. I like the way these lines kind of happened in our lives and like tributaries in a way that we dont realize are happening. Jason Isbell and his wife, Amanda Shires, were walking around last weekend in Newport, Rhode Island, where they played the Newport Folk Festival. GROSS: Thats Empty Cups from Amanda Shires new album, Take It Like A Man. Thats such a great song, Amanda. It was love at first listen. Its just like you would expect, but theres real, scientific proof for it now. And Empty Cups wasnt even the hardest one for me to put on there. And she would dance a little bit to The Beatles and stuff and started seeing the possibility that she might go into music one day. Amanda Shires and Jason Isbell depict a couple having an honest, difficult conversation about abortion in the new song The Problem.. Shes not really a rock & roll kid, for lack of a better term. Because thats not how I go into songwriting. I know they enjoy it. Its a great song, so I thought wed play some of it. Cancelling shows feels awful, I know. And I was thinking about how much the stories matter. 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. Tomorrow on FRESH AIR, well talk about the power, promise and potential harm of YouTube. GROSS: Was this your mothers father or your fathers father? Is a chrysalis a butterfly? Shires would go on to make a name for herself, both as a solo artist and as the founder of the country supergroup The Highwomen, which includes Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris and Natalie Hemby. SHIRES: I mean, I think theyre pretty good. Why not? And I know that he likes to help. SHIRES: I really do feel like he did a lot of work for me that I dont have to do. 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. The timing of The Problem and the fact that its benefiting the Yellowhammer Fund are both important, as draconian, punitive abortion laws have been enacted in Alabama and neighboring states in the last year. And I told my mom to come over because I had something to show her. And her latest album is called Take It Like A Man. Well be right back after a short break. And a lot of its multilayered, the meaning take it like a man. And this is after some kind of nebulous argument. I know I can take it like a man. But a lot of times when youre growing up and taught what how to be successful and how to be to survive in the world as a woman with a career and all this stuff and probably young many young kids are taught this. That way, there could be a more kind of a wider effort to try and have the conversation with folks and realize that youre not alone. I could just trust based on how Leonard Cohen did all that work for us. Members get extended access to PBS video on demand and more. Wherever you get that support whether in a relationship or friends no matter what you believe, you can believe to support somebody through something hard.. I just fell in love with the music, is what happened. 2023 WNET. And my hands are two empty cups. Singer, songwriter and fiddle player Amanda Shires still remembers the moment she fell in love with the fiddle. And I followed a dress code. Then Im like, This is coming out now., Jason Isbell on the Art of the Livestream, Supporting Indie Record Stores, and That Feral Hogs Meme, Devon Gilfillian to Cover Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' With Jason Isbell, Grace Potter, Jason Isbell Blasts Van Morrison, Covers 'Into the Mystic'. My guest, Amanda Shires, is a singer, songwriter and fiddle player. I said, itd be cool if I was The Highwomen or maybe had a band The Highwomen. SHIRES: Sure. Since writing that op-ed, I have had reproductive healthcare that some might call an abortion when I was hospitalized in Texas on August 9, 2021, with a ruptured fallopian tube caused by an ectopic pregnancy. What does he have to lose? And but I think for the players in the band, they took me seriously as a player. And then it was never like, oh, they have to be on a record once I do record them. And that song, its part my story and part, you know, stories I know from friends. And it also made me stronger in the fact that I could feel comfortable singing about it and talking about it. SHIRES: No, not until a couple of years ago. 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 Also, during this time when I was leaving, I was thinking about how [my daughter] Mercy picked up a kazoo and she could play a kazoo. Related So I dont have to go trying to learn all these other things. But it was true. Amid the rise in infections, it was reported last week that one of the worlds most prominent concert promoters, Live Nation, will allow artists performing at its venues to require guests in the U.S. to show proof of vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test. Here was my life five years ago, and heres my life now. SHIRES: Theres a medication that you cant take right now after, you know, about two weeks after this happened to me. 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? When Shires was in the hospital giving birth to their daughter, Mercy, in 2015, she had to disclose to her doctor, with her husband and mother in the room, that shed had an abortion. 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. SHIRES: Thank you so much. 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. Its not competition, Isbell makes clear with a chuckle. In 2017, for her solo work, she was named emerging artist of the year at the Americana Music & Honors Awards ceremony. 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