Miranda Lambert talks her music, marriage and new band the Pistol Annies before Fort Sill show
Miranda Lambert, who lives in Tishomingo, performs at the 46th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas on April 3. (AP file)
A version of this story appears in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Miranda Lambert keeps the spark in her red-hot country career.
The Tishomingo resident is playing an Independence Day weekend show at Fort Sill, working on a new solo album and performing with her new all-girl trio the Pistol Annies.
Sparks keep flying from country music firecracker Miranda Lambert’s red-hot career.
The Tishomingo resident recently burned up the Billboard country charts with her latest No. 1 hit “Heart Like Mine,” added to her trophy case with a CMT Music Award for her career-altering ode “The House That Built Me” and made the cover of Us Weekly with her wedding to fellow Oklahoma country music star Blake Shelton.
From left, Ashley Monroe, Angaleena Presley and Miranda Lambert make their debut as the Pistol Annies at the "Girls' Night Out: Superstar Women of Country" concert in Las Vegas on April 4. (AP file)
In addition, she performed Wednesday on the first season finale of Shelton’s hit reality TV show “The Voice,” debuted in April her new all-girl trio the Pistol Annies and has been recording not one but two upcoming albums.
On Saturday, Lambert, 27, will headline the Fort Sill Independence Day Celebration, part of the 2011 Army Concert Tour. The show also will feature her “ultimate hero,” “Okie from Muskogee” singer-songwriter Merle Haggard, along with Edmond red dirt mainstay Stoney LaRue, who recently played Lambert’s MuttNation Foundation animal welfare benefit in her native Texas.
The Fourth of July weekend concert on the Fort Sill Polo Field will be open to military members as well to the public.
“I feel honored to spend such a special time with the people who are fighting for our freedom. I have great respect for our women and men in uniform, and it’s humbling to see what they give to protect our country. It’s always an amazing experience to play for our military!” Lambert wrote in an email last weekend from the road.
The “Kerosene” singer-songwriter has been blazing through amazing experiences since fall 2009, when the release of her third album, “Revolution,” set a match to her country music career. The critically acclaimed and platinum-selling “Revolution” shot the Oklahoma transplant into a superstar orbit. She scored her first No. 1 with “White Liar,” won album of the year honors from both the Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association and earned the ACM and CMA top female vocalist titles.
Her hot streak turned into a full-blown inferno with heartfelt ballad “The House That Built Me,” which has won her no less than seven trophies, most recently the best female video of the year belt buckle at last month’s fan-voted CMT Music Awards.
“‘The House That Built Me’ was on a pitch CD that was sent to Blake, and we listened to
Country music stars and Tishomingo residents Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert married May 14 in her native state of Texas. (AP file)
it in his car on our way home from the airport. I cried when I first heard the song, and he knew immediately that I should record it,” she recalled. “He jokingly asked for it back just before it went to No. 1, but I told him it was too late now!
“‘The House That Built Me’ helped me get my first Grammy, so I will always love it! I felt an immediate connection it, and I know nearly everyone can relate to the emotional story line,” said Lambert, who won the Grammy for best female country vocal performance in February.
In May, she notched another chart-topper from “Revolution” with “Heart Like Mine,” the last single from her career-changing third album. Days after taking the soulful single to No. 1, she headed into the studio to begin work on her next album, which she hopes to release by the end of the year.
“I have been crafting ideas for my next album for the past several months,” she said in the email interview. “We are in the mixing process right now. I wrote some of the material that will be on this new record and selected some from other writers that I love and that inspired me.”
The sizzling star isn’t just writing for her solo career these days. In April, Lambert and fellow singer-songwriters Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley premiered their all-girl group the Pistol Annies during the ACM’s “Girls Night Out: Superstar Women of Country” TV special. Lambert said Monroe introduced her to Presley, and the threesome formed a tight bond.
“When I heard a few of the songs Angaleena had written, I just felt we were kindred spirits; she is an amazing storyteller,” Lambert said. “We all started hanging out more in late 2009 and just wrote music together and sang together. Ashley is truly a wordsmith and has the voice of an angel. It felt natural, and I got very inspired musically, so we started singing for other friends and it was fun.”
Their smoking first single, “Hell of Heels” was released Tuesday on iTunes and other digital outlets, and the trio has been working on its debut album. The Annies closed June’s CMA Music Festival in Nashville and reportedly revealed last week during a sold-out show at Joe’s Bar in Chicago that they have signed a record deal with Columbia Nashville, Lambert’s label.
“The next natural progression was recording … and now we can’t seem to stop. We’ll see what the fans think and take it from there,” Lambert added.
As far as the fans are concerned, Lambert and her new husband are clearly country music’s new power couple. She and Shelton married May 14 in Texas in what Lambert described as a “perfect and amazing” ceremony. They were featured in their finery — Lambert wore her mother’s wedding gown — on the cover of Us Weekly, and fans were eager to see more when their wedding video leaked online.
While their busy careers often have the superstar couple moving in different directions, they have become pretty creative at stealing moments together. This week, Lambert joined Shelton in Los Angeles, where he has been filming the hit reality TV singing contest “The Voice” with fellow musician-coaches Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green and Adam Levine. She even performed a duet of “The House That Built Me” with Dia Frampton, the finalist from Team Blake, on Wednesday’s season finale. Frampton finished a close second to Javier Colon, who was named the first winner of the smash show.
It might not be the last time fans get to see her on “The Voice”: On Thursday, NBC confirmed that Shelton and the other musician-coaches would be returning for the second season, which will air on Mondays in winter.
“Blake has done a great job on ‘The Voice,’ and I hope everyone else has enjoyed
Finalist Dia Frampton and Miranda Lambert perform a duet of "The House That Built Me" on Wednesday's season finale of the hit reality TV show "The Voice." (NBC photo)
watching it as much as I have,” said Lambert, who frequently tweets during episodes of the social media-savvy show.
On July 8, the couple will light up the airwaves in New York City when they appear on rival morning shows, with Lambert playing “Good Morning America” and Shelton performing on “Today.”
“We are always excited when work brings us to the same area, but we also do a pretty good job scheduling real couple time and having a normal life at home,” she said.
In concert
Miranda Lambert, Merle Haggard and Stoney LaRue
When: 6:20 p.m. Saturday. Gates open at 6 p.m.
Where: Fort Sill Polo Field, 6322 NW Currie Road, Fort Sill.
Parking: All general admission parking will be on Conklin Field, south of the Polo Field. Drivers should come on post through Gate 2 off Rogers Lane. Key Gate off of I-44 will close at noon.
Tickets and information: (580) 442-2025 or www.sillmwr.com.
-BAM
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Comments
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