© 2024 NPR Illinois
The Capital's Community & News Service
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Amanda Shires On World Cafe

Amanda Shires performs live in the <em>World Cafe</em> studio.
Galea McGregor
/
WXPN
Amanda Shires performs live in the World Cafe studio.

Amanda Shires first hit the road when she was 15 years old, as a fiddler with the Texas Playboys. Between releasing four of her own solo records and playing with the Thrift Store Cowboys or with her husband Jason Isbell's ensemble, The 400 Unit, she's been on the road ever since. Until recently, when — at 34 weeks pregnant — she decided it was time to take a break from the road, waddle home and sit down for a minute. Or at least that was the plan.

Shires found herself alone and overcome with too much excitement, fear, love and creativity to sit still. So she pulled out pen, paper and fiddle and poured it all into My Piece Of Land, a new record born just a few days before her first daughter. Shires visited World Cafe to play songs from that record and to talk about what home and family mean to her now. Hear the complete session in the player above and watch her performance of "When You're Gone" below.

Copyright 2021 XPN. To see more, visit XPN.

Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage, as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6 and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.