He ended up with five writing credits on Crisco…sounds like he’s a natural.
Last Friday, Miranda Lambert released her new disco-inspired album Crisco, which she co-produced with Jesse Frasure. It features 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.”
And there’s one writer in particular you might recognize… Miranda’s husband, Brendan McLoughlin.
Brendan is a former NYPD officer, and they met in November of 2018 on the set of Good Morning America while Miranda was performing with her band the Pistol Annies. They secretly married on January 26th, 2019, and it sounds like Brendan has become quite the little writer.
He is listed as a co-writer on five songs on Crisco including the Ella Langley duet “Snakeskin Boots,” as well as “Cowgirl Curtsy”, “Two Things Can Be True,” “Till the Going’s Gone” and “Right Where We Left It.”
Interview with Kelleigh Bannen, Miranda says he first started writing with her during COVID, and while he is a huge music fan, he didn’t know about the ins and outs of the business until he met her. Brendan’s first cut was on a song called “Dammit Randy” from Miranda’s Postcards From Texas album:
“Music is new to him, this side of it. He loves music, but was thrown into the industry when we met. He’s watching all the moving parts, and we wrote a few songs during COVID, and he was pretty good, honestly. I was like, not bad, not bad…
I was like, oh no. Like, not for real. He’s not over there on Music Row writing right now, but he was like, oh that’s’ fun, there wasn’t something in the world this morning and now there’s something in the world… he started coming to the studio with me, just because he loves the process.
We wrote a song called ‘Dammit Randy,’ because he was actually living with me through this complicated time the song was about with this person. He was like, ‘I can speak to this. I’m the one hearing it every night.'”
Time went on, and Miranda eventually started writing for Crisco, and when she realized she wanted to make an album, she only had five songs…
Cut to Brendan “talking s***” to Miranda and Jesse one day about how easy songwriting is, and they challenged him to come do a real, professional write with them. They set up a meeting, had a track ready, and Miranda said Brendan got a little nervous when he realized it was pretty serious.
Miranda did admit that he was “pretty good,” and I’d say that he is considering he got five songs on the album:
“Jesse Fraser actually, Brendan was talking s*** one day, and he was like, ‘Songwriting’s not hard.’ I was like, ‘Oh, you wanna go?’ I know you’re all fit and stuff, but I want it worse. And Jesse was like, ‘No, so we’re gonna book a write.’ So Jesse and I were writing, and we were like, Brendan, you have to be here at three.
Jesse had a track pulled up, he comes in his golf clothes and he sits down, and he’s kind of panicking. And we’re like, no this is serious now. Which, he did pretty good. We got a good one, and we were both kind of looking at each other like, why is that okay? Why is that pretty good? But he changed his tune after that.
He was like, ‘This is hard.’ But he needed to do it. But anyway, we were going to write for ‘Crisco,’ and we only had five songs. And I was like, let’s make a record. Jesse’s like, we only have five songs. I was like, well, gotta get on it then.”
Miranda had a few weeks worth of shows in California, so she had her co-writers fly out, and Brendan ended up sitting in on the session:
“I was on the west coast for like three weeks because I had shows in California with down time. I was like, why don’t y’all fly out here, Natalie flew out and Jesse, let’s rent a house, let’s finish this… we had some starts, and whatever, and Brendan was there, and it wasn’t discussed, he was just there because he was out on the road with me.
We start writing, and he’s just sitting there with his little pencil out. I was like, are we gonna do this? And he was like ‘Well, do y’all care if I just sit here?’ They were like, no, we don’t care, because they love him… he said so many great lines. Showing up, and all of us were surprised.
And then we had to go back and talk about the admin, because he doesn’t really have all that set up, he’s not a songwriter for a living… it was fun, too, it gave me a new energy to watch somebody get so excited about when the line landed, whoever said it.”
Some of the songs Brendan helped write are my favorites on the album, and while he has no musical background whatsoever, it sounds like he certainly has a natural way with words.
Of course, he was working with some of the best in the business, but still, that’s impressive, and Miranda spoke about how many good lines he came up with that made the songs a lot better. I guess it’s just the family business now.
There’s no doubt he’s proud of it as he shared on Instagram:
“So proud and excited for the release of Crisco. It was an honor to be able to be part of such an incredible album.
Thank you Miranda Lambert, Telemitry, and Natalie Hemby for allowing me to crash your write in Napa and contributing to five amazing songs, including my first ever radio single.
Telemitry and Miranda Lambert, watching you both produce this and seeing the joy in the studio between y’all was so special to watch and the perfect match.
A big thank you to all who took part in this record and MCA for spearheading the release of this album.”
Here’s a few of the ones Brendan wrote if you want to check it out for yourself:
“Two Things Can Be True”
“Cowgirl Curtsy”
“Snakeskin Boots”
