Label Silver Knife
Release Date May 03, 2011
Myspace Artist Site Facebook
“I guess the theme of the record as a whole is just, ‘get wrecked in love — and be loved,” declares singer/songwriter and fiddler extraordinaire Amanda Shires. “Or, to steal a quote from Sylvia Plath: ‘Wear your heart on your skin in this life.’ That’s my platform.” We're happy to confirm that particular attitude runs deep and wide through Shires' exceptional new album Carrying Lightning (May 3, Silver Knife), a project that begins with her acoustic traditions of Americana and alt-country -- fiddle, pedal steel twang, shuffled country rhythms -- and then adds in an intriguing and unexpectedly surreal atmosphere of opaque lyrical imagery and Shire's delicately sensuous, vulnerable vibrato. The love child of Dolly Parton and Tom Waits, perhaps?
Raised in West Texas, the teenage instrumentalist schooled in Western Swing eventually headed to Nashville -- “to get uncomfortable and make myself grow some guts" -- cultivating a reputation as an indie roots music star in the making. Following the releases of her critically head-turning '09 album West Coast Timbers, Shires spent the next 16 months writing, touring and then returning back to Nashville for a series of recording sessions. "I was really able to think about which songs fit together the best," Shires says of her extended creative process. "I had a lot of time to sleep on this one." Carrying Lightning's opener "Swimmer, Dreams Don't Keep" lays the groundwork of what's to come, a dreamy stroll that slowly reveals deep desires beneath the placid surface. "You were carrying lightning the way you walked into the room," Shires sings wistfully, "If I was a flower I would’ve opened up and bloomed." Bio, pix, videos after the jump...
Amanda Shires - "Swimmer, Dreams Don't Keep" (from Carrying Lightning)
Amanda Shires - "When You Need A Train It Never Comes" (from Carrying Lightning)
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