Amanda Shires & Jason Isbell Examine Abortion in Brilliant New Song

Plus: Seth Rogen vs. Ted Cruz, and a somewhat obscure classic by Joni Mitchell

You may have noticed here, just in the past two weeks, that I consider Jason Isbell our finest current songwriter. His wife, Amanda Shires, is excellent in her own right in that regard and, besides her solo albums, she had a hit not long ago with the Americana supergroup, The Highwomen. (She also plays violin in her husband’s band.) They are often politically engaged, with Amanda particularly outspoken on women’s issues. This past Friday on The Tonight Show they performed their new, jointly-penned song, “The Problem,” to mark the 48th anniversary of newly-imperiled Roe v. Wade. It’s a brilliant and moving portrayal of two people confronting a decision on abortion, and so (after the usual collection of short takes) you will find my full appreciation below, plus a comment sent to me by Jason last night. But first, that appearance on the Fallon show on Friday, with Amanda in a My Body, My Choice sweater. Or as she has put it, “Fuck it, who needs a career if we have no rights to our bodies?” If you like, subscribe to this daily newsletter, it’s still free.

We don’t heart Huckabee—but love Rogen vs. Cruz

Sarah Huckabee Sanders will announce today that she is running for governor of Arkansas. Fox News’ loss will be…nobody’s gain. A congenital liar as Trump press secretary, she should announce that she is not running—if she wants us to believe that she is….Meanwhile, Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) announced today he will not seek re-election in 2022 due to “gridlock” which, naturally, he perpetuated. Let’s hope Jim Jordan tries for it, fails, and thereby loses seat in the House.

Quote of the Day An aide to Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the GOP leader, tells Axios: "We're eating shit for breakfast, lunch and dinner right now.” Not satisfied until this also covers all snacking and desserts.

Ted Cruz has been a big loser lately and now he’s been humiliated in a battle with…actor Seth Rogen. After Rogen on Sunday called Cruz “a fascist piece of shit,” the Texas senator responded by labeling the movie man a “moron” and “a Marxist with Tourette’s,” and ranted that “a lot of folks in Hollywood are conservative—& muzzled by the fascist Left.” To this, Sarah Silverman advised: “The same politicians who push this blame-Hollywood bullshit are always the ones that end up on Dancing With The Stars.”

But Seth claimed: “This isn’t a Twitter ‘feud.’ Ted Cruz tried to overthrow our government. He inspired a deadly mob to storm the Capitol. And I think that deserves ridicule. So fuck him.” Then Beto O’Rourke jumped in himself: “Why does he keep this fight going with Seth Rogen even though he’s getting destroyed at every turn? Because he’s guilty of sedition. He’s hoping distraction & time diminish the urgency of accountability. Don’t let him change the channel or the subject, it is sedition every time.”

New report that Pat Leahy, the Senate pro-tem, and not Chief Justice Roberts, will preside over Trump impeachment trial. Apparently the Chief Justice only does it when the indicted is still in office.

Elvis Costello, Sting and Billy Joel are among the artists teaming up to try to save NYC’s famed “Birdland” jazz club, which included a streaming concert last night with appearances by everyone from Jeff Daniels to saxophone giant Bill Clinton. All of the jazz greats played or hung out there back in the day. Miles Davis got beat up by a cop right on the sidewalk out front. It is no longer at its most famous location near 52nd Street and Broadway, which I know very well because my office was once directly upstairs, when I helped re-launch the legendary Crawdaddy magazine in 1971. More on that—and the bullet hole over my desk—here soon.

Hawley mackerel: Yes, Senator Josh is even worse than we imagined. A new report at the Kansas City Star found that he had a history of standing up for racists and extremists—from L.A. cop Mark Fuhrman to gut-toting militia members (even in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing)—that stunned his early mentors.

The Problem

Amanda Shires started writing “The Problem” many years ago, drawing on her own abortion a decade ago, and conversations at that time with a female friend and with Jason Isbell early in their relationship. Isbell was barely into his recovery from addiction, a path that Shires had put him on/ This likely saved his career (after getting booted out of the Drive-By Truckers) and possibly his life. They now have a five-year-old daughter.

"There was the time that needed to take place to settle with the experience, and to prepare to put it out in the world and have it there for people to judge," she told a reporter. The appointment of Amy Comey Barrett to the Supreme Court gave the songwriter the spark she needed to complete the song. Then she recorded a version with an all-woman singing cast including Nona Hendryx, Cyndi Lauper and Linda Perry, under the title, “Our Problem.” (Original lyrics here.)

But at the same time, “Jason and I were talking about it,” she has revealed, “and then we decided to rewrite it for the two of us to sing.” When it was completed last fall, she wrote a column for Rolling Stone. She tried it out with her husband in a couple of “live” appearances and finally recorded it with Isbell (and Sheryl Crow on bass), changing the title slightly from “Our Problem” to “The Problem.” The aim was to release it to coincide with the Roe v. Wade anniversary, with all proceeds going to the Yellowhammer Fund, the abortion rights and reproductive justice organization.

“The song should've already been written,” she told a reporter. “That's the truth, and that’s the problem: We get to see lots of dudes out there singing about how much they love life, or going to work in a factory, or riding around in a car, or whatever. It's important to sing about what scares me and moves me in the hopes that, maybe, we can get somewhere and find some kind of common ground….I like to write all sorts of songs, but I'm kind of leaning into the fact that, as cliched as it sounds, I genuinely want this world to be easier for my daughter.” But what about likely alienating some of her fans, particularly in the South?

She wrote in Rolling Stone:

My right to a safe abortion can be granted at no cost to the members of my community or my fellow American citizens. My choice does not change their lives. For this reason, I believe it is not the role of the federal or state government to deny us the right to make our own reproductive choices….

I hope fans know that I’m on their side and [my husband] Jason is too. I hope that the video reminds folks that some conversations are really hard to have…and being vulnerable doesn’t make you weak.

I asked Jason about the reaction to the couple unveiling the song on the Fallon show the other night. “Everything I saw or heard after the performance aired was positive,” he wrote quickly in a reply from Nashville, with Amanda away mixing a new album. “Most folks were glad to know they weren’t alone. It’s easy to get angry at a short statement on social media, but we worked hard to get that song right. Once you’ve actually heard it, you see it’s about supporting someone you love through an incredibly hard experience.”

Here are the key stanzas.

We were just eighteen
The older girls could be so mean
Talking just to talk
You were still in shock

And all I could think to say
Was everything's gonna be okay
It's gonna be alright
I'm on your side
I'm on your side

What do you want to do?
I'm scared to even say the truth
This has been the hardest year
Is it even legal here?

I'm trying not to think of names
Will you look at me the same?
Do you need the reasons why?
Is a chrysalis a butterfly?

And all I could think to say
Was everything's gonna be okay
It's gonna be alright
I'm on your side
I'm on your side

And no one has to know
The scars won't even show
At least that's what I've heard

No bigger than a baby bird

Do you think God still sees me?
Coming out of this twilight sleep
I'm not sure who I am
Staring into my empty hands

And all I could think to say
Was everything's gonna be okay
It's gonna be alright
I'm on your side
I'm on your side

Song Pick of the Day

A classic Joni Mitchell song from 1994, not known by many fans of her earlier work, on the scandal of “The Magdalene Laundries,” where so many sexually-abused girls and women in Ireland suffered for so long.

Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books, including the bestseller The Tunnels (on escapes under the Berlin Wall), the current The Beginning or the End (on MGM’s wild atomic bomb movie), and The Campaign of the Century (on Upton Sinclair’s left-wing race for governor of California), which was recently picked by the Wall St. Journal as one of five greatest books ever about an election. For nearly all of the 1970s he was the #2 editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. Later he won more than a dozen awards as editor of Editor & Publisher magazine. He recently co-produced a film about Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and now has written and directed his first feature, Atomic Cover-up, which will have its American premiere at a festival this spring.