5 Valid Reasons to Love Miranda Lambert
5 Valid Reasons to Love Miranda Lambert
Did you know I host a podcast or five? It’s true, and on that side of my job today, on a new episode of You Don’t Even Like This Band, we’re talking about country singer Miranda Lambert.
The episode is behind a paywall, but hey, give it a listen here for free why don’t ya?
If you enjoy it, there’s plenty more where that came from!
On this week’s show, me and my co-hosts Travis Clark and Andy Sell each talk about a band we think the world needs to know a little more about.
For me, that’s Miranda Lambert (this time around, anyway). I know that’s a slightly odd choice on account of how she’s already pretty damn huge. Vegas residency huge.
Still, country music is a tough sell for a lot of people. I’m personally not a fan of most modern country music and agree with alt-country legend/devout Marxist Steve Earle when he calls it “hip hop for people who are afraid of black people.”
If he’s wrong, explain this shit:
Anyway, that is not Miranda Lambert. She is different.
She’s not the only modern country artist I enjoy. Maren Morris is fun and I’ve paid money to see Little Big Town in concert. But they aren’t Miranda Lambert. She’s one of those artists who transcends the genre she’s working within. She is her own genre. She’s definitely my favorite country musician, and possibly just my favorite musician.
So, aside from the 20+ year history of making consistently great music, here are a few reasons why you, too, should love Miranda Lambert the way I do.
The Chicago Tribune Called Her the Greatest Country Music Artist of All-Time
I’ve said it a bunch of times and I will say it with my typing mouth (aka fingers) here again … Miranda Lambert is this generation’s Dolly Parton, except if Dolly Parton was a much better songwriter. Does that sound blasphemous? It shouldn’t! A Chicago Tribune columnist took it a step further and called her “the greatest country music artist of all-time.”
Does that do anything for you? I know the Chicago Tribune isn’t the first outlet that springs to mind when you think of authorities on country music history, but the guy who wrote the article is an actual baby boomer who was born and raised in Texas. Exactly the kind of person you’d expect to scoff and lecture you about George Jones if you dared give Miranda Lambert that kind of credit.
I don’t think he’s wrong, either. She’s been releasing albums regularly for more than 20 years now and her catalog is absurdly consistent. I can only think of one song I absolutely never listen to and it’s a duet with Blake Shelton, her former husband and a man who, inversely, only has one good song.
If your argument is that she hasn’t been around long enough to be considered among the all-time greats, I’d remind you she’s both been recording longer and has released more studio albums than The Beatles. You are fine to consider her among those ranks. She has put in the work.
She’s also won more Academy of Country Music awards than any other artist, including winning album of the year five albums in a row. No other country musician has even come close to pulling that off. The list of awards and nominations she’s received over the years is so vast it is its own Wikipedia page.
So hey, she’s good at music. But there’s more!
She’s An Ally
When I say Miranda Lambert is this generation’s Dolly Parton, I mean that in regards to her politics also. We don’t generally associate mainstream country music with support for the LGBTQ+ community. Which is precisely why Dolly Parton stands out among her classic country music peers. She’s been very vocal in her support.
Same thing with Miranda Lambert. If you somehow managed to commit the trailer for season six of Queer Eye to memory, then you might recall that Miranda Lambert’s “Y’all Means All” is the soundtrack to that trailer. She wrote the song for the show.
Also the video for her single “Tequila Does” is super duper … inclusive. To say the least.
So she’s on the right side of history on that front, which probably goes a long way toward explaining the next point.
Country Music Radio Kinda Hates Her
For being one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed country musicians working today, Miranda Lambert gets an appalling lack of airplay on country music radio.
That’s not my opinion. I don’t listen to country music radio so I wouldn’t know.
What I do know is that in her long and storied career, Miranda Lambert only has four #1 country radio hits. Not what you’d expect from an artist with five straight album of the year awards under her belt.
In a 2022 interview, Lambert talked about having essentially given up on caring about what country radio does with her songs.
"I don’t care anymore. I just have had such a weird relationship with radio this whole time anyway. I actually prefer for radio and the label to tell me what they think, because I want it to work. Then the streaming services pick their own thing. I would like for as many of these songs to be heard, whatever way they can be."
Why is country radio so hesitant to embrace one of the literal greats of the genre? I don’t doubt that some of it has to do with her aforementioned politics. That’s just not a stance a lot of mainstream country artists are willing to take publicly, especially in the “Try That In A Small Town” era where shooting cases of Bud Light because they put a trans person on a limited edition can is what passes for political protest in the genre.
But I think there’s something else to it also.
Her Murder Songs Have a Heart of Gold
Personally, I think Miranda Lambert is single-handedly responsible for making country music songs about murdering (the right) motherfuckers a mainstream thing again. She is the entirety of the “outlaw country” genre and has been for more than 20 years now.
Sure, you’ll get your Carrie Underwood’s and such who will drop the occasional tune about fucking up someone’s car real good, but murder songs are the foundation of Miranda Lambert’s entire career.
Her very first single was about killing a cheating boyfriend in a house fire.
Her biggest and most beloved single is about waiting for an abusive spouse to come home so she can kill him with a shotgun.
The examples go on and on and on.
Country music is already a pearl clutching kind of scene where conformity to rules and traditions is mandatory. You can sing about murder on country radio, but only if the victims in question are unfaithful women or Muslims.
Sure, the Dixie Chicks (now just “The Chicks”) got away with murdering a guy named Earl on a big radio hit once, but that’s the exception, not the rule. Also, look what they did with all that leeway they were given to speak their minds. They went and lost the war on terror by criticizing George W. Bush on foreign soil.
So country music radio was in no mood for sassy women when Miranda Lambert rolled up a few years later, and you can tell from this quote from a 2007 Washington Post profile.
Hey, fuck you, Gregg. For starters, since when does a song need to be “a giant anthem” to get played on the radio? Also, that “too angry” bit doesn’t age well when you take it into account alongside another quote from the same article.
This one is from Miranda Lambert’s father, talking about why she wrote “Gunpowder and Lead” and so many more songs about severely wronged women getting vigilante justice.
"We used to take in abused women and their kids. Miranda's been moved out of her room several times to make room for a mother and her teenage daughter. She's heard me tell those wives, 'If he comes over here, he might get shot 'cause we're not going to take guff from anybody.' She saw these women break down and talk about how they were mentally and physically abused. She gleaned content just by listening. She did that a lot. We didn't hide anything from the kids. So the content of her songs doesn't surprise me."
But hey, go off about how that song is “too angry,” Gregg.
She Runs a Charity Organization For Shelter Pets
Lastly, among Miranda Lambert’s side projects and pursuits, is one called MuttNation. What’s that? It’s a charity for shelter pets that she’s been running for 15 years now. Here’s what the organization gets up to, according to their website:
"Founded by country music icon Miranda Lambert and her mom, Bev Lambert, in 2009, MuttNation is a donation-supported 501c(3) nonprofit organization that has raised over $9 million since inception with a mission to promote the adoption of shelter pets, advance spay & neuter; and educate the public about the benefits of these actions. MuttNation also works with transport partners to assist and relocate animals during times of natural disaster. MuttNation Fueled by Miranda Lambert, a pet line of toys and supplies that benefits the Foundation, is available exclusively at Tractor Supply Company stores throughout the US."
Does YOUR favorite musician have a line of pet toys available exclusively at Tractor Supply Company stores throughout the US? I bet they don’t.
To put it as simply as possible, if you hate Miranda Lambert, you are a bad person.