Miranda’s New CD Is “A Journey”

Miranda Lambert just released her 4th CD, playfully titled, “Four The Record.”  It’s the follow-up to her Platinum-selling CD, “Revolution,” which won both the ACM and CMA Album of the Year, contained 3 #1 hits, and earned her first Grammy.  That was the context behind her conversation with Country Countdown USA’s Lon Helton.  We weren’t able to include all of the details of that conversation in this week’s show, so we post it here, in its entirety, for your reading enjoyment.

How do you feel about an album, is it a body of work? Yes, this album is a bunch of different songs, but when you put them together, it’s cohesive, it’s a journey.  It breaks my heart to think somebody would buy songs off this record.  It’s a 14 song album and every song has a place.  I’ve been saying, Do not buy one song and feel it represents what the record sounds like.  This is who I am as an artist now, and where I am in my life.  It’s a journey and I want people to take that journey with me, and really get to know me more.

So tell me about the journey: I collected the songs over the last few years.  I also wrote some of them.  The way I like to record is go into the studio and just get holed up.  That’s how it becomes a project, because we share the feeling.  It just comes together.  I don’t cut singles, I cut songs I love, and some are put on the radio, and some aren’t.

Revolution was such a life changer, but as you come off of that, what were you thinking about? Revolution pushed me to another level.  But I can’t make Revolution again.  That record was that record.  So I went into this process of making this album with an open mind.  I didn’t have a theme or a message, just the songs I loved.  The songs led this record into where it is.

So what will we hear? It starts off with a song called “All Kinds of Kinds.”  It’s a song about different people who fall in love.  It takes all kinds of kinds.  Where I am in life now, I have a lot of people who come together to make my life work.  I also have some friends on this record.  It’s taken a community to make this record.

Like who? Allison Moorer, who’s a friend and a hero, wrote a song for me.  Alison is one of the reasons I do the music I do.  When I was 17, I discovered what a singer/songwriter should be, and it was Allison Moorer.  She’s a great artist.  I had the girls from Little Big Town on the record. Pistol Annies are on it.  Patty Loveless sang on a song I wrote for her to sing with me.

Big fan of Patty? Yes, and we got to do a festival together in Switzerland, and I got to hang out with her, we sang all night together.  It was one of the most amazing nights.  So she sang on “Dear Diamond,” a song I wrote.  When I heard it for the first time, I lost it.

Guests on Baggage Claim? Yes I have Steve Winwood playing the organ part, and I wasn’t there when he did it, I was like, “Who just played?  Why wasn’t I there.”  But also Josh Kelley, who toured with me, sang on the song.

Is it important how many songs you write? I don’t care who wrote the song, I just wanna love it.  I’d like to have at least one song I wrote along.  Keeping that close is really special, so I try for one on every record.  But I have two on this one.  There are so many other songs I love besides the one I wrote, and I feel I wouldn’t be doing myself justice if I didn’t record other songs.

Has that changed since your first record? Yes, I think it has.  On the first record I was more of a writer.  But I think I’ve proven myself as a writer, so people know I’m a writer, and don’t have to write every song.  I want to be accepted as a writer, but I also want to be accepted as an artist.  Thank goodness they go together.

You collaborated with Blake on a couple songs, starting with Over You, inspired by the death of his older brother: We don’t write together often.  I live more for songwriting than he does.  When we do, it’s special.  In this case, he had shared with me about his brother who died in a car accident when he was 24 and Blake was 14.  I never asked about it, but one day he opened up to me about the emotions he felt.  It was an intimate moment, and then to write a song, this was the only time I cried writing a song.  We both cried during the process, and I feel honored that he trusted me enough to share those intimate details with me, and then put it on an album for the world to hear.  I asked him if he wanted the song, and he said, “I don’t think I can get through it.” So I’ve never had a song that personal, that’s about something so real in my life.  I’m excited for people to hear that side of me and us as a couple.

The other collaboration is a duet called Better In The Long Run: It’s about time we had a real duet.  Better In The Long Run was written by two of our friends, Charlie Kelley of Lady A and Ashley Monroe of Pistol Annies.  People probably expect us to do a love song, but that’s not us, we’re not in it to be cheese balls.  This is about a break-up, and it felt right.

Let’s go back to Dear Diamond, a song you wrote by yourself: I had the idea after I got my engagement ring, because every girl stares at your ring, and you show everybody. The song starts out about how beautiful the ring is, but becomes a confession to your diamond that you lied to someone, you broke your promise, it’s kind of a cheating song, and I usually lean toward the sad ones versus the happy ones.  It’s country and honest.  I sang it for Blake and he says, “Didn’t we just get engaged?”  But that’s what country music’s all about.  You ask yourself, “What would Merle do?”

Why did you want Patty Loveless to sing on this? I wanted a real old country sounding song.  I just loved Patty, and that’s how she sings.  It just leant itself to her harmony.  I should have given her the whole song, and I would sing harmony.  But I was proud to let her hear it and sing on it. 

Let’s talk about the album cover, where you’re in front of a burning car.  Tell me about that: It’s a real car on fire, and I was standing right there next to it, and I had tons of hair product on me at the time, and I thought, “I’m gonna blow up,” but they had the fire marshalls out there.  I thought I was gonna get to light the car on fire myself, but they wouldn’t let me.

Where did this fascination with fire come from? I don’t know.  It’s part of my image now because I sing about it.  To get rid of something, you have to burn it.  Don’t bury it, push it off a cliff, you burn it.  It’s over for good.

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