Down Fell the Doves
Though primarily known as a fiddle player for a variety of roots-rock and alt.country groups, Amanda Shires has been slowly amassing a catalog of stellar solo albums that declare she\'s a first-rate talent on her own. Marrying fellow alt.country singer/songwriter Jason Isbell inspired both of them to jack up their writing games, each completing a song a day. The results have included Isbell’s impressive 2013 release *Southeastern* and Shires’ equally stunning 2013 release *Down Fell the Doves*. With producer Andy LeMaster (R.E.M., Bright Eyes) keeping the arrangements in sharp austerity and Isbell throwing some dirty guitar on top of Jimbo Hart’s bass and Chad Gamble’s drums, Shires was free to sing without distraction. Her performances on the suicide-cataloging ways of “Boxcutters,” the steadily pulse-raising soul-stealing swamp ballad “Deep Dark Below,” and the thick electric guitar workout “Wasted and Rollin’” are the equal to a quieter tribute to her hero, “A Song for Leonard Cohen.”