Spoken like the honky tonk queen that she is.
Miranda Lambert put out what has been one of my favorite albums of the year in Postcards From Texas back in September.
It really did feel like a return to her Lone Star State roots, and the music that she cut her teeth on playing bars back home and loved growing up. For many years, Miranda was known as the feisty, firebrand take-no-sh*t girl who didn’t hold back, and that’s what so many of us love about her.
She’s been at the forefront of country music for the two decades now, and when she started out, being a young woman in the industry meant you didn’t really have anyone to turn to or get advice from, which is something that she tries to do now with ladies like Lainey Wilson.
In an interview with Music Week magazine this week, Mirada talked about how she would’ve rather spent “a decade doing honky tonks” before being “a pretty girl for the label doings things I wasn’t comfortable with,” which is a quote that I absolutely love and certainly applies to her career over the years.
When Miranda started out, she was kind of on her own, as there were hardly any other women at the peak of their careers who could take her under their wing and teach her the ropes. People like Dolly and Reba had already “aged out,” for lack of a better phrase, and weren’t headlining major tours during this time (circa 2005 and a few years after that), which is a struggle Miranda has spoken about before.
In the interview, Miranda noted that she always said she was determined to stay true to herself and not just do whatever the label said, noting that the only “sustainable” thing in this industry is authenticity and that what she’s always led with:
“Spend a decade doing honky tonks than be a pretty girl for the label doings things I wasn’t comfortable with and I stand by that 100%.
If I had [played that game], I don’t think I would be talking to you right now, honestly, because I don’t think it’s sustainable. Authenticity is the only thing that is. That’s what I’ve lived and breathed.”
Now one of, if not the, biggest female artist in country over the better part of 15 years, I think it’s safe to say she was very right. But doing it that way takes a lot of guts, which I’m sure came with its own difficulties and resistance, which makes it all the more admirable.
Miranda also talked about how she has evolved as an artist, and learning how to balance her feisty side with the deeper parts of who she is:
“I was very hard-headed and very feisty — not much has changed! I never got into this business saying, ‘I want to be famous.’ It never was something I cared about, and I still don’t. That’s not my favorite part of this journey at all. I wanted to have longevity and to become a great songwriter.
I’ve done that, and I’m still doing it. I’m so proud of this new record— I feel the same energy and excitement over this new on that I did on ‘Kerosene.’”
She’s a force to be reckoned with, and the fact that she continues to put out incredible records like Postcards proves that she’s one of the best, and she’s here to stay for decades to come.
I think her principle of staying true to herself and what she wanted and believed in is a timeless lesson that can apply to anything, and it’s a recipe for success in every aspect of life. And if she really does want to go back to the honky tonks for a few more shows now, I wouldn’t be mad about that, either…
Miranda Lambert’s interview for this month’s Music Week magazine. pic.twitter.com/zAatunctwG
— pure stats (@purestats) November 26, 2024
I’ll leave you with one of my favorite, feisty songs from Miranda’s most recent projects, “Alimony”: