Amanda Shires Biography

Amanda Shires is a famous 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. Amanda has released six solo albums, her most recent To The Sunset on the Silver Knife label in 2018.

Amanda Shires Age

Shires was born on March 5th, 1982. Her parents were divorced, hence Shires’ childhood was divided between the Texas cities of Lubbock and Mineral Wells.

Amanda Shires Early life

She acquired her first violin at the age of ten from a pawn shop in Mineral Wells. At the age of 15, she joined the Texas Playboys, the former backing band for Western swing legend Bob Wills. She is distantly related to noted photographer Erica Shires, who produced the video for the song “Swimmer”.

Amanda Shires Husband|Daughter

Amanda Shires began her relationship with fellow musician, Jason Isbell, in the year 2011. They got married on February 23rd, 2013. After two years in their marriage, the couple was blessed with their first child, a daughter to whom they called Mercy Rose.

Amanda Shires Jason Isbell

Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires are two of Nashville’s most celebrated musicians and a married couple whose relationship is widely revered.

In a Rolling Stone interview, Isbell recalls that he first saw Shires when she was playing with Billy Joe Shaver at the 2003 Austin City Limits Festival. They officially met a year later, however, in Athens, Ga., when Shires was playing with her band, the Thrift Store Cowboys.

For good measure, however, Shires then made Isbell autograph a Polaroid picture (which they now have in their bathroom) as a way of gently mocking his so-called fame. Still, he was intrigued enough to watch the show from a folding chair placed right in front of her.

The two kept in touch and occasionally collaborated. Amanda appears on Isbell and the 400 Unit’s 2011 album Here We Rest and eventually started dating in 2011.

The early years had their bumpy moments, however, since Isbell hadn’t yet gotten sober. In a lengthy interview with WNYC, Shires recalls helping facilitate Isbell going to rehab to quit drinking, and how angry she was at his last-chance bender the night before he left.

After he got out of rehab, the pair moved in together in Nashville. And on July 10, 2012, Isbell visited Shires at Sewanee: The University of the South, where she was taking classes toward her Master of Fine Arts in Poetry, and proposed.

Amanda Shires Musical career

Shires released her first solo album, the mostly instrumental Being Brave, in the year 2005. Four years later, having relocated to Nashville, she released West Cross Timbers and in the same year, she released Sew Your Heart with Wires, a collaboration with Rod Picott.

Her next solo album, Carrying Lightning was released in 2011, followed by Down Fell The Doves in August 2013 and My Piece of Land in September 2016. The latter proved to be Shires’ breakthrough, gaining her a nomination from the Americana Music Association.

She had been touring since 2006 with Picott. She also performed and recorded with Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Devotchka, Chris Isaak, Thrift Store Cowboys, Todd Snider, and Justin Townes Earle.

In 2011 Amanda appeared in the movie Country Strong as one of the musicians backing singer Kelly Canter, played by Gwyneth Paltrow.

Shires won the Emerging Artist of the Year Award at the 2017 Americana Music Honors & Awards. In 2017, she supported John Prine on his worldwide tour alongside joining Isbell for select dates.

In 2018, Shires announced that she was working on a new album, To The Sunset due for release on August 3, 2018, which, like My Piece of Land, will be produced by Dave Cobb. Isbell revealed on Twitter that Gillian Welch and David Rawlings will make a guest appearance.

As a member of the 400 Unit, Shires won the Grammy Award for Best Americana Album for The Nashville Sound. Shires contributed to The Tree of Forgiveness, the 2018 album by John Prine. To The Sunset was released on August 3, 2018.

Awards and nominations

Amanda Shires Discography

• Being Brave (2005)
• West Cross Timbers (2009)
• Sew Your Heart With Wires (2009, with Rod Picott)
• Carrying Lightning (2011)
• Down Fell The Doves (2013)
• Sea Songs – Single (2015, with Jason Isbell)
• My Piece of Land (2016)
• To The Sunset (2018)

Amanda Shires Other appearances

• Sweeten the Distance (2011) – Neal Casal
• Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now – Justin Townes Earle
• Light Fighter (songwriter/lead vocal on “Scary Weeds”, “Lean into the Sway”); Lay Low While Crawling or Creeping (songwriter/lead vocal on “Sidewalk Song”, “Understudy”); The Great American Desert; Nowhere with You – Thrift Store Cowboys
• Something More Than Free; Southeastern; Here We Rest – Jason Isbell
• Welding Burns – Rod Picott
• Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables – Todd Snider
• Oh Be Joyful – Shovels & Rope
• Mutt – Cory Branan
• Burn. Flicker. Die. – American Aquarium
• I Can’t Love You Any Less – High Cotton: Tribute to Alabama (2013)
• For Better, or Worse – John Prine (2016)
• If I Needed You” (with Jason Isbell – Gentle Giants: The Songs of Don Williams (2017)
• The Nashville Sound – Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
• Accomplice One – Tommy Emmanuel (2018)
• Tree of Forgiveness – John Prine (2018)
• Find A Light – Blackberry Smoke (2018)

Amanda Shires Twitter

❤Love @Opry @TheRyman tonight❤

— S H I R E S’ $ Hit Show (@amandashires) January 15, 2017