Amanda Shires will release her first Christmas album – For Christmas – on 12th November. The first single of which ‘Gone for Christmas’ is available now here.
Grammy-award winning singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Amanda Shires has announced the release of her first-ever Christmas album, the free-spirited For Christmas, out November 12 on Thirty Tigers. Pre-order the album here. Shires has also shared the first track and music video from the album, “Gone For Christmas.”
The sublimely offbeat “Gone for Christmas” slinks along in a Grinch-inspired groove as Shires shares a litany of less-than-orthodox holiday wishes (“I want a date with Larry David/I want Costa Rica or the Caymans/And I want you gone for Christmas”). One of several tracks on the forthcoming holiday album featuring legendary gospel quartet The McCrary Sisters, the song oozes with refreshing attitude. The music video, co-created & directed by Amanda and Deren Ney, reflects the song’s empowering sentiment, with Shires playfully strutting in a variety of scenes with carefree abandon, while shots pan to her own private plane and radio station, both on her Christmas-wish-list.
Speaking about the track Amanda explains, “’Gone for Christmas’is a truth. You’re going to ask for things for Christmas, so what do you really want? I liked the idea of the outlandish mixed with how you actually feel. We actually feel like, ‘Oh my, I’m so tired of all this shit, and I want a different scene.’ But maybe you don’t want really that, but you just want to say extreme things. I was thinking of the ultimate Christmas list, and then at the end, I was thinking about how most of the items on it were impossible.”
On For Christmas, Amanda invites the listener into a fantastically warped wonderland of her own making. Though there’s flying reindeer and fallen tinsel and angels serenely plucking harps, Shires’s finespun storytelling sheds light on the kind of holiday experiences and emotions that often go ignored in Christmas songs: the family drama and forced cheer, burnt-out frustration and elaborate fantasies of escaping off to some far-away tropical island. The album unfolds in a selection of piano songs touched with the timeless charm of Brill Building pop. Revealing an entirely new side of Shires’s idiosyncratic mind, the result belongs to that rare breed of holiday music that feels undeniably resonant at any season of the year.
Shires worked with bassist Jimbo Hart (her bandmate in Jason Isbell’s 400 Unit), pianist Peter Levin (a jazz musician she met while touring with The Gregg Allman Band), guitarist Pat Buchanan (Dolly Parton, The Chicks), and drummer Fred Eltringham (Sheryl Crow, Lucinda Williams). Mostly made up of original material from the Texas-bred musician, the album features nine original songs and two covers, including Frank Loesser’s “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” and a darkly-charged reimagining of “Silent Night.”
With nuanced songwriting and boundless originality, Shires has won over a loyal legion of fans with her critically acclaimed solo albums. She’s also collaborated with the likes of John Prine and Justin Townes Earle, toured with such acts as Todd Snider, and earned the 2017 Emerging Artist of the Year prize from the Americana Music Association (AMA). A member of Jason Isbell’s 400 Unit, Amanda also co-founded The Highwomen, a supergroup featuring Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, and Maren Morris. The band hit #1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart with their self-titled 2019 debut. Most recently, Shires released the single, “You Don’t Get To Go,”inspired by a short story by author George Saunders which prompted CMT to rave, “Shires’ use of the ukulele and fiddle…intentionally inspire a fear-filled emotional response.” A dynamic live performer, Amanda’s emotional performance of John Prine’s “I Remember Everything” with Brandi Carlile and Margo Price at the September 2021 Americana Honors and Awards captivated the audience and was deemed a “highlight” of the night by Rolling Stone.
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Follow Amanda Shires: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Spotify | Apple Music | Amazon
