Miranda Lambert is 36 years old.
She has released seven full-length albums under her own name starting with Kerosene in 2005 and culminating with Wildcard, released late 2019.
Miranda Lambert in concert
Opening acts: Lanco and Cody Johnson
When: 7 p.m. today
Where: Simmons Bank Arena, North Little Rock
Tickets: $39.75-$94.75
(501) 975-9000
She has released a couple of albums as the de facto head of the Pistol Annies, a supergroup of female country singer-songwriters. If you care about these things, she has won a reliable share of awards, had hit singles, sold millions of records and is more or less a country music superstar (and, it must be said, one of the very few recent female country superstars to have anything like a career in music). She is no longer married to fellow country star Blake Shelton. She is remarried and has moved to Nashville, Tenn.
Today, she'll be at North Little Rock's Simmons Bank Arena for her current tour in support of her new album.
Lambert herself sees this time in her career as one of transition. Lambert is several years removed from her very public split and eventual divorce from Shelton. Her 2016 double album, The Weight of These Wings, was generally viewed as Lambert's post-divorce record.
"You could say The Weight of These Wings had a theme," Lambert says. "For Wildcard I wanted songs that were more rock songs. I took into account my live show. I wanted them to be fun songs to play live."
Wildcard is decidedly more upbeat and more up-tempo than The Weight of These Wings. Songs such as "Locomotive," "Mess With My Head" and "White Trash" bear out the different direction. For Wildcard, Lambert had another significant difference in store — going with Jay Joyce as producer instead of her longtime collaborator Frank Liddle.
"I needed a change," Lambert says. "I needed to shake up my vibe. I think Frank Liddle is a genius. I respect him so much. I talked with Frank about it and we agreed to separate for this record. I wanted more of a rock element and Joyce was a session man on my first records."
Lambert says that she has gone back and listened to her early records in part because she wanted to recapture that spirit for Wildcard. In 2005, Lambert was a young Texas singer-songwriter who emerged on Nashville Star, a short-lived country music version of American Idol. Lambert's first full-length record was a jolt to the country genre — the incendiary title track of Kerosene set the mood and tone.
"With Wildcard in a way you could say that I've come full circle," Lambert says.
Nothing is more surprising in the very volatile music industry than sustained success. Lambert has bucked that trend but she is well aware that nothing in her field of choice is a given.
"I'm in a transition phase," Lambert says. "The business is changing. This means I might need to find a new set of goals. Everything is different from when I started."
She says her "audience has grown up with me."
"My fans are my age, and now, they are bringing their daughters to my show," Lambert says. "Those daughters don't buy CDs. No matter what, I'm gonna make records. I love full albums. But I want to keep what I do fresh. I still love it."
Lambert sees her audience changing and recognizes that she's at a different time in her life as well. It's one thing to tour the country making music when you are 22 and single but quite another when you are 36 and married. A song on Wildcard — "Settling Down" — speaks directly to the push and pull of domestic life and life on the road.
"[Touring] is my normal," Lambert says. "I'm married and, you know, I have a house. But when it comes time to go out on the road, it's time to. I get on the bus and I'm at home there."
Weekend on 01/23/2020