Singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Amanda Shires and the late pianist Bobbie Nelson recorded a collaborative album, Loving You, that will be released on June 23 through Silver Knife/ATO Records. Bobbie’s brother and longtime bandmate Willie Nelson appears on the lead single, a cover of the Gershwin classic, “Summertime.”
Bobbie Nelson, a longtime member of Willie Nelson’s Family Band, died in March 2022 at age 91.
“I first saw Bobbie playing when I was 16 or so at some festival somewhere in Texas where I grew up,” Shires stated. “I saw her perform many times over the years and always admired the way she played so effortlessly and with so much strength and confidence. She radiated music. Much of my path seemed possible because I saw a woman working and making a career of music at a young age, and that woman was Bobbie Nelson.”
Shires first met Nelson in 2013 through their mutual friend, harmonica player Mickey Raphael. In April 2021, when Shires was recording her album Take It Like A Man with co-producer Lawrence Rothman, she contacted Nelson to come to the studio to record the Willie Nelson-written “Always On My Mind,” because, as Shires explained, “the only piano that fits that song is Bobbie’s.”
While “Always On My Mind” did not make it on Take It Like A Man when it was released last year, Shires and Nelson instead decided to record an entire album of songs that have served as inspiration for the pair of musicians and included the recording on Loving You. Nelson delivers a solo piano performance on the record’s title track. Other songs recorded by Shires and Nelson included “Over The Rainbow,” “Dream A Little Dream Of Me,” “Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground” and “Waltz Across Texas,” among others.
The video for “Summertime” was co-directed by Shires and Deren Ney and recorded during sessions for the album at Arlyn Studios in Austin, Texas. The studio is owned and run by Bobbie’s son, Freddy Fletcher, who also played drums on the album. Listen to “Summertime” recorded by Amanda Shires and the late Bobbie Nelson and featuring Willie Nelson in the video below:
Loving You Tracklist
- Always On My Mind
- Old Fashioned Love
- Summertime (Feat. Willie Nelson)
- Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground
- Dream A Little Dream Of Me
- Tempted And Tried
- La Paloma
- Loving You
- Over The Rainbow
