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GRAMMY-winner Amanda\u202fShires\u2019 latest record \u2018Nobody\u2019s Girl,’ from ATO Records, is a melancholic vulnerable journey for the singer-songwriter, offering 12 Americana tracks that promise to emotionally expose then heal and the lead to inevitable empowerment.<\/p>\n
Shires dives deep into the end of a big relationship (her divorce from Jason Isbell was finalised earlier this year), with loss and grief the clear song subjects, that will resonate with anyone else hurting this much, as Shires does on most of the album.<\/p>\n
Lead single \u2018A Way It Goes\u2019, co-written and produced with Lawrence Rothman is delicate, with Shires\u2019 soft voice harmonising to a subtle instrumentation, offering raw lyrics like, \u201cI could tell you I felt like I was dying \/ Hugged my knees to my chest crying.\u201d\u00a0 In their years together, Shires and Isbell always delivered deep with their reality in their songs and Shires continues that here, alone. <\/p>\n
Shires plays fiddle, tenor guitar, and ukulele, all gentle instruments, and this level of sadness was hard to keep listening to without several breaks, making it a somewhat disjointed listening experience \u2013 I prefer to listen to an album in full when I\u2019m reviewing it, so I can see how the songs have been situated together, what journey the artist wants to take the listener on. \u2018Nobody\u2019s Girl’ is the light crying in the corner of a bar, bottle of red nearby kind of listen.<\/p>\n
\u2018Maybe I\u2019 sees Shires channelling a voice that reminds me of a Dolly ballad, fluttering quietly like the wings of a butterfly, to emphasise a vulnerable moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n