The Highwomen have released “Highwomen,” the new single from their forthcoming self-titled debut album. The song features verses from all four members of the country supergroup—that’s Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires, Maren Morris, and Natalie Hemby—and concludes with a group harmony that plays like a mission statement: “We are The Highwomen / Singing stories still untold / We carry the sons you can only hold.”
Carlile and Shires co-wrote the single with Nashville legend Jimmy Webb as a remake of Webb’s 1977 song “Highwayman,” after which Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson’ own supergroup was named. The Highwaymen’s chart-topping rendition of the track would earn Webb a Grammy.
“We asked [Webb] if he wanted to contribute to the rewrite, and we told him what the concept of the movement and the band was, and he wrote us back and said that he felt that it was spot on, and we were complimented by that to no end,” Carlile said today on Beats 1.
The Highwomen released their first two singles “Redesigning Women” and “Crowded Table” last month. They performed for their first time together at Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island (where Dolly Parton joined the fun) and recently made their television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Their cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain,” recorded for Andrea Berloff’s new film The Kitchen, has also been making the rounds.
The Highwomen’s full-length arrives September 6 via Low Country Sound/Elektra Records. Listen to “Highwomen” below.
