Down Fell the Doves

Down Fell the Doves
photo of Amanda Shires wearing a gauzy white top leaning far back and looking up to the sky with her hands in her hair
Studio album by
Amanda Shires
ReleasedAugust 6, 2013 (2013-08-06)[1]
StudiosChase Park Transduction (Athens, Georgia)[2]
Genres
Length38:36[1]
LabelLightning Rod Records
ProducerAndy LeMaster[2]
Amanda Shires chronology
Carrying Lightning
(2011)		 Down Fell the Doves
(2013)		 My Piece of Land
(2016)

Down Fell the Doves is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Amanda Shires. The album was recorded in Athens, Georgia at Chase Park Transduction and produced by Andy LeMaster. Released on August 6, 2013 on the Lightning Rod Records label, the album features strong songwriting and fiddle interludes by Shires, accompanied by Jason Isbell and members of his band the 400 Unit.[3][4][5]

Background

Shires experienced several significant events in the months during and following the May 2011 release of her highly-acclaimed third album, Carrying Lightning. A four-year relationship with Rod Picott, which had included collaboration on the album Sew Your Heart with Wires in 2009, ended.[6][7] An onstage accident destroyed the favorite antique violin Shires had played for fifteen years.[7]

Concentrating on her poetry skills to improve her songwriting, Shires began pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree at Sewanee.[3][8] However, as she was enjoying summer with classmates at Saint Andrews Lake near the university campus, Shires suffered a major fracture of her left ring finger while using a rope swing.[9] The injury required surgery and permanent pins to repair, and forced Shires to relearn much of her violin fingering technique during a slow rehabilitation period.[10][11] Shires experienced almost no muscle use in the finger for over two years, time she spent fearing permanent loss, before the finger gained some strength as she drew inspiration from knowing of similar performing obstacles overcome by jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt and fellow country performer and mentor Billy Joe Shaver.[9]

Adding to anticipation for a new album, Shires was named Artist of the Year 2011 by Texas Music magazine,[8] appearing on the publication's Winter 2012 cover.[12] As she was preparing Down Fell the Doves, Shires and Jason Isbell began a relationship that evolved into heavy drinker Isbell's sobriety, the couple's marriage, and several years of musical tenure together in the studio and on tours.[13]

Reception

Album reviewers wrote that Shires' songwriting and playing on Down Fell the Doves showed she had moved on from her beginnings as a Western swing fiddle player, and that the album convincingly established her as a highly talented songwriter and musical stylist.[14][15] Comments also noted that songwriting talent was primarily involved in explorations of troubling topics, often whimsically through dark humor.[3][10]

One song critics pointed to as illustrative of this is "A Song for Leonard Cohen", in which Shires intones, over Isbell's tinkling lounge piano, a fantasy meetup where she and Leonard Cohen walk together while the renowned songwriter talks, and then is left to pay their bar tab because Shires has forgotten her wallet.[5][10][16]

"Box Cutters", in which Shires playfully catalogues her likes and dislikes about various contemplated methods of suicide, and "Bulletproof", a fantasy about being invincible as the result of receiving a real tiger claw from a fan who told her it was a charm that would make Shires bulletproof also caught reviewers' attention.[3][9][14]

In a highly favorable review, No Depression writer Michael Bialas highlighted Shires' writing talent and a powerful desire to educate herself as guaranteeing the excellence of Down Fell the Doves:

Though she’s as modest as her upbringing in Lubbock, Shires has a way with words that goes far beyond her 31 years.
Yet the wise wordsmith acts nothing like a know-it-all. In fact, her favorite word in the English language must be learn. Because during a conversation that lasted nearly an hour, she used that action verb almost 30 times while discussing, among many other subjects, her eternal quest for knowledge.[9]

The album's title is found in the final song, "The Garden (What a Mess)", a post-breakup lament with haunting fiddle breakouts.[8][9]

Track listing

All songs by Amanda Shires[1][2]

  1. "Look Like a Bird" - 3:29
  2. "Devastate" - 3:18
  3. "Bulletproof" - 4:13
  4. "Box Cutters" - 2:36
  5. "Deep Dark Below" - 3:21
  6. "Wasted and Rollin'" - 3:52
  7. "If I..." - 2:14
  8. "Stay" - 3:54
  9. "The Drop and Lift" - 3:37
  10. "A Song for Leonard Cohen" - 3:53
  11. "The Garden (What a Mess)" - 4:09

Personnel

as listed on the CD sleeve:[2]

Musicians

  • Amanda Shires - vocals, violins, ukuleles
  • Jason Isbell - guitars, vocals, piano on (10)
  • Andy LeMaster - guitar, noise, vocals
  • Chad Gamble - drums
  • Jimbo Hart - bass

On (8) "Stay":

  • Chad Fisher - trombone
  • Joel Gransden - trumpet
  • Brad Guin - tenor saxophone
  • Chad Fisher, Amanda Shires - horn arrangements

Production

  • Andy LeMaster - producer, engineering, mixing
  • Will Manning - assistant engineer
  • Alex McCollough - mastering
  • Erica Shires - photography
  • Dirk Fowler - layout, design

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Down Fell the Doves - Amanda Shires". AllMusic. Archived from the original on December 2, 2025. Retrieved December 1, 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Down Fell the Doves (CD digisleeve). Nashville: Lightning Rod Records. 2013. LRR-78764.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Hight, Jewly (August 22, 2013). "Amanda Shires, whimsically fierce songwriter, has been hiding in plain sight". Nashville Scene. Retrieved July 30, 2026.
  4. ↑ Cockburn, John (October 12, 2013). "Amanda Shires Drips Passion From her Phrases on "Down Fell The Doves"". No Depression. Archived from the original on December 2, 2025. Retrieved December 1, 2025.
  5. 1 2 Horowitz, Hal (August 13, 2021). "Amanda Shires - Down Fell the Doves". American Songwriter. Archived from the original on August 27, 2025. Retrieved December 1, 2025.
  6. ↑ Zimmerman, Lee (August 18, 2016). "Amanda Shires Strikes Solo Magic On 'My Piece of Land' & Talks Family Life With Husband Jason Isbell (INTERVIEW)". Glide Magazine. Archived from the original on May 12, 2025. Retrieved July 30, 2026.
  7. 1 2 "Violinist Amanda Shires Picks Up The Pieces". NPR. August 4, 2013. Archived from the original on March 25, 2025. Retrieved July 30, 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 Skanse, Richard (July 1, 2013). "LSM Cover Story: Amanda Shires". Lone Star Music Magazine. Retrieved July 30, 2026.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Bialas, Michael (August 5, 2013). "Love and Learn With Amanda Shires". No Depression. Archived from the original on March 8, 2026. Retrieved July 30, 2026.
  10. 1 2 3 Conway, Tom (January 14, 2014). "Shires gravitates to gloomy songs". South Bend Tribune. Retrieved July 30, 2026.
  11. ↑ Wildsmith, Steve (February 26, 2014). "Fiddler, songwriter Amanda Shires takes flight on the wings of 'Doves'". The Daily Times. Retrieved July 30, 2026.
  12. ↑ "Winter 2012 Archives". Texas Music. Retrieved July 30, 2026.
  13. ↑ White, Abby (October 25, 2013). "Write On: Amanda Shires". BMI. Archived from the original on May 13, 2026. Retrieved July 30, 2026.
  14. 1 2 Salamon, Jeff (August 2013). "No Strings Attached – Texas Monthly". Texas Monthly. Archived from the original on September 16, 2023. Retrieved July 30, 2026.
  15. ↑ MacIntosh, Dan (2013). "Down Fell The Doves". Country Standard Time. Archived from the original on October 8, 2025. Retrieved July 31, 2026.
  16. ↑ Hermes, Will (September 5, 2013). "Down Fell the Doves". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on August 18, 2025. Retrieved July 30, 2026.
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