The Highwomen

A spirited collaboration between four of country's brightest stars, the Highwomen offer an engaging blend of stellar harmonies, strong and tuneful melodies, and sometimes witty, sometimes pointed songwriting with a feminist outlook. The quartet of Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, Amanda Shires, and Natalie Hemby were all at the peak of their popularity when they joined forces to combat the lack of female voices on country radio. The Highwomen's self-titled debut album, released in 2019, was an immediate critical and commercial success, and they offered fans a souvenir of their live show on 2026's Live at the Gorge 2023. When the Highwomen appeared in 2019, every member of the quartet was at a peak in her respective roots niche. Singer/songwriter Carlile was fresh off winning three Grammy Awards and Morris was at the vanguard of country-pop, while Shires' cult was growing thanks to the atmospheric Americana of To the Sunset and Hemby's reputation as a country songwriter was at a peak, thanks to her contributions to Kacey Musgraves' Golden Hour and Miranda Lambert's The Weight of These Wings. The origins of the supergroup lie with Shires, who noticed how few women she heard on country radio while she was on a cross-country tour. Producer Dave Cobb, who was working with Shires on To the Sunset, suggested Shires contact Carlile, who quickly agreed to form a group with the singer/songwriter. Morris was the next to join. The trio initially hinted at the Highwomen in the press and social media during late 2018, with Shires making the band's name public during a radio interview in January 2019. Shires claimed the Highwomen was a play on the Highwaymen (a country supergroup featuring veteran performers Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson), but the name was meant as "exalted, not stoned." The fourth member of the group was kept secret until the Highwomen played Loretta Lynn's 87th birthday concert at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena. At the concert, Hemby was unveiled as the band's fourth member. "Redesigning Women," the first single from the group's eponymous Cobb-produced debut album, arrived July 19, 2019, a week before the full quartet played their first full set at the Newport Folk Festival. Low Country Sound/Elektra released The Highwomen on September 6, 2019. Among the album's songs was a new version of "Highwaymen," which was revised with the assistance of its original author, Jimmy Webb. In 2023, the Highwomen came together to perform at the Gorge Ampitheatre in Grant County, Washington, as part of Brandi Carlile's Echoes Through the Canyon Festival. As the foursome prepared to play the 2026 edition of the festival, they helped promote the event with Live at the Gorge 2023, a digital release of the 2023 concert that featured guest appearances from Brittney Spencer, Tanya Tucker, and Allison Russell. Live at the Gorge 2023 was issued in May 2026. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Mark Deming, Rovi