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Listen: Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, Amanda Shires, Natalie Hemby Are The Highwomen

By Stephen Thompson
Published July 19, 2019 at 9:00 AM CDT
The Highwomen, left to right: Natalie Hemby, Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris and Amanda Shires.
Alysse Gafkjen
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Courtesy of the artist
The Highwomen, left to right: Natalie Hemby, Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris and Amanda Shires.

In 1985, a team of country-music legends formed The Highwaymen, a supergroup combining the talents of Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson. It somehow took 34 years for someone to think of a perfectly named counterpart, but now we've got The Highwomen, featuring Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, Amanda Shires and Nashville songwriting force Natalie Hemby.

The new band, which announced its existence just a few months ago, will release its self-titled, Dave Cobb-produced debut album on Sept. 6. Today, it's launched its first single and video, "Redesigning Women."

Directed by Elizabeth Olmstead, the video mixes footage of The Highwomen's stars with a delightful mix of country-music legends ( Tanya Tucker! Wynonna Judd!) and up-and-comers ( Cam! Erin Rae!). The album follows in a similar collaborative spirit, with guest contributions from Sheryl Crow, Jason Isbell, Lori McKenna, Miranda Lambert, Ray LaMontagne and more.

"Anyone can be a Highwoman," Carlile says in the band's press materials. "It's about banding together, abandoning as much ego as humanly possible, holding one another up and amplifying other women every chance we get. Shoulder to shoulder. One push, one love."

The Highwomen comes out Sept. 26 via . The group will make its live concert debut at the Newport Folk Festival on July 26. Album artwork and full track list below:

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1. "Highwomen" (written by Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires & Jimmy Webb)
2. "Redesigning Women" (written by Natalie Hemby & Rodney Clawson)
3. "Loose Change" (written by Maren Morris, Maggie Chapman & Daniel Layus)
4. "Crowded Table" (written by Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby & Lori McKenna)
5. "My Name Can't Be Mama" (written by Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris & Amanda Shires)
6. "If She Ever Leaves Me" (written by Amanda Shires, Jason Isbell & Chris Thompkins)
7. "Old Soul" (written by Maren Morris, Luke Dick & Laura Veltz)
8. "Don't Call Me" (written by Amanda Shires & Peter Levin)
9. "My Only Child" (written by Natalie Hemby, Amanda Shires & Miranda Lambert)
10. "Heaven Is a Honky Tonk" (written by Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby & Ray LaMontagne)
11. "Cocktail and a Song" (written by Amanda Shires)
12. "Wheels of Laredo" (written by Brandi Carlile, Tim Hanseroth & Phil Hanseroth)

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Country Music
Stephen Thompson
Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)
See stories by Stephen Thompson