US singer Amanda Shires for Monroe’s concert

US singer Amanda Shires is on her way to Bath, the latest stop on a tour of the UK and Ireland, which will see her visit Monroe’s Live on Friday, May 30. Before the UK she was in Australia, playing fiddle with her husband Jason Isbell, who’s the lead singer with the acclaimed Drive-By Truckers. “I saw some kangaroos – it was great!” says Amanda. “After Australia we had a couple of weeks off, then we came over here. I don’t think I have jetlag but then I do something stupid and realise that I might. It’s a good thing to blame stuff on!” Texas-born Amanda is touring to promote her fourth solo album, Down Fell the Doves. It’s a melodic record, with subtle changes in dynamic and atmosphere. “I think most of that has to do with the producer I used, Andy LeMaster from Athens, Georgia,” says Amanda, whose voice has previously been compared to Emmylou Harris’s and Dolly Parton’s. “I don’t really have a way to communicate the sounds in my head and he was really good at translating what I was trying to describe into real terms.” One of the most winning tracks on Down Fell the Doves is Bulletproof. It opens like a short story, with a character called Tiger Bill giving someone ‘a real Siberian Tiger claw’. In this case, however, truth is stranger than fiction.