Texas-born Amanda Shires first broke onto the country scene with her debut album, ‘Being Brave’, back in 2005. Since then she’s become one of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters around, winning plaudits for her delicate vocals, raw and honest lyrics and incredible fiddle playing. She’s released seven solo studio albums – most recently 2022’s ‘Take It Like A Man’ – and played at C2C and Black Deer Festival, as well as performing as part of The Highwomen and alongside husband Jason Isbell in the band The 400 Unit. Now she’s out on a short run of UK tour dates, including a stop last night at Omeara in London.
Arriving on stage around 9.15 to the atmospheric ‘You Want It Darker’ by Leonard Cohen, along with her four-piece band, Shires kicked off her set with ‘Parking Lot Pirouette’ from her 2018 album ‘To The Sunset’. Before the song she and the band played a slow, shuffling intro which showed off their musical skills, particularly keyboard player Pete’s delicate touch and the folky quality of her fiddle playing. The track itself had a swampy, sensual feeling and saw her deliver some incredible soaring vocals, particularly towards the end when she burst into one particularly huge note! As the song drew to an end the audience burst into huge cheers and that set the tone for the rest of the evening.
Unsurprisingly most of Shires’ set focused on ‘Take It Like A Man’, which she played almost in full. ‘My Own Galaxy’ was an early highlight, providing the first of many moments throughout the show where Shires broke away from her microphone stand to rock out and jam with her band, whilst the seductive, sweeping ‘Hawk For The Dove’ drew a huge crowd response and ‘Take It Like A Man’ provided a moment of drama as well as highlighting the brittleness of Shires’ vocals along with her distinctive drawl. Elsewhere, ‘Empty Cups’ brought out the rasp in her voice with its raw, almost brutal lyrics, ‘Lonely At Night’ had a jazzy quality that contrasted its bittersweet message and ‘Here He Comes’ featured a funky, retro-influenced groove, with Shires dropping to her knees as she sang the biting, kiss-off lyrics.
However, for me the highlight was hearing ‘Highwomen’, the signature track of Shires’ supergroup with Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby and Maren Morris. Before the song she spoke incredibly passionately about how she was inspired to set up the band and wanting to share the stories of the women who’d gone before her. It was an incredibly moving moment, particularly as the audience sang along on the chorus, and got the biggest cheer of the night by far. I also really liked her delicate delivery on ‘Bad Behaviour’, the dreamy organ-like melody of ‘Stupid Love (which beautifully captures the feeling of first falling for someone) and ‘Don’t Be Alarmed’, which brilliantly paired a stripped-back arrangement with brutally frank lyrics.
One thing which particularly stood out to me was Shires’ engagement with the audience. She came across as incredibly warm and personable on stage, frequently breaking off to crack jokes and telling herself to stop talking between songs – though I genuinely don’t think the crowd would have minded if she’d chatted away to us all night! I felt she really blossomed in the small, intimate setting of Omeara and it was lovely to see her with a more relaxed vibe about her performance too.
Shires closed the main portion of her set with ‘Look Like A Bird’ from her 2013 record ‘Down Fell The Doves’. She introduced the track with a whoop before breaking into the stomping rhythm and clipped, punchy lyrics, showing off the belt in her voice throughout, as well as giving her band members a chance to shine with individual solos and delivering a sharp, spiky fiddle break. After she and her band left the stage briefly to enormous whoops and cheers from the crowd – who didn’t let up for a minute – they returned to play two songs from her brand new record, ‘Loving You’, which Shires recorded with Bobbie Nelson (sister of the legendary Willie) and which was released overnight. ‘Always On My Mind’ featured a sweet piano line that blended really nicely with the warmth and affection in Shires’ vocal, whilst ‘Summertime’ transported us to a smoky Prohibition-era bar and made me long for a whole album of Shires covering jazz standards – her voice just suited the song so perfectly.
Overall Amanda Shires delivered a triumphant performance that showed not only her range as a vocalist, but also her incredible musical skills and talents as a lyricist. She had an incredible connection with the audience – who clearly loved her as much as she loved them – and provided an electric atmosphere that kept everyone in the room absolutely enthralled. My only complaint was that it was too short! But I was wowed from start to finish, and I really hope it’s not too long before she’s back over in the UK again playing to even bigger crowds.
Set list: 1. Parking Lot Pirouette 2. My Own Galaxy 3. Bad Behaviour 4. Hawk For The Dove 5. Take It Like A Man 6. Stupid Love 7. Empty Cups 8. Lonely At Night 9. Don’t Be Alarmed 10. Fault Lines 11. Here He Comes 12. Highwomen 13. Look Like A Bird Encore: 14. Always On My Mind 15. Summertime Performance date: 22nd June 2023
Amanda Shires’ new album, ‘Loving You’ with Bobbie Nelson, is out now on ATO Records.
See Amanda on tour in the UK this week:
Friday 23rd June – Exchange, Bristol
Saturday 24th June – Rough Trade East, London
