A ten-year-old girl wanders a dusty pawn shop in Mineral Wells, Texas, and begs her dad for a cheap, unremarkable fiddle. That impulse buy launched Amanda Shires, the fiddle prodigy and singer-songwriter whose quavering voice draws comparisons to country music legends Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton.

From bleeding-finger practice sessions in the punishing West Texas heat to her acclaimed solo debut and a place at the center of The Highwomen, Shires did more than clear country music's hurdles for women — she built an entirely new track for others to run on.

• Found her first fiddle, cheap and Chinese-made, in a Mineral Wells pawn shop at age ten

• Her dad agreed to buy it on one non-negotiable condition: she actually had to play it

• Her 2009 solo debut West Cross Timbers earned comparisons to Emmylou Harris and Doll ...