Having recently performed at the C2C Country2Country Festival in London, GRAMMY-winning, singer-songwriter/violinist Amanda Shires has announced a UK/European tour in June. The tour will also include performances at Black Deer Festival and Azkena Rock in Spain.
Sat 17 June – Azkena Rock, Spain – TICKETS
Sun 18 June – Black Deer Festival, UK – TICKETS
Tue 20 June – King Tut’s – Glasgow, UK – TICKETS
Wed 21 June – Academy 3 – Manchester, UK – TICKETS
Thu 22 June – Omeara – London, UK – TICKETS
Fri 23 June – Exchange – Bristol, UK – TICKETS
Sun 25 June – Paterskerek – Eindhoven, NL- TICKETS
Mon 26 June – Oosterpoort – Groeningen, NL- TICKETS
Tue 27 June – Paradiso Noord – Amsterdam, NL- TICKETS
Written and recorded during lockdown, Amanda’s latest album ‘Take It Like A Man’ is a fearless song cycle of ruthlessly candid tunes documenting Amanda’s life as a woman, a wife and a mother during a tumultuous time.
Produced by Lawrence Rothman (Angel Olsen, Girl in Red, Kim Gordon), featuring Jason Isbell on guitar and guest vocals by Maren Morris and Brittney Spencer, the album is filled with revealing and autobiographical songs that crackle with pain, resentment, longing, anger, and ennui.
Searing with a renewed sense of creativity, and a bonded connectivity with Rothman, Shires gave birth to the new material through her own unique process. She explains, “My writing process is I take the journals that I have kept and go through with a highlighter and pick out words, partial lines, ideas, or themes. Sometimes just a metaphor or something my daughter has said or an observation. Then I copy all highlighted words onto an index card with a black Sharpie and I put the index cards in a box. Then I put the journals in the shredder, and I put the shredder in the compost, which goes to my tomatoes in the summer.” In less than a month Shires had written 26 songs deciphering what had been going through her mind, from 2018, where her ‘To the Sunset’ album left off, to the present.
Highlights on the album include the “moody” and “anthemic” (BrooklynVegan) ‘Hawk For The Dove‘, the “tender” (Consequence) ‘Empty Cups‘ featuring Maren Morris, the haunting title track ‘Take It Like A Man‘ which Stereogum called an” intense rumination,” and the seductive ‘Bad Behavior’. ‘Fault Lines’ was the first song Shires wrote for the album, which The New York Times fittingly noted is “perhaps the most devastating song” on the album in a recent extensive Arts & Leisure profile on Shires.
