Amanda Shires

Carrying Lightning

A Lubbock native some may remember from the Thrift Store Cowboys, Amanda Shires has delivered a second disc that finds her balancing dusky overtones with occasional buoyancy. In the process, the fiddler and singer-songwriter lands somewhere between the perkiness of Dolly Parton, whom she resembles vocally on occasion, and the disquieting poetry of Richard Buckner. Consider the haunting and dynamic “When You Need a Train It Never Comes” a late candidate for song of the year.

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This article appears in November 25 • 2011.

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