The Pershing Listening Room Welcomes: Amanda Shires

AMANDA SHIRES

Songs That Cut Deep and Leave a Mark

Live at Pershing Hall – April 16th, 2026

A Fearless Voice in Americana Music

Amanda Shires has never been interested in playing it safe. From the moment she stepped into the Americana conversation, fiddle in hand and truth on her sleeve, she’s carved out a lane that’s sharp-edged, emotionally fearless, and impossible to ignore. Her songs don’t just tell stories—they confess, confront, and occasionally burn things down so something truer can rise from the ashes.

Born in Lubbock, Texas, Shires grew up steeped in the traditions of country music, but tradition was never going to contain her. She mastered the fiddle young, touring early, sharpening her musicianship on the road before most artists find their voice. By the time she emerged as a songwriter, she already understood how to bend genre to her will—mixing classic country instrumentation with indie-rock sensibility, poetic self-examination, and a defiant sense of humor.

Her solo catalog reads like a diary written in bold ink. Albums like My Piece of Land, To the Sunset, and Take It Like a Man showcase an artist unafraid to expose the messy, contradictory nature of love, ambition, resentment, and self-worth. Shires writes with the bite of Lucinda Williams, the emotional intelligence of Emmylou Harris, and the left-of-center cool of Neko Case—but the voice is unmistakably her own.

Highwomen and the Power of Collaboration

Shires is also a founding member of The Highwomen, the Grammy-winning supergroup that challenged country music’s long-standing gender imbalance with purpose and power. But even within a collective, she remains singular—an artist whose vulnerability feels radical and whose honesty feels necessary. Her lyrics cut deep, but they never feel performative. They feel lived-in, earned, and sometimes uncomfortably real.

On stage, Amanda Shires is magnetic in a way that sneaks up on you. One moment she’s delivering a gut-punch lyric in near silence, the next she’s sawing through a fiddle solo that feels feral and unrestrained. Her shows balance intimacy and intensity, humor and heartbreak—an experience that feels less like a performance and more like being invited into someone’s inner world for the night.

Intimate Performances at Pershing Hall

At Pershing Hall, that intimacy hits even harder. This is the kind of room where her songs breathe, where every word lands, where the audience leans in instead of shouting over the music. It’s the perfect setting for an artist who thrives on connection rather than spectacle.

Amanda Shires doesn’t chase trends. She challenges them. She doesn’t soften the edges. She sharpens them. And in doing so, she’s become one of the most vital voices in modern American music—an artist who reminds us that vulnerability isn’t weakness, and honesty is still the most powerful thing you can put on a stage. See her at Pershing Hall on April 16, offering a rare chance to experience her songs the way they’re meant to be heard—up close, unguarded, and deeply felt.

This is not just a concert. It’s a reckoning. Grab your tickets here.