The duet of year is here.
Today, Miranda Lambert released her new disco-inspired album Crisco, which she co-produced with Jesse Frasure. It will feature 12 tracks as Miranda explores “heartbreak and hope, highways and honky-tonks, rhinestones and reflection, creating a record that feels both timeless and refreshingly alive.”
With this project, she will take her music in a very different direction with her new label MCA, marking a new chapter in her decorated recording career, she’s venturing into a new avenue of country music.
She says that she’s always loved “every corner of country music,” and with Crisco, she wanted to lean into the more fun, upbeat kinds of songs that “make you dance”:
“I’ve always loved every corner of country music. The heartbreak songs, the honky-tonk songs, the songs that make you think and the songs that make you dance. Making this record reminded me that those things don’t have to be separated.
We followed the songs wherever they wanted to go, trusted our instincts and ended up with something that feels really fun and really honest to who I am.”
Miranda shared a post on Instagram explaining her inspiration for the record, which mostly come from the time period of Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Glen Campbell, and of course, Kenny and Dolly:
“‘Crisco’ is out now. Telemitry and I were talking about how country music has an incredible archive of music to pull from and how it’d be fun to dive into a side of it that I haven’t really explored before…the time period when Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Glen Campbell and of course Kenny & Dolly graced the airwaves.
The result of that was Crisco. I hope you have as much fun listening as we had making it. Thanks for goin on this country disco journey with me.”
It’s unlike anything Miranda has done before, and she’s certainly earned the right to explore and experiment with hew sounds and it’s a really fun record:
Of course, the tracklist also includes the highly-anticipated new duet with Ella Langley “Snakeskin Boots,” which follows up their mega hit “Choosin’ Texas,” that Miranda doesn’t sing on but co-wrote and produced.
Miranda says “Snakeskin Boots” was written with Ella in mind, and given the success of “Choosin’ Texas,” and Ella’s Dandelion album as a whole, we already know they make a heck of a team:
“We wrote ‘Snakeskin Boots’ with Ella in mind. She and I are kindred spirits, and when we were working on her album, I realized how many retro influences we share.
To me, this song is kind of Thelma and Louise if they didn’t drive off the cliff. It’s two bad*** women getting away with something, and she’s the perfect partner for that.”
Interestingly, Miranda wrote “Snakeskin Boots” with Natalie Hemby, Jesse Frasure and her husband, Brendan McLoughlin, and Miranda has previously talked about how he was getting into songwriting and also helped with “Dammit Randy,” from her 2024 Postcards from Texas album. He’s also listed as a co-writer on “Two Things Can Be True,” which was one of the pre-released singles.
This duet is a perfect mix of western and disco, and finds them telling a story of a woman “who knows exactly how to make her escape” and Miranda and her and co-producer Jesse “drew inspiration from the era’s dramatic, stylized soundscapes, creating a track that could soundtrack a Quentin Tarantino film as easily as it could fill a dance floor at Studio 54.”
You can instantly get the Thelma & Louise-inspired lyrics, and it has such a moody and brooding feel that both Ella and Miranda do so well in their solo music:
“If the good all die young
She gonna slip the hangman’s noose
Stealin’ diamonds
In her snakeskin boots
If you ask her
How she shook the devil loose
Boy, I’m faster
In my snakeskin, snakeskin boots
Snakeskin boots
She’s always on the move
In her snakeskin boots”
They really nailed the unique production with the western and disco influence, and considering this song is already going to country radio as a single, I have to imagine they’ll find a ton of success there too. Ella is on fire right now, and Miranda has been a huge part of that over the last year or so, and I don’t think either of them are going to be slowing down anytime soon.
I’ll definitely have this one on repeat… check it out:
“Snakeskin Boots”
Crisco Track List
1. Snakeskin Boots
2. Crisco
3. Cowgirl Curtsy
4. Two Things Can Be True
5. Cuttin’ Onions
6. Till The Going’s Gone
7. To Everything
8. Whiskey Business
9. Right Where We Left It
10. A Song To Sing (with Chris Stapleton)
11. I’ll Have To Say I Love You In A Song
12. Sunset Marquis
