Amanda Shires

Amanda Shires, Brandi Carlile & Margo Price form supergroup The Highwomen

Exciting country supergroup alert: Amanda Shires appears to have spilled the beans in an interview with WFPK that she’s got a new band with Margo Price and Brandi Carlile. They’re called The Highwomen (a play on Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson’s supergroup The Highwaymen) and Amanda says that they’ll be recording in March, and that the record will feature guests including Sheryl Crow:

I told [Brandi] about this idea I had called The Highwomen, and she was like “I love that idea!” And I was like, “I want you to be in it, I want you to help me run this ’cause I’m terrible at business and stuff, and my voice isn’t as great as yours.” And she’s like, “Yeah I’ll be in your band The Highwomen!” Then we asked Margo and she said yeah. Then we got guests like Sheryl Crow… any women that wanna come in, it’s all inclusive, it’s not like man-haters [laughs].

Amanda also mentions that she’s been co-writing songs with Jim Lauderdale that may be used in the project. And as for how it will sound, she said: “What we wanna do is play more country music, so it’ll be more country.”

Amanda also admitted in the interview that “I don’t even know if I’m supposed to be talking about it,” and she since said on Facebook: “I accidentally jumped the gun when I spoke with WFPK about my idea for a women’s super group called The Highwomen. Brandi and I do have something in the works and we will announce the exact details when it comes to fruition. Just wanted to let you know that nothing is official and this isn’t news yet.”

So I guess we’ll have to wait for official details, but it sounds like there’s already enough reason to get excited. You can listen to the full 19-minute interview, which also includes some stunning acoustic performances from Amanda Shires, at WFPK.

Last year, Amanda Shires released To the Sunset (one of our favorite albums of 2018) and Brandi Carlile released By the Way, I Forgive You. Margo Price’s latest album is 2017’s All American Made, the followup to 2016’s Midwest Farmer’s Daughter (one of our favorite albums of 2016).