The post INTERVIEW: Miranda Lambert on New Song ‘Strange’ appeared first on off the record.

On each of her seven consecutive US No. 1 albums, Miranda Lambert has explored a new theme while pushing herself across varying sonic landscapes. On her new 15-song album, Palomino, due Friday, April 29^th, Lambert has crafted a record that explores the world and the people in it, seeking beauty and adventure all around. As the project begins, “there’s always been a stranger in my soul / who loves a good goodbye and a good hello,” she sings in “Tourist.” On Palomino, her inner stranger travels lyrically from Fort Worth to the Mojave Desert; Battambang, Cambodia to Maine; the Crystal Palace in Bakersfield to the Rocky Mountains and beyond. In each destination and with every character met along the way, Lambert’s freewheeling trek is a work of unbridled freedom and self-discovery without painful introspection.

“The making of this record has been one of the most fun and creative experiences of my career,” reflects Lambert. “Luke Dick, Natalie Hemby, and I went out to my farm in Tennessee in 2020 and started writing songs. We figured while we have time let’s get out to the country and see what happens. The first one we wrote was ‘Tourist’ and that set us on a path to create something with a bit of a theme. Since we couldn’t travel at the time, we decided to go on a journey through songs. I hope y’all are ready to travel with us wandering spirits and meet some cool characters with great stories.”

On the record, Lambert worked with longtime songwriting collaborators Luke Dick and Jon Randall to co-produce with her, Lambert once again pushes the envelope of what country music can contain. Whether the bump-and-grind thump of the one who can’t be extinguished on “I’ll Be Loving You,” the skunk weed strut of Marfa sessions’ revisited “Geraldene,” the gorgeously hushed vintage bar-room heartbreak of “That’s What Makes the Jukebox Play,” or the sunny life code that informs the ever-curious songwriter on “Tourist,” Lambert has fashioned a true song cycle, a journey of one woman questing for happiness and the folks she meets along the way. With a core band of drummer Fred Eltringham (The Black Crowes), bass/keyboardist Ian Fitchuk (Sam Hunt, Joy Oladokun, Birdy) and guitarist Rob McNelley (Joe Bonamassa, Beth Hart, Buddy Guy) joining, they worked close to the bone, exploring what the songs could be while retaining Lambert’s serious country flavours. “I love everything about Marfa: some friends around a campfire, no fixes, no protocols, no filters. It was raw and real, and I wanted to take some of that with me,” remarks Lambert. “‘In His Arms,’ ‘Waxahachie’ and ‘Geraldene’ got to go on this journey with us, cutting them with a full band – and usually the public doesn’t get to hear that part, which I’m really excited about.”

For Lambert – and lovers of her wild-eyed country – Palomino is as much about the journey as the destination and the characters along the way. Her fans will be both in awe and delighted.

Track Listing

Actin’ Up (Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick, Jon Randall)

Scenes (Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick, Natalie Hemby)

In His Arms (Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram, Jon Randall)

Geraldene (Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram, Jon Randall)

Tourist (Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick, Natalie Hemby)

Music City Queen feat. The B-52’s (Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick, Natalie Hemby)

Strange (Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick, Natalie Hemby)

Wandering Spirit (Mick Jagger, James Rippeto)

I’ll Be Lovin’ You (Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick, Jon Randall)

That’s What Makes the Jukebox Play (Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick, Natalie Hemby)

Country Money (Miranda Lambert, Aaron Raitiere, Mikey Reaves)

If I Was a Cowboy (Miranda Lambert, Jesse Frasure)

Waxahachie (Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram, Jon Randall)

Pursuit of Happiness (Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick, Natalie Hemby)

Carousel (Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick, Natalie Hemby)

The post Miranda Lambert Announces New Album – Palomino – Out Next Month appeared first on off the record.

[tps_title] 10. Ashland Craft – Travelin’ Kind [/tps_title]

Ashland Craft’s debut album Travelin’ Kind was a tour de force of a record, showcasing her impeccable, raspy vocal infused with a hefty country-rock production.

Read our full review here.

Stand-out Track: Your Momma Still Does

The post The Top 10 Best Country Albums of 2021 appeared first on off the record.

Country to Country; Europe’s biggest country music festival is back for 2022!  Returning for its eighth year on Friday 11 to Sunday 13 March 2022, the festival is set to bring yet another incredible line up to The O2 London, 3Arena Dublin and The SSE Hydro, Glasgow.

Headlining next year’s festival are country music superstars Luke Combs, Darius Ruckerand Miranda Lambert. Also making their return next year are multiple CMA award winners and nominees Kip Moore, Brett Young, and Ashley McBryde alongside Russell Dickerson, Scotty McCreery, Flatland Cavalry, Runaway June and Hailey Whitters who all make their main stage debuts.

For the very first time, international series Introducing Nashville will see artists take to the mainstage together for an acoustic set sharing stories behind their tracks. Line up announced soon!

The C2C Spotlight Stage will also be back in London and Glasgow featuring Tenille Townes and Callista Clark.  Watch out for news of the full line up in the coming months. BBC Radio 2 is the broadcast partner for the event.

Chris York, C2C Festival Co-Founder commented: “C2C Festival 2022 will continue to build on the massive success and impact of Country to Country in the U.K. and Ireland. We look forward to welcoming back all our passionate country fans in March 2022 once again.  We would like to thank our partners at BBC Radio 2 and The Country Music Association and as ever, thank you for your support.”

“C2C is a pillar in Country Music, not just to U.K. fans, but to the artist and industry community here in Nashville as well,” says Sarah Trahern, CMA Chief Executive Officer. “With the loss of the 2020 and 2021 shows, CMA is especially excited to be partnering with C2C again this year. As Country Music continues to grow through touring and streaming in the U.K., it is tentpole events like C2C that act as catalysts for the genre and help carry Country Music forward.”

The legendary Bob Harris OBE also said: “I am so proud to be part of the C2C family and have watched the festival grow to become one of the most important and iconic events in the global Country Music calendar.  I can’t wait to listen to the best music in the world, enjoy the fantastic atmosphere of the main auditorium, catch the excitement of the pop-up stages and meet the incredible Country fans that make C2C so special.” 

Tickets go on general sale at 10am on Friday 17^th September and are available from:

• London – www.axs.com/c2c  and www.gigsandtours.com
• Dublin – www.ticketmaster.ie
• Glasgow www.gigsinscotland.com

C2C London ticket holders will have access to daytime live performances and other live events.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

The post C2C Returns 11th – 13th March 2022 with Star-Studded Line-Up appeared first on off the record.

Luke Dick on writing “Kill A Word” with Eric Church

Eric came over and I had an idea started that he really liked, which was “Kill A Word.” And so we wrote that and finished that in like an hour, and then he had an idea started, which was “Round Here Buzz,” and that was sort of the luckiest day of my life that got me into music. “Kill A Word” is the first song where I felt like I had really contributed a lot to it, and then also had collaborators that believed in it, and then collaborated on finishing the song. I was riding with Jeff Hyde and I had the one verse with a refrain on the end of it, and I said, “Let me lay it down,” and I laid it down and I turned around and he’s like, “Here, I wrote this.” It was an entire verse intact, and then Eric showed up with a verse that was intact. And so it was a different kind of writing where you’re not pouring over every line; everybody just shows up with a verse, and it was like almost our little writer feature, you know? I remember playing a 12 string guitar and coming up with that lick, and then thinking, I had the lyrics, I knew what the lyrics were going to be, and I was like, “I want something kind of acousticy like this.” And then I remember also, “This needs another hook at the beginning,” and I put that little, you know [singing] and he’s like, “I really like that.” And I was like, “It’s kind of strange, I might not work in country, but they can change the hook later or whatever.” But then it stuck, and all that stuff stuck, and it was a moment. It was a moment when we made it, and then it became a part of the culture, and I was really proud of that that happened.

 

Luke Dick on what inspired “Hey Steve”

Natalie Hemby, a fellow collaborator, sort of a soul sister to me in town, we went to get tacos, and there’s this homeless dude. And she gets in the car, pulls out a $100 bill out of her purse and says, “Should I give this to that guy?” And I said, “Whoa, that’s a really generous gesture, but in terms of charity and stuff, that’s really your own heart. If you feel like you want to do that, then do it. And if you don’t want to do it, don’t do it.” And so she just quickly gets out, and goes and gives this guy 100 bucks. And I see him look up, and I see him mouth this words, and he said, “Are you fucking serious?” And she was like, “Yeah, buddy.” And he was just sort of flabbergasted. And then he comes to the window, follows her, she rolls it down, and he’s got these tears in his eyes, and he said, I’ll never forget it, he goes, “This is the second best thing that’s ever happened to me in my life. I love that he characterized the second best thing. And he goes into a bit about his story, and it was really touching, and tragic, and sweet the way that he was sharing. And then he says to Nat, he says, “What’s your name?” She goes, “I’m Natalie,” and he kisses her hand really gently, and then he looks at me and says, “What’s your name?” And I said, “I’m Luke,” and he shakes my hand and Natalie goes, “What about you buddy, what’s your name?” And he kind of stands back, kind of like nobody had ever asked him that before. I don’t know. And he goes, “Me? I am Steve.” Something about that really got to me and in a different kind of way, and we came back to my studio and I’m like, “Nat, I really want to write this song, ‘I Am Steve.’ ” I said, “But I don’t want to write it about homelessness. I want to write it about somebody who’s lost in the world, who’s looking for happiness, who finds happiness, who loses it again, and also how it’s kind of like everybody. And she goes, “I love that idea,” she goes, “I’m honestly a little bit too shook by that interaction to write that song right now, so if you want to write….I wrote it with my friend, Jason and I told him that story. And so we conceptualized the song, and it’s strange, and it’s good, and it’s got an awesome melody and it’s fun. I didn’t want to dwell on the darkness of that. It’s about sort of embracing the destination that you’ve ended up at, and also even if that destination is confusion, that, I mean, the world’s strange, it’s full of tragedy, it’s full of joy, and it’s hard to make sense of the world.

 

Luke Dick on working with Miranda Lambert and writing “Bluebird”

I would say that “Bluebird” was a good example of that to me, in a couple of ways. One, in that I like to bring ideas to the table, and I like to bring melodies to the table, but I also like to leave room for my collaborators. I want to sit back after every song and say, “Gosh, I’m glad that everybody in the room was there, because this happened, and that happened, and this happened, and it was brilliant.” And that song is like, I had just the tagline, “And if the whole wide world stopped singing, and all the stars go dark, turn a light on my soul and keep a bluebird in my heart.” I had a kind of a melody I’m like, “Nat, this needs a better melody,” and so she made the melody better. And then Miranda just like dropped a whole half of a chorus on top of that at the beginning. If the house just keeps on winning, I got a wild card up my sleeve. And the world giving me lemons, I just mix them in my drink.” And I’m just like, “Whoa, this is so good.” And it also grounded it in a certain way, and I would say that sort of style of collaboration, I hope, defines me. I would like for it to define me. But then also when you’re like, “What are we going to sing about in the verses? Is it birds? Is it hope? Is that this kind of a thing?” And I was like, “That just seems too on the nose to me. And I feel like everybody already knows that.” Then we got to the verse, and it was, I had these verse ideas where it was like, “I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to sing about birds, I don’t want to think about hope.” And I was just looking at that refrain, which was, “The house just keeps on winning… Turn a light on in my soul.” “Keep, turn, keep.” And I was like, “What if we played on these verbs? You know? Keep, I don’t know, I’m a keeper. And then, what does that mean?” And then sort of verbs kind of supplied the verses with meaning, “I’m a turner, I turn pages.” And I was like, “What is that? I turn pages.” If I don’t like something, I just turn the page and keep reading. Or a keeper, I keep looking for something. I keep digging down into the deep. Or the next first. We had a few verses that didn’t make it that were really good, but then it was, “I’m a giver, and I’m still giving them hell.” You know? And that whole twist was Miranda. “Forgiveness is pretty hard, so I’ve made an art of forgetting them well.” She’s so earthy in her writing that I’m 100% ready to hear what she has to say on a song. And it’s not every day where I’m just so on the edge of my seat on what my collaborators are going to say. And that’s a real gift, to have somebody like Miranda, who I feel like is a once in a generation writer/artist who is coming in and grounding your ideas with their own grounding rod.

The post INTERVIEW: Luke Dick Talks Writing with Eric Church, Miranda Lambert and more appeared first on off the record.

[tps_title] 10. Josh Kerr, 12 of 12 [/tps_title]

Josh Kerr’s sophomore record continued where his debut album let off – it’s a phenomenally heartfelt and tender record, exploring the depths of heartbreak and pain.

Stand-out Track: If This Is The End

Read our full review here.

The post Our Top 10 Country Music Albums of 2021 So Far appeared first on off the record.

[tps_title] 7. Crazy-Ex Girlfriend (2007) [/tps_title]

Miranda Lambert’s sophomore record was a smash success, showing a more rounded side to her music – with tracks like ‘Gunpowder & Lead’ boosting her rockier side and ‘More Like Her’ revealing her softer, sweeter side, but it didn’t have as many long-lasting mammoth tracks as her later records, hence we’re placing it here.

The post Our Definitive Ranking of Every Miranda Lambert Album appeared first on off the record.

Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram and Jon Randall have announced the release of a documentary film telling the story behind their new album ‘The Marfa Tapes.’ The film will be available to view for 24 hours via Destination Country and Miranda Lambert’s official Facebook page – directed by Spencer Peeples and featuring live performances set against the West Texas backdrop, candid interviews, and behind-the-scenes footage. For the release, Destination Country have teamed up with the trio to premiere the track on Facebook.

The Marfa Tapes arrives May 7 via Vanner Records/RCA Nashville (pre-order/pre-save here). Anticipation continues to grow for the album, which Entertainment Weekly proclaims “both familiar and new in equal measure, and one of the most inspired projects Lambert has ever released.” The trio recently performed the debut release, “In His Arms,” on the “56^th ACM Awards.” Watch here.

The trio recorded much of the album outdoors, inviting the ambient sounds of the desert to seep into their live, bare bones performances, and the atmosphere is utterly transportive. While a couple of the tracks may already be familiar to listeners – “Tin Man” as well as fan favorite “Tequila Does” – the vast majority of these songs have never been heard outside of Marfa. The result is a candid, unvarnished look at Lambert, Randall, and Ingram’s undeniable chemistry in its purest, most honest form.

The post Jack Ingram, Miranda Lambert and Jon Randall to Release The Marfa Tapes Film appeared first on off the record.

The post INTERVIEW: Miranda Lambert on The Stories Behind Her Biggest Hits appeared first on off the record.

1.CMA Fest is cancelled for another year

2. Dolly Parton receives her COVID vaccine

Dolly Parton, who donated $1 million to Coronavirus research, has received the first dose of the COVID vaccine. She got the vaccine before encouraging others to do the same by re-working her classic hit ‘Jolene’ with new lyrics.

3. Brett Kissell tackles question ‘What Is Life?’ on new album out on April 9th

4. Thomas Rhett announces new double album Country Again

5. Miranda Lambert, Mickey Guyton and Maren Morris among the 2021 Grammy performers

6. Jordan Davis’ new video features Bachelorette star Hannah Brown

Jordan Davis has released a new video for his track ‘Almost Maybes’ that features Bachelorette star Hannah Brown in the leading role.

7. Miranda Lambert to be first female artist with a bar on Broadway in Nashville

Miranda Lambert is set to be the first female artist with a branded bar on Broadway in Nashville according to the Nashville Business Journal. Artists with bars on the strip include Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley and Florida Georgia Line.

The post Your Country Music News Round-Up: Dolly Parton receives her vaccine and more… appeared first on off the record.