Sitting opposite Miranda Lambert, it's hard not to be confronted with the strength, determination and “fuck around and find out” attitude that characterized one of country music's most promising debut albums. Kerosene, Lambert's first LP on a major label, turns 20 next year, and the Texas songwriter reflects on everything that led up to the 2005 release.
“When I started out, I wanted to last a long time, have a long career, be relevant and be able to play as long as I was physically able,” Lambert tells Rolling Stone. “Thankfully, I have a better balance now than I did in the early days when I was busting my ass to play 200 shows a year.”
On this July day, Lambert is preparing to headline the Under the Big Sky music festival in Whitefish, Montana. Later that evening, the powerful singer and her tight-knit band will take the stage in front of more than 20,000 country fans. “I started really young, playing in bars in Texas when I was 17,” she says. “So my whole adult life has literally been about country music – writing songs and playing shows.”
Lambert is now 40 and is preparing to extend Kerosene’s 20 years with a new project. “It feels like 20 days [ago]it feels like 200 years, you know?” she laughs. “But this record I just made feels more like my original record.”
Lambert's latest effort, entitled “Postcards From Texas,” will be released on September 13. A collection of musical snapshots from sessions at Arlyn Recording Studios in Austin, the album is an ode to her home state, but also to Lambert's ability to evolve without forgetting her past.
“I still make music that could have been on kerosene,” Lambert says, referring to the ankle-deep determination and songbird grace that are at the heart of Postcards From Texas. “I've evolved as an artist, but that fiery girl is still at the forefront.”
Before Carrie Underwood sang about “sticking her keys into the side of his nice little souped-up SUV” and Taylor Swift dismissed an ex as “just another picture to burn,” Lambert lit the torch of a new era of country revenge with her 2005 hit “Kerosene.” “Light them up and watch them burn/Teach them what they need to learn,” she taunted.
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Earlier this spring, she fantasized about other fiery escapades, stopping her cheating cowboy jeans with a match in “Wranglers,” the first single from Postcards From Texas. On Wednesday, she debuted “Alimony,” a song that celebrates ending up on the good side after a divorce.
Growing up in the Lone Star State, Lambert's father was a singer-songwriter who would play his daughter a selection of songs by Merle Haggard, John Prine, David Allen Coe and the Eagles. Listening to these works of heartbreak and redemption, Lambert found inspiration and fuel for her dream of one day performing as a singer herself.
“I love the song. That's where it starts for me,” Lambert says of her quest to either write or discover the next song to add to her catalog. “Nothing else matters – a good song is a good song.”
With her latest project, Big Loud Texas, Lambert is on the hunt for good songwriters. Lambert and Jon Randall, her co-producer on Postcards From Texas, launched the label last year, a subsidiary of Big Loud Records, to sign and promote up-and-coming artists. Their first is Austin songwriter Dylan Gossett.
“It's sparked this new passion to mentor other artists and new artists,” Lamberts says. “And to see the fire in these artists in their twenties, full of drive, I love that, because I was there and I still am there.”
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It's almost show time, and Lambert steps out of her dressing room trailer. It's also golden hour, and Big Sky Country, high above, is turning into bright pinks, purples, and oranges. On the other side of the fence, thousands of people wait impatiently for her to sing hits like “White Liar,” “Gunpowder & Lead,” and the soon-to-be 20-year-old “Kerosene.”
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“I feel like I have so much more to give, so much more art, so many more songs to write,” says Lambert. “I hope I can be a role model for artists who really focus on being themselves and sticking with it – because that works.”
Tracklist of Postcards From Texas:
- “Armadillo” (Aaron Raitiere, Jon Decious, Parker Twomey)
- “Damn, Randy” (Miranda Lambert, Brendan McLoughlin, Jon Randall)
- “Looking Back at Luckenbach” (Miranda Lambert, Shane McAnally, Natalie Hemby)
- “Santa Fe” with Parker McCollum (Miranda Lambert, Jesse Frasure, Jessie Jo Dillon, Dean Dillon)
- “January Heart” (Brent Cobb, Neil Medley)
- “Wranglers” (Audra Mae, Evan McKeever, Ryan Carpenter)
- “Run” (Miranda Lambert)
- “Maintenance” (Miranda Lambert, Natalie Hemby, Shane McAnally)
- “I hate love songs” (Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram, Jon Randall)
- “No Man’s Land” (Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick)
- “Bitch on the Sauce” (Miranda Lambert, Jaren Johnston)
- “Far too good at breaking my heart” (Miranda Lambert, Jon Randall, Jesse Frasure, Jenee Fleenor)
- “Wildfire” (Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram, Jon Randall)
- “Life on the Run” (David Allan Coe, Jimmy L. Howard)
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