Americana singer/songwriter, fiddle player, and Highwomen member Amanda Shires has announced a new album, Take It Like A Man, out July 29 via ATO Records. Shires’ last solo outings were 2018’s To The Sunset and her 2021 Christmas album. Since then, she teamed with Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris and Natalie Hemby in the Highwomen and worked on 2020’s Reunions and 2021’s Georgia Blue with husband Jason Isbell, with whom she plays as a member of the 400 Unit. Today, Shires has shared the album’s first single, “Hawk For The Dove,” which also has a music video.
Written and recorded during COVID-19 lockdown, Take It Like A Man features Isbell on guitar and guest vocals from Maren Morris, Natalie Hemby and Brittney Spencer. It was produced by Lawrence Rothman (Angel Olsen, Girl In Red), who says of Shires: “I was just mesmerized. I thought she was the new Dolly Parton; Dolly for a new generation.” “Hawk For The Dove,” meanwhile, was written by Shires and Rothman, who also plays keyboards on the track. Spencer is on background vocals, and Isbell is on guitar. “This is the song where Jason finally had enough of the buzz in the studio and switched to a Gretsch,” Shires says. “That was the moment he realized why Chet Atkins loved Gretsch guitars.”
As for the song’s video, that was shot in Santa Monica and directed and edited by Shires and Deren Ney, with an assist from director of photography Michael Schmelling. “I want people to know that it’s okay to be a 40-year-old woman and be more than just a character in somebody else’s life,” Shires says of the clip. “The song and the visual representation of the song deal with the emotions that turn prey into predator.”
Ahead of the album’s release, Shires will do a livestream at Relix Studio in NYC on June 13 at 2PM ET on Twitch’s Relix Channel.
Listen to and watch “Hawk For The Dove” below.
Take It Like A Man is out 7/29 via ATO Records
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