DAVE'S DIARY - 11/11/2019 - MIRANDA LAMBERT INTERVIEW
MIRANDA LAMBERT SPIN DRIES ROMANCES IN THE WASH
“If you wear a white shirt to a crawfish boil/ stonewashed jeans while you're changing the oil/ when you find yourself dating the bridesmaid's ex/ you accidentally bring him to the wedding, whoops/ if you pour yourself a Merlot to go/ you dip your fries in your ketchup on a bumpy road/ you spill the beans to your mama, sister got knocked up/ in a truck at the 7-Eleven, don't sweat it.” - It All Comes Out In The Wash - Miranda Lambert-Hillary Lindsey-Lori McKenna-Liz Rose.
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Miranda Lambert shares more than choice of a policeman as second husband with fellow Texan troubadour Sunny Sweeney on the eve of her debut Australian tour.
Miranda also wrote her recent hit It All Comes Out In The Wash with Sweeney co-writer Lori McKenna - a Massachusetts mother of five - and collaborator with singing actor Tim McGraw.
Sweeney penned songs including Bottle By My Bed inspired by her husband - Austin police Sgt Jeff Hellmer - with McKenna.
So it's no surprise dual Grammy winner and four time CMA female vocalist of the year winner Miranda wants to bring her new spouse as she headlines the 13th CMC Rocks Queensland festival at Ipswich from March 20-22, 2020.
Miranda, 35, wed New York City policeman Brendan McLoughlin on January 26, 2019 in Davidson County , Tennessee.
“We met doing press in New York City,” Lambert revealed in an exclusive interview with Country Music Capital News and Nu Country TV about her love and release of seventh album Wildcard.
“He's great. He's never been to Australia so I'm going to try to drag him along He is keen to come down with me. We travel all the time to everywhere, on the bus. We don't have a full-time residence but Nashville is my base.”
Lambert announced her betrothal on February 16.
“In honour of Valentine's Day ,” Lambert wrote on social media, “I wanted to share some news. I met the love of my life. And we got hitched! My heart is full. Thank you, Brendan McLoughlin, for loving me for me.”
It was Lambert's second wedding after her four-year marriage to Blake Shelton from 2011 to 2015 and rebound romances with singers Anderson East and Turnpike Troubadours co-founder Clay Felker.
It's not Miranda's only links to the long arm of the law - her dad and one-time song-writing partner musician Rick is a former undercover Dallas narcotics cop and private eye.
“I sometimes hear him playing guitar when I go home on holiday,” Miranda said proudly.
“Hopefully I can inspire him to get back into writing.”
Several Nashville cops also guested in the Pistol Annies video for Got My Name Changed Back that echoed the aftermath of her divorce from Shelton.
“They were real life policemen,” Miranda explained.
“We filmed it just outside Nashville .”
So how much was the song inspired by her divorce?
“It's up to the interpreting,” Lambert replied with a hearty laugh.
HOW DARE YOU LOVE - A POLICEMAN
“Sometimes you read it like a school kid writing on chalkboard walls/ sometimes it hits you like the water rolling over Niagara Falls / cheeks get flushed like the first time buzz on Cabernet/ boots on the bleachers, the edge of the seaters, just watching you entertain/ you show up and put a spell on me.” - How Dare You Love - Miranda Lambert-Ashley Monroe-Jamie Kinney.
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Lambert expands on her marriage that took fans by surprise in How Dare You Love. “I'm a sucker for sad songs and also kind of built a career on spiteful songs, but I don't do a lot of love songs,” Miranda confessed. “But this time, I did. I wrote this right around the time we got married. But yeah, sometimes love comes out of nowhere,” she said of the song she wrote with fellow Pistol Annie Ashley Monroe and Jamie Kinney. “We were talking about how it comes out of nowhere, and I just randomly said like, ‘How dare you love?' Because that's the emotion you get. Like all of a sudden out of nowhere, when you're not looking, is when it finds you.” |
Over the past months Lambert and McLoughlin split their time between Nashville and his New York City home.
Parts of the album were written at an apartment in artsy SoHo in Manhattan.
The change of scenery ensured creativity with co-writers The Love Junkies - Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna and Liz Rose.
It resulted in songs like Fire Escape and moody album finale Dark Bars that Miranda wrote with Rose.
“We just wandered around the city,” Lambert recalls.
“There was a fire escape at the apartment we had and we would leave the windows open so the city noise would come in. Just having lunch, having wine. That city, if you're open to it, as much as you're allowing to let in, it will come in. And that's a good thing. From the graffiti to the street art. It's just like there's creativity and you feel it. It's like an energy buzz.”
Lambert follows fellow Texans the Dixie Chicks as CMC festival headliners and wrote songs with Lone Star State acts Jon Randall and Jack Ingram for Wildcard .
Ironically her Top 20 hit It All Comes Out In The Wash was competing with chart topping fellow Texan Maren Morris's new band Highwomen - another of her song recipients - for airplay the week of our interview.
Lambert wrote My Only Child for a group that features her collaborators Morris, Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires and Natalie Hemby.
“I'm definitely honoured to have a song on a #1 record,” Miranda revealed as she expanded on the theme of It All Comes Out In The Wash .
“When something gets bad you can get out of it and move forward and be better,” Miranda explained.
“Feeling it in the moment is okay too, just taking it in and saying I'm gonna learn from this, next. I've done that. At 35 so far, I've lived a lot of life and I've written it all down.”
TEQUILA DOES
“His last name was Flores/ he came up from Juárez/ looking for a hell of a time/ with a blonde Señorita and a tall margarita/ we danced on the tables all night/ then I said Adiós Casamigos is taking me home tonight." - Tequila Does - Jack Ingram-Jon Randall-Miranda Lambert.
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Lambert's recent air waves invasion included a duet with Tennessee singing actor Dolly Parton on Dumb Blonde - first single from the Dumpling movie soundtrack - and originally released on Parton 1967 debut album Hello I'm Dolly . Lambert is also inspired by Parton's business acumen that includes her famous Dollywood theme park, acting and other ventures. “That's a compliment, thanks very much, I would definitely want to follow in her footsteps,” Miranda confessed of her mentor. “When you think of a woman that's built an empire, that's the face that comes up in my mind. She's done everything, and is still going, and it's just such an inspiration. Once you get your music career off the ground you can expand. I have been able to do that.” Miranda echoed Dolly by acting in reality TV series Nashville , the X-Files and other shows. |
Lambert's empire earned $20 million in 2018 and includes her clothing brand, Idyllwind , inspired by vintage retro looks and original cowboy boots sold at 250 Bootbarn Stores.
“It's really about cowboy boots for me and they make other beautiful clothing, I'm very proud of it,” she added.
She has a Pink Pistol store in hometown Lindale and eclectic merchandise from her signature wine line Red 55 Winery to fitness clothing line.
Red 55 Winery is inspired by prized red 55 Chevy named Tammy that Lambert has owned since she was 17.
Each type has unique names from a chardonnay called White Liar to a sweet wine named Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
There's also a 11,000-plus-square-foot Nashville mansion she and Shelton bought for $2.3 million in 2013.
Lambert owns another property with three residences spanning more than 400 acres in Primm Springs , Tennessee , that she bought for $3.4 million.
Her empire includes her benevolent Mutt Nation Foundation.
It raised four million dollars for organizations and individuals to build animal shelters for better care, increase pet adoption and encourage responsible pet guardianship, rehabilitate sick or unsocialized animals and fund spay/neuter programs.
Miranda created Mutt Nation Pet Collection at all Tractor Supply Company stores that includes dog toys, collars, leashes and bedding.
It's a high-profile sibling of sorts of the horse rescue ranches run by fellow Texan singing actor Willie Nelson and Tanya Tucker.
“That's very similar, my two major passions are saving animals and country music,” Miranda explained.
“I try to blend the two as much as possible.”
There were also three albums with Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley as the Pistol Annies - Hell On Heels (2011), Annie Up (2013) and Interstate Gospel (2018).
WAY TOO PRETTY FOR PRISON
“Antifreeze and Gatorade, arsenic in his lemonade/ takes just one snip to bleed his brakes/ but we ain't gonna do it, she ain't gonna do it/ yeah, we've been watching too much TV/ you ain't Thelma, I ain't Louise/ but if we ask them they'd both agree/ we should put him through it.” - Way Too Pretty For Prison - Hillary Lindsey-Liz Rose-Lori Mckenna-Miranda Lambert.
Lambert hasn't decided which single after It All Comes Out In The Wash will be accompanied by a video.
I suggested her videogenic Way Too Pretty For Prison , recorded as a duet with Morris, that she wrote with Natalie Hemby and the Love Junkies - Hilary Lindsey, McKenna and Liz Rose.
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“I can't think of a better video than Way Too Pretty For Prison ,” Miranda replied as she recalled writing the song. “Karen Fairchild and I were having a wine night to talk about The Bandwagon Tour and I always tell my friends, ‘Don't leave if you've been drinking, because you're way too pretty for prison. She got a ride home at the end of the night, and the next day I had a write with The Love Junkies . I was telling them about our night and that conversation and they said, ‘Well that's what we're writing today.' I'm so glad Maren joined me on singing this song. She sang her ass off and it was so fun to have her in the studio.” Another future single is Pretty Bitchin' that she wrote with Luke Dick, Hemby and Randall who toured with Emmylou Harris's Nash Ramblers . |
“I love writing with fellow Texan Jon Randall,” Miranda explained.
“He's such a huge inspiration, writer and good friend. We always come up with something that is cool. Jon and Luke started it and texted me the lyrics and a work tape on the phone and said do you want to finish it. I said of course because it was basically written for me. It's one of my favourites on the record.”
She also wrote Tequila Does with Randall and another Texan Jack Ingram.
“We kind of live in the same circle, down there in the Texas scene and have known each other for a long time, all three of us” Miranda added.
“I am a Texas artist, that's where I started so I'm drawn to them anyway because it's a certain kind of sound, a certain kind of scene that only is there. And I thought, ‘Well, I've done an all-girl thing, let's do a Texas boy thing.' And I always like to keep a younger band or artist out on the road, because it reminds you of that fire and helps keep that ignited.”
Lambert used her headliner status and arena shows to promote emerging female country artists Kassi Ashton and Tenille Townes.
Next year she takes fellow Texans on tour - Cody Johnson, Parker McCollum, and Randy Rogers Band and labelmates LANCO .
On Wildcard Lambert ignites magic in transitions from heartbreak to hope and from familiar surroundings to unexplored landscapes - both physically and sonically.
“There's something to be said for pushing yourself out of your comfort zone,” Miranda confessed.
“So I'm thinking about for the next record, whatever the next project is, maybe choosing to go write in a few different places. I have a house in Austin , for instance. Spending some time somewhere else gives a new energy.”
Miranda said she would like to bring her Pistol Annies here but they have at least 10 hurdles to jump.
“I wish I could but I don't think I could swing it, there are two husband and three babies and five dogs between them,” she quipped.
“Sometimes there's a challenge but they're on my tour right now in the states.”
The Pistol Annies lavish cake in Got My Name Changed Back prompted a dessert of sorts on her Roadside Bars And Pink Guitars tour at Mohegan Sun 10,000 seat arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
She shared the stage and surprise present with Maren Morris, Elle King, Ashley McBryde, Tenille Townes and Caylee Hammack.
Lambert was presented on stage with a huge Pink Guitar shaped gateau as she previewed Wildcard that was produced by Jay Joyce who took over the studio reins from fellow Texan Lee Ann Womack's husband Frank Liddell.
JAY JOYCE - LOCOMOTIVE IN A NEON CROSS
“I'm like a locomotive/ I don't run out of steam/ I'm headed toward the reservoir and I'm gonna need a drink/ I ain't no Napa Valley/ New York City seems okay/ I'm a little bit more Tennessee and there's whiskey in my veins.” - Locomotive - Ashley Lauren Monroe-K. S. Rhodes-Miranda Lambert
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Joyce is renowned for production of Eric Church, Brothers Osborne, Little Big Town, Cage The Elephant, Halestorm , Ashley McBryde, The Wild Feathers and more.
Jay was instrumental in her earlier albums, playing on 2005's Kerosene, 2007's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend , 2011's Four The Record and 2014's Platinum .
Lambert also recorded 2016 album The Weight of These Wings in east Nashville .
But this time she chose Joyce's Neon Cross - an old Baptist church-turned-recording studio with spacious recording area that enabled her to record the album live with her band.
“He's just a mad scientist,” Lambert says of Joyce.
“Everybody was in a circle, and he's a big believer in having everybody in the same room so you can feed off one another. He's really brilliant at capturing a sound and not beating it up, you know. He's part of the sound that was Kerosene , the kind of fiery sound in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Revolution. He sort of added that rock ‘n' roll vibe to it. I wanted to go back to my roots in that way and have him put his flavour on it.”
Another Joyce-produced project, Patty Griffin's 1998 album Flaming Red , was inspiration for one of Wildcard's most spirited, uninhibited tracks, Locomotive .
“I love the way that album makes you feel when you hear it,” Miranda explained.
“Jay texted me one night and was like, ‘I think I have an idea for Locomotive ,' because it wasn't finding its spot; It wasn't settling anywhere. But I loved what it said and I thought it was a fun song. And he said, ‘If we approach it with like a punk vibe. And I wasn't sure I could pull it off. I mean, I'm pretty country no matter which way you slice it. But with his kind of punk tones and the band playing like they did, it worked.”
Her voice sounds raw, unbridled in the first lines of Locomotive, with percussion at breakneck speed, accentuated by Travis Meadows' blistering harmonica lines.
The Locomotive recording session proved that although Lambert has sold more than 10 million albums she can get still get starstruck.
“Travis, who I'm a huge fan of, came and played on the song, and I got kind of star struck because I'd never met him and I'm such a fan of his writing,” she added.
“It was kind of a one-take performance because we were all in the same room. There was so much energy, and you can kind of hear that on the tape, too.”
As well as performing down under Lambert is keen to enjoy her days off.
“I want to see it all, I'm starting to do my research now,” Lambert explained.
“On my list for sure is koala bears. I want to see some koalas.”
So has fellow CMA award winner expat Australasian superstar Keith Urban given inside knowledge?
“I have worked with him a lot,” she recalled.
“He has told me the crowds are amazing.”
What about Quorn born guitarist and singer-songwriter Jedd Hughes?
“I'm a huge Jedd Hughes fan, I think he's amazing.”
Miranda headlines the 13 th CMC Rocks Queensland festival at Willowbank from March 20-22, 2020.
Miranda and Brothers Osborne also play Sydney on Tuesday March 24 and Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, on Thursday March 24.