Miranda Lambert Is On Fire

Four The Record, For The Record

 The cover of Miranda Lambert’s newest album, Four The Record, has our girl standing in a Western-themed dress next to a burning convertible. Has she set the car on fire? Has it spontaneously combusted from the proximity to country’s newest star? Or is the vehicle just a metaphor for the competition?

One of the indications that this Lambert is a rocket going from strength to strength can be seen here: every single track is a winner. This is not unusual on a Lambert record, but look who she now has the clout to hitch to her white-hot tail — the liner notes catalogue a who’s-who of the finest songwriters, instrumentalists and singers the industry has to offer. Apart from her hubby Blake Shelton, she gets assists from Patty Loveless, the Little Big Town gals Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman, Allison Moorer, Brandi Carlile and Sarah Buxton on vocals, Steve Winwood and Randy Scruggs, and the songwriting magic of Chris Stapleton, Charles Kelley, Shane McAnally, and her Pistol Annies cohorts, Angaleena Presly and Ashley Monroe, to name a few. The brilliant part is that you’d never know any of it unless you read the liner notes; it’s Lambert’s voice you hear first and foremost, and even though each song has a different musical style, each one sounds distinctly like a Lambert song.

The one exception to the general feel of the album is the second track, “Fine Tune,” a saucy, sexy conceit that pretends Lambert is a car that needs tuning up by the man who shows up with a “master key.” It’s been treated to a load of distortion and slowed to molasses, all the better to make that metaphor play out and to throw shade on lines like “You started tweaking on a little knob / That I didn’t even know was there.” Oh really, you coy minx, you. The Inky Jukebox can imagine that because of the electronic noise, some folks might object to this track, but let it be said: it’s the best of the bunch (and the bunch sits on a higher branch than most) precisely because it dares to be different, and is unforgettable.

When it comes to Lambert’s musical direction, the album keeps close to her usual themes while reaching out to pick up traditional formats along the way. Some of these tunes are full-on honky tonks; some rock; some bluegrass; some sound like 1950s throwbacks. The guts Lambert showed when signing for her first record deal, where she told the company boss the deal was off unless she could record what she wanted is on full display here, and  it’s not only all the awards and honors she’s gained since then that have confirmed her conviction; it’s that she can produce a record like this. She’s hauled away a ton of trophies in the last few years, and she deserves them.

This year also marks her well-publicized marriage to Blake Shelton, who has also had a big year professionally. Their duet, “Better In The Long Run,” is a powerhouse that sounds like it’s being sung by two people in love, which is a nice touch. Here they are singing a duet off Shelton's album, "Draggin' The River." 

A note about Miranda’s wardrobe. A stylist is clearly dressing her in bandage-type gowns which serve to hold everything in with a smooth profile while disguising the mechanics involved (elastic). The sad truth about such garments is that they only really work to make slim women look slimmer; when worn by a more full-figured gal, they tend to emphasize, rather than hide the truth. The best outfit Miranda sports in the album pictures is the tank-top / belt / giant skirt / cowboy boots combo, which not only suits her figure but is sexier than all the designer duds she’s ever been poured into. It also describes who she is (at least, who her songs purport her to be): a down-home country girl at heart, who likes to dress up on occasion like a glamorpuss. I believe her in boots and a tank far more than the sparkly plunge-top things that have become her red carpet wear.

It’s a pity that Miranda Lambert is a country music star. Because she’s a star, period. Twang be damned: this is America y’all. This album is one of the best of the year, in any genre.

Pistol Annies: Hell on Heels

A Trio of Trouble

Holy Smokes, y’all — there’s a new sheriff in town and her name’s Annie. Actually, there’s three of ‘em and they’re all named Annie and if you so much as look at ‘em wrong they’s gonna shoot you dead right there on the spot and take your car, your credit cards, your boots and your dog and take a joyride out of town to some Hollywood spa for facials and maybe, just maybe, they’ll stop along the way to pick up a tall, good-looking hitchhiker holding that geetar and play him a tune, I mean play him for a song, I mean play with him until he begs for mercy. Then they’ll push him out the door and head to the bar for whiskey shooters where they will accept your challenge to a karaoke duel but when it’s their turn they will yank that cord right out the wall and sing you one of their numbers instead and yes, they take tips Gawdammit you better fill that upturned hat on the stage and no, you may not go home to your wife and kids until they have finished singing to you and yes, you will like it, you will like it very much indeed.

Pistol Annies Website

Miranda Lambert's Revolution

Famous In ANY Town: Miranda Lambert

There is no denying that an essential element in a singer’s success is in having a voice that is pleasant to listen to. A sweet tone, coupled with a beguiling regional accent goes a long way when that voice is used like an instrument being played by someone who understands what it can do and how to make it sound its best.

Miranda Lambert owes much to such a voice. It doesn’t hurt that she is capable of honeyed phrasing and a feel for power and softness when called for; neither does it hurt that she is a capable and perceptive songwriter. She has no qualms about saying “My neighbor’s car got stole last night” because that’s how folks speak. She’s cute too. ("Only Prettier.")

Lambert has been tearing up the awards season like hugging trophies was going out of style, and deservedly so. A pity about America is that its music is so fragmented; Lambert shouldn't be a great country singer; she's a great singer, period. 

When she was first being recorded, she was promoted as a sort of blonde Gretchen Wilson, in that she is a no-nonsense country gal who can handle a gun (and a man) and entertain a rowdy bar full of cowboys. But here the comparison ends. Miranda Lambert is her own woman, with her own sound, and it’s gratifying to see her carve out her niche as country’s new bad girl on her own terms.

There are girl singers a-plenty in Nashville, and some of them are pretty blondes, but this one has a pistol tattooed on her arm and the cajones to cut Kid Rock a new one when he made the mistake of messing with her on a duet. (Check out the 4:20 mark when she tells him "I'll shoot you!") “It’s time to get a gun,” she sings on her song of that name, “that’s what I’ve been thinking. / I could afford one / if I did just a little less drinking.” Watch out, fellas!

When Miranda Lambert performs, she either sits or stands there at the mic with her guitar and just sings, or she stomps and twirls around the stage like a maniac, whipping her hair back and forth like a metalhead. Carrie Underwood might also bring the heat, but Miranda makes you feel she could drink you under the table after the show. And steal your boyfriend. Look at how she takes a wrecking ball to Brooks & Dunn’s “Hillbilly Deluxe.”

Not that she needs to; she will be married in a month to Uber-Hottie Blake Shelton (her “fiancey”) who appears to be head-over-heels for her. Thence they will take up the country couple mantle long held by Tim and Faith, and by numerous others before them. It was her suggestion that he record Michael Bublé’s hit “Home,” (she sings backing vocals) which broke him into the big time when his career had floundered after early promise. (There are many versions of them singing this song, but this version is perhaps the sweetest, despite the muffled sound (get a room!!!!!)

The Inky Jukebox was not aware that Lambert had been a finalist on the show Nashville Star, which won her a recording contract; it was her first big hit, “Famous in a Small Town” that caught our attention. It’s a homely song, but she delivers the chorus with a cascade of notes that smacks you with enthusiasm.

The Inky Jukebox would like to confess at this juncture that a large portion of the summer of 2009 was spent pretending to be recording a video of “Dead Flowers” assuming that said video was being recorded through a dashboard-cam. 

We always preferred that song to the more poppy “White Liar” which benefitted from an all-star cast in the video (including Jamey Johnson as preacher). Lambert collaborated with Johnson on Dierks Bentley’s “Bad Angel.”

Being a no-holds-barred kind of commentator, The Inky Jukebox acknowledges that it has been highly critical of Lambert’s buxomness and small-town prom-queen style when it comes to the Red Carpet. This is a girl who has been gifted with extraordinary beauty, and we’d just like to see her not let it go, is all. 

Now that she’s a bona-fide Nashville Star, she needs to stop playing dress-up when it comes to these things, and employ the services of someone who knows from sparkle (and a trainer!). That picture at the top of the article? She's put on a few lbs since then. To make up for this, we have only included gorgeous pictures of her here.

Revolution

Lambert is currently touring with the fastly up-and-coming Justin Moore, making for a hot ticket. Go see ‘em.