Bobbie Nelson And Amanda Shires - Loving You (LP) - White Vinyl

Loving You lands like a late evening in an old Texas room, when the chatter has thinned and every note means something. It is a quiet, generous collaboration between Bobbie Nelson and Amanda Shires, released June 23, 2023, and it feels steeped in gratitude. Nelson, a pianist who spent decades onstage with Willie Nelson and Family, passed in March 2022 at 91. These sessions preserve her touch the way fans remember it, lyrical and unhurried, and they give Shires room to sing with a calm that leans more on feeling than flash.

The album’s concept is simple. Put Bobbie at the piano and let her play songs she loved, while Amanda sings and adds fiddle in the spaces where a voice cannot quite reach. That is the heart of it. The arrangements are spare, so the conversation between piano and vocal carries the weight. You hear it right away in Summertime. Bobbie’s left hand moves with a small, unshakeable swing while her right hand paints the melody in arcs, and Shires shades her vowels like she is standing three feet from the mic at midnight. There is nothing rushed. Every run and rest feels like a memory held up to the light.

Always On My Mind arrives like a letter the family never stops writing. The song will always be tied to Willie, of course, but this version stares straight at regret and keeps its dignity. Bobbie’s chords bloom and fade as if she is breathing the lyric too. Shires keeps the melody close, almost conversational, and saves the lift for the end. It is a restrained reading that trusts the song. On a record of standards and heirlooms, it anchors the mood and tells you what Loving You is really chasing, that tender space where familiarity turns sacred.

What makes the album more than a tribute is the way the two musicians listen to one another. Shires is a founding member of The Highwomen and a fiddle player who cut her teeth in Texas dancehalls, and you can hear that feel for time in the rests she takes. She knows when to tuck in a violin line and when to let the piano answer. Bobbie does what she always did in the Family band, which is set a pocket so deep that everyone else can relax. She had a knack for voicing chords that sound both bluesy and church pure, often in the same bar, and it gives even the lightest tunes a sense of history.

The record also reminds you how much life sits inside standards when you strip them back. Summertime and Always On My Mind are the obvious draws, but the throughline is tone. Quiet confidence. A kind of trust that the songs will carry if the players tell the truth and stay out of the way. You can imagine these takes unfolding in one or two passes, with nods more than talk, and the engineer keeping the room sound intact. There is a little pedal noise here and there, the soft thump of hammers, and it all helps you feel the piano as a living thing.

If you collect Amanda Shires vinyl or you are curious about Bobbie Nelson vinyl, this one earns a front row spot. Loving You vinyl suits an evening listen, low lights, side A then side B without checking your phone. It is the sort of record you recommend to a friend who has just found Willie and wants to know the family story, or to someone filling out a shelf of roots records. If you buy Amanda Shires records online, it is easy to pair this with her Take It Like a Man for a fuller picture of her voice, then circle back to those classic Willie albums where Bobbie’s piano glows in the corners. Folks hunting Amanda Shires albums on vinyl will find this a graceful bridge between eras, a reminder that less can be a lot more.

I keep thinking about how rare it is to hear an album that feels this unforced. No showy solos, no over-arranged swells, just two artists who cared for each other and for the songs. Loving You does not reinvent anything. It does something harder. It lets you sit with the music until the music starts to sit with you. And if you are browsing in a Melbourne record store or scrolling through shops that ship vinyl records Australia wide, put it on your shortlist. Some albums ask for attention. This one earns it by speaking softly and telling the truth.