The perfect cover for her disco-inspired new album.
Yesterday, Miranda Lambert released her new 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.”
She also shared an Instagram post talking about some of her inspirations for the record, which includes the likes of Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Glen Campbell and of course, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton:
“‘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 definitely a new direction for the Texas native, but I’m here for it and it’s a really fun album that feels fresh and current but vintage and nostalgic at the same time:
Of course, I’m loving her duet with Ella Langley “Snakeskin Boots,” but her cover of Jim Croce’s “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song” is absolutely breathtaking.
The original was released on Croce’s I Got a Name album in 1973, which he also solo wrote. He tragically passed in a plane crash in September in September of 1973, and the song was chosen as a single after his passing, and it peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming his fifth and final top 10 hit.
Considering the very 70’s inspiration for Crisco, I don’t think Miranda could have chosen a better song, and even though Croce wasn’t a country artist and the original isn’t a country song, Miranda’s twangy vocals and pure country heart certainly makes it one on this tracklist.
Miranda has covered songs like “Easy from Now On,” ” That’s the Way That the World Goes ‘Round,” “You Wouldn’t Know Me” and “Wandering Spirit” on previous albums over the years, but I think this new one of “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song” has to be my favorite.
Even though it’s over 50 years old, the lyrics and the story feel so authentically Miranda, and honestly, it’s a song I feel like she could have written herself. It fits so naturally into the rest of her country catalog, and even though I’m not sure it’s something people would expect from her, that makes it all the more brilliant and interesting.
Her vocals are stunning, I love what she did with the production, and it’s easily one of my favorites from Crisco. Check it out:
“I’ll Have To Say I Love You In A Song”
The original:
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
