I absolutely love everything about this.
After abruptly leaving her longtime label Sony last year, the jury has been out on what exactly Miranda Lambert’s next move would be.
Announced today, the Texas native and her friend, frequent collaborator and renowned producer in his own right Jon Randall have partnered with Big Loud Records to form and launch their own imprint label, Big Loud Texas.
Big Loud Nashville is home to artists like Morgan Wallen, Hardy, Ernest and more, and they launched Big Loud Rock not long ago too, so it’s safe to say they’re certainly expanding the umbrella in terms of genres and the kinds of artists that make up their current roster.
Having two veteran, Grammy-winning country acts in Miranda and Jon (they were also jointly nominated for a Grammy with their 2021 collaborative album The Marfa Tapes) certainly seems like a smart business move to me.
The pair will be directly involved in signing and developing artists on the roster, and Randall will serve as President of A&R for Big Loud Texas while also contributing his expertise as a producer.
If there’s anyone who knows about the incredible talent that exists within the Texas music scene, it’s Miranda, and she says she feels a responsibility to help develop more artists in the lone star state in order to help them become more nationally recognized acts:
“As a teenager chasing my dreams in the honky tonks of Texas, Nashville seemed so far away.
Every time I’m back home I get to hear the incredible talent our state produces, and I feel a responsibility to help get more of those Texas voices heard.
I’m really excited to team up with my buddy Jon Randall and Big Loud to do just that. Get ready, y’all – we’re bringing even more Texas to town!”
She also knows the ins and outs of being with a record label, which, at many times for artists like her, can be very frustrating. Having that perceptive and experience will be invaluable to many young artists in Texas.
Randall adds:
“When I was a kid playing in bands and kicking around Texas, I knew that making music was all I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
Since then, I’ve gotten to play with so many of my heroes produce legends and friends and travel all over the world… but all those roads lead right back home.
I feel very blessed to share this full circle moment with one of my best pals, Miranda Lambert, and help some other dreamers chase their song around the world.”
While there’s plenty of smaller, independent labels in Texas, there’s nothing quite like this with potential to shine a massive spotlight on the music there, so I’m really excited to see what these two can do with a label like Big Loud supporting them.
I’ve always loved the music that comes from Texas immensely, and I think there’s massive potential to really make something big out of it that’s never really been done before on a large scale (save for select artists like the legendary Willie Nelson, though he was on major labels for many years himself even after he moved back there).
In a lot of cases, a Texas artist would have to leave the state for somewhere like Nashville if they really wanted to “make it big,” so to speak, and this move will seemingly provide resources and access that has for some reason been lacking there, even with how good this music is.
The big fear would be that they take the typical “Nashville approach,” tweaking the music for radio play and mainstream fans, though with Miranda and Jon at the helm, I have hope that won’t be happening.
And, knowing many Texas artists and their independent nature, it seems hard to believe that they would allow that anyways. Texas radio is a whole other thing, which does tend to support more local, homegrown talent and is probably a topic for a whole other post.
Only time will tell, but this is seemingly a really cool, long overdue thing for country music with incredible potential.
And I’ll leave you with their beautiful harmonies on “Am I Right or Amarillo,” from The Marfa Tapes, because it’s Texas country perfection:
