Miranda Lambert has written several songs throughout her more than 20-year illustrious music career. She has even established a perfect balance with a list of songwriters that include frequent collaborators Natalie Hemby, Ashley Monroe, and Angaleena [Presley], the last two of which make up her trio, The Pistol Annies.
But it may come as a surprise to know that Lambert has added another co-writer to the mix — her husband, retired New York police officer Brendan McLoughlin.
Speaking with American Songwriter, Lambert shared that while her hubby is best known for getting his creative spirit going in the kitchen, she has also enlisted him to work that part of his brain on pen and paper. The 39-year-old songstress, who will celebrate her 40th birthday in November, added that McLoughlin tries to get his famous country singing wife to step outside the box by writing solo because she keeps “threatening to do it,” but chickens out.
“It was a fun exercise, and I liked that we shared that,” Miranda Lambert said of writing music with Brendan McLoughlin, something they began doing together in the middle of the pandemic. “He’s creative in the kitchen. That’s his creativity, but sometimes I give him a glass of wine and make him sit down and write a song with me.”
Lambert also noted that part of the reason she recruited her significant other to write songs with her was to show him how difficult the process actually is. But, between her, McLoughlin, and Jesse Frasure, the three were able to come up with a tune that worked.
“We actually did write a song with our friend Jesse Frasure because Brendan was jokingly saying, ‘Oh, it’s just words.’ So, Jesse was like, ‘Nope, we’re gonna book a writing session,’” Lambert recalls. “Jesse made him come in, and he wrote to the track, and he had to spend all day [there], and he was like, ‘Words are hard.’”
Lambert didn’t name the title of the song she co-wrote with her husband, nor did she reveal whether or not that tune would be included on a full-length project. But, the act of writing together could mean more co-writes for them in the future.
Recently, Lambert has stepped outside of her comfort zone, writing with — and for — other artists, including Jelly Roll, HARDY, and others. Before announcing her departure from her longtime record label Sony Music Nashville, she co-wrote a No. 1 hit with Morgan Wallen’s “Thought You Should Know,” a credit that appears as the second single on his highly-ambitious 36-track album, One Thing at a Time. Nicolle Galyon is the other co-writer on the track.
In her earlier years, Lambert had drawn crowds with her sass and country rock edge with songs like “Kerosene,” “White Liar,” and “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” but she has since evolved her music, taking a more neo-traditional approach with the Jack Ingram and John Randall collaborative album The Marfa Tapes and her latest solo effort, Palomino.
Nowadays, she is happier than ever in her love life since announcing her split from Blake Shelton in 2015. She has been happily married to McLoughlin for four years. Due to her current status, she confesses that she had struggled with her mindset when it came to writing sad country songs.
“As you get older, you realize you can pull from all the sad parts you’ve had,” Lambert shares. “I think if we tried to live every sad song we ever want to write, that’s going to be a sucky life [and] I am a sucker for a sad song. I love them so much, but I feel like I have a well to dig from past hurts.”
Lambert met McLoughlin in 2018 on the set of Good Morning America. At the time, McLoughlin was patrolling on duty and she was in town performing with The Pistol Annies. After a year of dating, the pair tied the knot in a secret ceremony before sharing their romance with the world.
In July, Lambert will resume her Velvet Rodeo Las Vegas residency at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino’s Bakkt Theater in Las Vegas, Nevada.
