Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires, whose marital problems became public with the release of their 2020 album “Reunions,” are going their separate ways in their personal lives after he filed for divorce.
The “Cover Me Up” singer-songwriter filed for dissolution of his second marriage on Dec. 15, according to online court records from Williamson County, Tennessee, just south of Nashville.
Isbell, who branched out last year to play Bill Smith in Martin Scorsese's “Killers of the Flower Moon,” married Shires, a singer-songwriter and violinist, in 2013 after the two had worked together on and off for years. The 45-year-old musician was previously married to musician Shonna Tucker from 2002 to 2007.
Shires formed the female supergroup Highwomen, which also included Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby and Maren Morris. The 41-year-old musician has been a member of Isbell's band, 400 Unit, and was the inspiration for his song “Cover Me Up,” which was covered with great success by Morgan Wallen on his album “Dangerous.”
“Put your faith to the test when I ripped your dress off / In Richmond on high,” go the lyrics of “Cover Me Up,” which appeared on Isbell’s album “Southeastern” in 2013. “But I pulled myself together and swore off. those things / Forever this time. / And the old lovers sing: 'I thought it would be me / Who helped him get home.' / But my home was a dream, one I had never seen / Until you came along.”
Isbell is known to have sobered up after an intervention in 2012, which influenced the songs on “Southeastern.” That sobriety “made a difference,” she told The Times in 2016. “She had so much time and so much focus that she didn't have before. That was really the story. She gave me a story to tell and she gave people a reason to support me.”
But during the pandemic, Shires posted index cards with promising song ideas on his walls, he told The Times in 2022. Some of them referenced how distant his marriage to Isbell had become. Still, she played guitar when she recorded “Fault Lines” for her solo album “Take It Like a Man.”
“You could say it's all my fault / We just couldn't get along / And if anyone asks, I'll say what's true / And really, I just don't know,” go the lyrics of “Fault Lines.”
“At one point I said, 'It would be easier if someone had cheated,'” Isbell told the New York Times in May 2020, around the release that month of “Reunions.” “Then we could say, 'You did this' or 'I did this' and 'Someone needs to be really sorry.' But it was more like, 'We don't know each other right now.' We can't speak the same language.'”
“It was impossible,” Shires told the NYT of his partner's behavior while filming. “It was like he wanted help but he didn't want help.”
The 2023 documentary “Running With Our Eyes Closed,” filmed when Isbell was filming “Reunions” and during the early part of the pandemic, revealed that the couple had been on the verge of divorcing at the time.
Isbell and Shires share an 8-year-old daughter, Mercy.
