Sure does sound like her…
Other than Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert has remained what can only be described as the female country artist of the 2000s. With 40 ACM Awards, 14 CMA Awards, three Grammys, 11 #1 singles and seven #1 albums, the Texas native has built a legacy few artists in the genre, let alone female artists, can compete with.
Recently, she’s been experiencing nothing short of a career resurgence thanks to her newfound friendship with Ella Langley. Of course, this is because she not only produced her sophomore album, Dandelion, but also co-wrote her history-making all-genre #1 hit, “Choosin’ Texas,” and appeared on “Butterfly Season” with Langley.
While Langley has been helping her connect with a new generation of country fans, this is still Miranda Lambert we’re talking about. Simply put, she’s still a force to be reckoned with in the genre. And lately, she’s been gearing up for the release of her 11th studio album, Crisco, which releases next Friday, October 2nd.
Upon Crisco’s announcement back in June, Lambert said she wanted it to feel “nostalgic” and fun, adding that it was a unique challenge to make a song that was “familiar” and “fresh” at the same time. Of course, she was deeply inspired by the likes of Glen Campbell, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers and that 70s and 80s time when those artists in particular were fusing in a lot of disco:
“We wanted something that feels familiar but also fresh, which is really hard to do. We leaned into all the things I grew up loving about country music – Glen Campbell, Kenny and Dolly; very ’70s and ’80s.
It’s a fun mix of all these sides of country music that I’ve never fully explored before, even down to using strings in a bigger way. I almost can’t believe I’ve made this many records without really going there, but it was magical to hear how much strings can transform a song.”
Since then, she’s delivered that in spades with pre-released songs such as the title track, the Patsy Cline-inspired, “Two Things Can Be True,” “Till The Going’s Gone,” “Sunset Marquis” and the Grammy-nominated Chris Stapleton collaboration, “A Song To Sing” — all of which beautifully harken back to the glitzy nature of the ’70s and ’80s.
Fresh off receiving seven nominations at the upcoming 60th annual CMA Awards last week, Lambert dropped a major teaser for Crisco’s opening track, “Snakeskin Boots.”
Taking to Instagram this morning, the “Kerosene” singer released a cryptic video featuring a pair of her own titular snakeskin boots before a second pair walks into frame beside her. Before the two walk off in separate directions and text simply reading “featuring…” pops up on screen, you can hear some echoey background vocals singing the title of the song.
Of course, fans in the comments began to quickly lose their minds and start speculating who the mystery feature is, with fans guessing it’s everyone from Ella Langley or Lainey Wilson to Kacey Musgraves or Taylor Swift.
“Ella was holding a snake in one of the last pics she posted. But kinda sounds like Lainey.”
“Announcing an Ella collab the day that Choosin’ Texas broke history for the longest running no. 1 in hot 100 history would be fitting.”
“Omg Miranda if this is TS related my stomach already hurts and I need the news NOW.”
“Who else thinks this feature could be [Kacey Musgraves]?”
“The voice in the background sounds like Ella!”
“It’s very obviously Ella guys”
“I know Ella Langley when I see her”
“Miranda and Taylor I’ll die!”
Obviously, the leading theory as of now is none other than Langley. Simply put, it makes too much sense not to collaborate again, given their friendship and the record-breaking success of both “Choosin’ Texas” and Dandelion as a whole. Beyond that, Langley recently uploaded a photo to Instagram over the weekend of her holding a snake. While that could be a total coincidence, the timing, coupled with the fact that Lambert added a yellow heart emoji in the caption (which has been associated with Ella and Dandelion as a whole recently), adds more validity to the theory.
As for Swift, this one seems a little far-fetched, in my opinion. Sure, she made her return to country music with her #1 hit, “I Knew It, I Knew You” from Toy Story 5, which prompted her to officially return to the CMA Awards in November following her Single of the Year Nomination. With that being said, however, I simply don’t see her fitting on a Miranda track or even sounding remotely close to the vocals present in the brief teaser.
Finally, Musgraves and Wilson also seem doubtful, given the teaser not really sounding like either of them.
If I was a betting man, I’d put my money on Miranda teaming up once again with Ella on “Snakeskin Boots.” Beyond their history and the aforementioned clues, the vocals in the teaser sound a LOT like Langley.
Either way, it looks like we’ll find out incredibly soon.
