Photo by Josh Wool
Creating and recording the songs Amanda Shires did for her fifth album is impressive enough, but doing so while expecting her first child is downright awe-inspiring. On September 16, the singer and violinist releases My Piece of Land, a collection of songs inspired by hope and fueled by anxiety in a world about to turn upside down. Read our interview below with Shires and catch even more in our September issue.
NL: You grew up playing music in Texas. Why did you move to Nashville?
In Texas I couldn't get out of the identity of just being a side player. I wanted to be a writer, and even though I was trying with opening shows, everybody just kept calling on me to do side person work. So I moved to Nashville in 2009 to start over, but of course at first I moved to Nashville to pursue my dream of waiting tables. I worked at 360 Bistro and The Basement, but after Carrying Lightning came out I didn't have to do that anymore.
NL: And then you started dating Jason [Isbell]?
We started dating in 2011, but I had already known him for a long time. We met in Atlanta, GA at this place called The Earl. I was playing there one night with my band and they were recording across the street, and he just happened in there and watched our show and we became friends, and then we were friends forever! Sometimes I'd sit and watch his band and see him around and stuff like that, and sometimes I'd play on his records.
But then in 2011, I broke my finger and he was taking me to my doctor's appointments and all that stuff because I had this huge cast on my hand and I couldn't drive my car. So we started getting really close, and then he asked me 'Will you be my girlfriend?” and I was like 'No.” But eight months later I was like 'Okay, we can be boyfriend and girlfriend.”
NL: What first drew you to music?
I was in Mineral Wells, TX, where my dad lived. He was at a pawn shop looking for a new knife and I saw a violin hanging on the wall. It was sixty dollars, and I don't come from a family of money or anything, so I pecked him and said, 'I have to have it, I need to play this.” And he was like 'you don't even know how,” and I said, 'I can figure it out.”
He said 'Well if I buy this for you you have to learn how to play it, you know? I'm not just gonna spend $60 so it sits in the closet.” So he bought it for me, and I immediately broke all the strings and it wouldn't play. Then when summer was over he sent me back to my moms, and she got me lessons, and it kind of started from there.
After learning fiddle music and singing Texas Playboys songs, I wrote a little bit without knowing that I wanted to be a songwriter. I don't really know how it happened, but I showed them to Billy Shaver, who I was playing for at the time, and he told me 'You gotta be a songwriter.” I was like, 'No way, I can't be a songwriter! Are you trying to fire me?” But anyway, that was the inception and I went ahead and started doing it.
NL: You're in the MFA program at Sewanee how has this enhanced your songwriting ability?
It's been an evolution. Before I would read a lot but felt sort of like there was something missing I wanted to think harder and I didn't know how to do that on my own; I needed some sort of prodding to learn more and do more. Now I'm able to edit better and decide what words I like better. I don't have to sit around for six hours and debate if my preposition use was right or wrong.
NL: Tell us about your latest project and how being pregnany affected My Piece Of Land.
I started writing it when I got off the road ‘cause I couldn't tour anymore. I was 33 weeks pregnant and they frown upon that on airplanes… . We had more doctors appointments, so I was at home a lot and I had run out of everything to doyou know how like nesting takes over and you've cleaned everything up and everything's ready for the babyand I had all this time sitting around to think about my life and what I was doing so I started writing it in July and started recording it in August with producer Dave Cobb. We finished it about three days before I had Mercy… it was really fun!
Pregnancy didn't make it [writing/recording] any more difficult, but when you're expecting a child you have all these hopes and plans that you want for the future, and then along comes a lot of anxiety. She made me start thinking a lot about life and home really. I wrote 'Nursery Rhyme” after I had done all my nesting and preparing stuff and had started thinking about the baby coming.