I think this era of Miranda Lambert’s career might just be the best one yet.
Last month, she abruptly announced that she was parting ways with her longtime label Sony after 20 years, making her a free agent for the first time in two decades.
She previously noted that she was feeling “pretty great” and “inspired” to be on her own, and in another interview with American Songwriter, she went in-depth on where she’s at in her career and what’s next for her.
Of course, Miranda has been at this whole music thing for quite a while now, and is currently the most celebrated artist in Academy Of Country Music history, and this year, she looks to add a few more trophies to the case, especially the coveted Album of the Year award for her 2022 record Palomino.
She’s up against some stiff competition at the 2023 ACM’s next month alongside Ashley McBryde with Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville, Lainey Wilson with Bell Bottom Country, Luke Combs with Growin’ Up and Jon Pardi with Mr. Saturday Night.
And with three females nominated in the category this year, it marks only the second time in ACM history that three albums by all-female acts have been nominated for Album of the Year in the same year.
Miranda doesn’t feel it’s a threat, though (she’s also good friends with Lainey and Ashley), saying she loves the “friendly competition” and when “girls are kicking ass,” because it inspires her and makes her “want to kick ass” too:
“The conversation of women in country is always a conversation.
Sometimes I feel like it gets too much heat and it’s unjust and sometimes I feel like it needs more heat, but what we do is lift each other up.
We know the grind we have to go through to get where we’re going. … I love friendly competition though. I love when girls are kicking ass. Makes me want to kick ass.”
I love that sentiment, and I feel like that’s exactly the way it should be.
And Miranda doesn’t just say that, she puts her money where her mouth is, so to speak, as she’s done quite a few all-female tours with some of the artists coming up behind her to introduce them to a much larger, and new, audience.
Plus, the fact that she came up at a time when there were essentially on other female artists in mainstream country operating at her level (along with Carrie Underwood),
She also noted how much everyone in the category deserves to nominated, because she understands more than just about anyone how much an artist pours into any record they put out:
“I love getting to write songs with women and I love champions like Luke [Dick] that appreciate what we have to offer and a lot of the amazing male artists that have taken us under their wing all this time and champion the females.
I really think it should be a big family with a little bit of, ‘I can kick ass too.’Anybody that pours into a record, I want them to be lifted up. They deserve to be nominated.
All the songwriters. And this is just our story. Everybody in this town has stories like this.”
She continued, saying that everyone in Nashville has a story and they all deserve to be heard. And though awards are cool and it can be a fun aspect of the job, it’s really just “bells and whistles”:
“But everybody has their story and their way that they do things and I’m glad there’s a platform like award shows…
All the rest of it is bells and whistles. It starts with a song and everybody pours their heart into that. There’s something for everybody in country music.
So let’s just open the doors and let everybody in. That’s how I feel.”
Amen to that…
It’s cool to see someone like Miranda, who has really reached superstar status in the genre, promoting her friends and younger up-and-coming artists the way she does.
And now that she’s on her own without Sony, I’ll be really interested to see how she continues to do that in this new chapter.
It remains to be seen if she’ll sign with another major Nashville label, or maybe a major label outside of Music City, but personally, I’d really love to see her stay independent and maybe even just start her own dang label.
Either way, it still kinda feels like she’s still just getting started, and with control over the whole operation now, the best music of her career could still be to come in the future.
You can check out part of her interview here:
