Inside Miranda Lambert’s Private Nashville Show

Miranda Lambert celebrated Postcards From Texas, her 10thsolo album, on Sunday with a pop-up show at her Casa Rosa Tex-Mex + Cantina at 308 Broadway, in the heart of Nashville’s Neon Neighborhood.

She announced the show on her social media accounts that morning and instructed people to drop by Casa Rosa to pick up wristbands for entry. They obliged, and Lambert walked on stage to a packed house at 5 p.m. to sing her Postcards from Texas top to bottom.

Celebrating a new album with such a format isn’t new to her—she did the same thing when she released Revolution in 2009 at Ryman Auditorium.

Lambert’s name is written in pink neon on the wall behind the stage, casting a rosy hue. Wearing a white cowboy hat, a large belt buckle, and a dark blue pearl snap with turquoise fringe, Lambert looked Texan to her core.  Appropriate because she is. The singer was born in Lindale, Texas, and returned to Austin, Texas, to record Postcards From Texas with her friend and producer Jon Randall.

She opens the album – and thus her pop-up show—with what might be the most Texas song that has hit contemporary country music this generation, “Armadillo.”

“How y’all doin’?” she asked the crowd. “Thank you for coming to Casa Rosa tonight to celebrate Postcards From Texas. “This is the first time I’ve sang most of these songs live, ever. I have my notebook down here, old school. I might have to start something over. I might mess something up, but we’re going to drink right through it. Is that OK?”

Miranda Lambert Released Postcards From Texas on Friday

The crowd roared in response. The singer explained that the musicians, writers, and almost anyone who had anything to do with making the album were at the show.

True to the tracklist, Lambert followed “Armadillo” with “Dammit Randy,” and song she wrote with her husband, Brendan McLoughlin and Randall. Lambert has previously said the song was inspired by Randall, whose real name is Randy. Still, she told American Songwriter it was also about Randy Goodman, the head of Sony Music Nashville, her record label of home of 20 years with which she recently parted ways.

Goodman announced he was retiring at the end of the year today.

“It’s that good old adage of, if you piss off a songwriter, well, it’s fair game,” Lambert told American Songwriter.

The crowd cheered again when she talked about how refreshed she felt to be working with a new team of people who were excited about her music after leaving Sony.

“When you get with a new team after you’ve been in a relationship that doesn’t serve you, that doesn’t lead with art, that doesn’t support you, this record was going into a whole new territory,” Lambert told fans. “We wrote this song about something we had to get the Hell out of.”

Her voice rang strong and true through the room as fans danced, drank, and sang along to lyrics including: Yeah, now that I made it to the other side| I hope you’re countin’ singles in your double wide| Smokin’ cigarettes like they’re goin’ outta style| Turnin’ me up on your radio dial| You gave up ’til the very last minute| Now that I’m gone, I’ve got your attention

“We Wrote This Song About Something We Haf to Get the Hell Out Of”

Other highlights include “Santa Fe,” which Lambert wrote with Jesse Frasure, and father-daughter combo Jessie Jo and Dean Dillon. Dean Dillon has written many of George Strait’s hit songs, and Lambert hoped he’d be in the mood to write something in that vein with her. She said he went there without having to be asked.

“Dean led us down this path that makes me so happy,” she said. “It reminds me of every song I’ve ever loved that he’s written.”

Her friend and previous producer, Frank Liddell, sent her “January Heart,” which Brent Cobb co-wrote. It’s another of her favorite songs.

“He sent me this song out of the blue,” Lambert said of Liddell. “It was one of those songs that, as a songwriter, you just couldn’t think of. I’m so thankful to have it on this record.”

“Wranglers” got the crowd whipped up then Lambert slowed it down with her song, “Run,” which she wrote alone.

“I think it’s really important to write by yourself,” Lambert said. “For me, the best ones that come are when I’m really digging in and having to face something. The paper feels like a mirror. Then, when you put it out to the world, there’s nowhere to hide.”

Miranda Lambert Had No Where To Hide

As the show continued, the crowd drank and got louder, rowdier, and shoutier.

“I love you, Queen,” one man bellowed.

Lambert said “I Hate Love Songs” is an older song she wrote with Randall and Jack Ingram. She said she’s a voice memo hoarder on her phone who saves everything.

“It’s fun to look back sometimes and find a song, and you’re like, ‘Oh, I love that song. Where am I going to put it?’ “Lambert said of “I Hate Love Songs.” “Sometimes they don’t find a home, and sometimes they do.”

She wanted to make “No Man’s Land” feel like an invitation and not a warning.

Of “Way Too Good At Breaking My Heart,” Lambert said: “I love this freaking song.”
She closed the show with her David Allan Coe cover “Living On The Run.”

“Thank you for sharing your Sunday Funday with us,” Lambert said from the stage. “I thought I knew everything. I grew up on David Allan Coe. He’s the original outlaw. I was going to Austin to cut the record, and I heard this song, and I’d never heard it in my life.”

Lambert thought ending the record about living on the run would be fun because it’s getting her to where she’s going next.

While the singer hasn’t shared her complete plan yet, she’ll be back on stage in Nashville for her Miranda Lambert: Music for Mutts – MuttNation Benefit Show on Oct. 5 at Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater. Tickets are on sale now at livenation.com.

Miranda Lambert, Postcards From Texas tracklist:

“Armadillo” (Aaron Raitiere, Jon Decious, Parker Twomey)
“Dammit Randy” (Miranda Lambert, Brendan McLoughlin, Jon Randall)
“Looking Back on Luckenbach” (Miranda Lambert, Shane McAnally, Natalie Hemby)
“Santa Fe” feat. Parker McCollum (Miranda Lambert, Jesse Frasure, Jessie Jo Dillon, Dean Dillon)
“January Heart” (Brent Cobb, Neil Medley)
“Wranglers” (Audra Mae, Evan McKeever, Ryan Carpenter)
“Run” (Miranda Lambert)
“Alimony” (Miranda Lambert, Natalie Hemby, Shane McAnally)
“I Hate Love Songs” (Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram, Jon Randall)
“No Man’s Land” (Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick)
“Bitch On The Sauce (Just Drunk)” (Miranda Lambert, Jaren Johnston)
“Way Too Good At Breaking My Heart” (Miranda Lambert, Jon Randall, Jesse Frasure, Jenee Fleenor)
“Wildfire” (Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram, Jon Randall)
“Living On The Run” (David Allen Coe, Jimmy L. Howard)

Photo by: James Macari

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