There is a mild buzz outside the open door of Amanda Shires ’ dressing room backstage at the Grand Ole Opry House. “Sorry, there’s a tour going on out there,” she says, looking over a visitor’s shoulder at the gaggle, “and they’re gonna probably ask to peek in.” She’s leaving her door open for producers to come find her as she prepares to rehearse for what will be the public premiere of her new single, “A Way It Goes,” on this Saturday evening. It’s not necessarily what you’d immediately identify as a country song, per se, but the Opry does love a woman who can play a mean fiddle, as Shires does, when she is not strictly focused on belting out some of the most bracingly confessional songs being written in any American genre.

Speaking of asking to peek in: that’s why we’re here, too. Not

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