What happens when two musicians get divorced? If Amanda Shires and Jason Isbell’s 2025 albums are any indication, it’s a double-dose of Blood on the Tracks.
After a decade-long marriage that also involved regular artistic collaboration, Isbell formally filed for divorce from Shires in 2023, a process that concluded officially earlier this year. Celebrity divorces of all kinds invite speculation and voyeurism, but a particular watchfulness emerged for these two songwriters, and for understandable reasons. Both have a history of personal openness in their lyrics – think of Isbell‘s best-known number, the ballad “Cover Me Up”.
Then, the 2023 HBO documentary Running with Our Eyes Closed further opened the shutters…