Amanda Shires

“You know when you have a child and then as you get older, your parents start becoming more like your friends and then telling you things they wouldn't have told you when you were 14 or 15, answering questions about the past or whatever.”

“Violin was my first form of expression - and is still in a lot of ways.”

“Of course, life experience changes and adds to writing. And observations change too, where you put yourself in relation to other people.”

“Maybe, whatever influence we have, other songwriters or women or whatever can feel like they can have a place too, I guess. Or that they don't have to do things the way that we've been taught we have to do them.”

“I feel like there's so many voices, and it's necessary for there to be a lot of different voices because we can't all like the same art. That would just be so boring... If anybody wants to hear it, I'm here. It makes for a more interesting world for there to be more than one kind of singer.”

“I wasn't getting any work as a songwriter in Texas because I was only known as a fiddle player.”

“Sometimes you write songs that don't all fit together. What do you, just throw them away? This might be a chance for growth and learning. It could be a horrible fall-on-your-face kind of experiment.”

“I don't know if you've ever shown anyone your work before you're done with it, but it can be very uncomfortable.”

“The goal at the end of the day is for all of us to find a little bit more peace in life and with ourselves and to feel a little more comfortable in the world.”

“Sometimes when you're going through life you're not really noticing it.”

“I consider myself more of a rock 'n' roll fiddler.”

“Instinct is still important, but now I can easily identify problems like cliches and mixed metaphors, and I have a broader palette to work off of.”

“The cool thing about Americana is that the genre is accepting of all types of music.”

“I'm well-read as far as literary fiction, but I wanted to make better decisions about my writing, to use words or phrases more confidently by learning how your words can be interpreted, the shades of meaning, the different connotations.”

“I have no choice in what direction my music goes, honestly, as all I get is what I'm given. I start writing the songs, and they start presenting themselves the way they want to be heard.”

“Because the beauty of songs, I think, is if you do it right a lot of people can relate to it in their own way and make their own meaning out of things.”

“And I also think it's a violin when you're selling it and a fiddle when you're buying it.”

“There's a stability in being a side person that can be kind of dangerous if you also want to be an artist on your own.”

“Sometimes something opens up in your brain as I'm writing, thinking about the song, and it's like a whirlwind. It all comes together and I could hear what I wanted the songs to sound like, I just didn't know how to express it.”

“I can't sing like Aretha Franklin as much as I wish I could. And I don't sing like Etta James and the Judds as much as I wish I could.”