Carrying Lightning

Carrying Lightning is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Amanda Shires. Self-published and released on May 3, 2011, the album was co-produced by Shires, David Henry, and Rod Picott. Writing in The Austin Chronicle, reviewer Jim Caligiuri wrote that the album "finds her balancing dusky overtones with occasional buoyancy. In the process, the fiddler and singer-songwriter lands somewhere between the perkiness of Dolly Parton, whom she resembles vocally on occasion, and the disquieting poetry of Richard Buckner".
In a list published by American Songwriter, the magazine ranked the third track on the album "When You Need a Train It Never Comes" as the fifth-best song of 2011.

Track listing

All songs by Amanda Shires except :

"Swimmer..." - 3:07
"Ghost Bird" - 3:46
"When You Need a Train It Never Comes" - 4:13
"She Let Go of Her Kite" - 3:46
"Love Be a Bird" - 3:09
"Shake the Walls" - 3:19
"Detroit or Buffalo" - 4:06
"Sloe Gin" - 4:24
"Kudzu" - 2:54
"Bees in the Shed" - 4:04
"Lovesick I Remain" - 3:13
"Swimmer... Dreams Don't Keep" - 2:01

Personnel

as listed on the CD sleeve:

Musicians

Amanda Shires – fiddle, ukulele, strings, whistling, vocals
David Henry – strings, percussion, pianos
Chris Scruggs – steel guitar
Rod Picott – acoustic guitar, electric guitar
Tommy Perkinson – drums, percussion, toy piano
Neal Casal – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, harmony vocal
Paul Slivka – bass
Will Kimbrough – electric guitar
Colt Miller – banjo, acoustic guitar
Kris Killingsworth – drums
Steph Dickinson – upright bass

Production

Amanda Shires – producer
David Henry – producer, recording,, engineering, and mixing
Rod Picott – producer
Alan Crossland – recording
Kelly Amber Garcia – design