When live music shutdown and Country music powerhouse Miranda Lambert was forced to slow down from her normally busy life, she found the time to really focus on what her next projects would look like. Thus, a new album was born.
“Last year was pretty much making up for lost time financially with my crew and band, making sure I could take care of everybody, and also just bringing joy again,” she told Rolling Stone. “We got to play shows! You don’t realize how much entertainment can help people through something hard, and when it’s taken away from everybody it’s very depressing.”
During a recent interview with Billboard, Lambert gave an update on the progress of her much-anticipated upcoming album, which was mostly penned at her Tennessee farm.
“We are finished and now we’re just tying the bows on all that stuff. I really got to hone in on this project because we wrote most of it in 2020,” Lambert explained. “There are very few writers on this project. ‘Cowboy’ is the first peek of that. I think that was the last one I wrote for this project and the first one we released. [The album] has a vibe and it’s different than I’ve ever done, but it’s obviously still me. When I sing, it’s straight-up country, no matter which way I twist it. But yeah, it’s got a bit of a thing to it, that’s all I’ll say.”
Her first single off the project, “If I Was A Cowboy,” is just a “sneak peek” for what’s on the horizon for Lambert. “I’ve got some stuff coming out that is from a really creative time,” she said.
Lambert also had the chance to get creative with longtime collaborators Luke Dick and Shane McAnally on another project that was unveiled at the end of last year. In December, Season 6 of Queer Eye set in Austin, Texas premiered, and there’s a familiar voice that can be heard in the background of two episodes.
Netflix, home of this series with the “Fab Five” who takes viewers through the journey of some new lifestyle makeovers, offered Lambert the opportunity to write and record a song that would appear in the show. Getting together with Dick and McAnally, Lambert had a hand in penning the carefree single, “Y’all Means All.” She also reached out to her brother Luke Lambert, who is part of the LGBTQ+ community, for guidance on the new song.
“Luke and Shane were like, ‘Hell yeah, this is right up our alley,’ so we went over to Luke’s,” Lambert says. “We just got to bring out our fun, inner Texan. Netflix was great about sending some notes and making sure we were getting the message across for the show. I haven’t done a lot of writing for specific things for television and movies and stuff, so it was fun to try something different.”
As fans await the release of her new album, Lambert is currently preparing to head back out on the road for round two of The Bandwagon Tour, beginning May 6 with Little Big Town.
