{"id":1318327,"date":"2020-02-19T18:42:02","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T01:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1818040"},"modified":"2020-02-19T18:42:02","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T01:42:02","slug":"an-hour-of-brutal-honesty-with-miranda-lambert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/an-hour-of-brutal-honesty-with-miranda-lambert\/","title":{"rendered":"An Hour of Brutal Honesty with Miranda Lambert"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

by Alison Bonaguro<\/a><\/span>
\n28m ago<\/span>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

At this year\u2019s Country Radio Seminar, Miranda Lambert sat down for an hour-long conversation (and a little bit of music) on Wednesday (Feb. 19) to talk about everything from getting her gritty start to what her mindset is right now, 17 years into her official music career. <\/p>\n

And she started the conversation with a glass of wine in her hand, and talked about her very first starts. <\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I was about 10, and I sang in the third grade talent show \u2014 I sang Holly Dunn\u2019s \u2019Daddy\u2019s Hands,\u2019 and my dad played guitar,\u201d Lambert said of when she first knew she could sing. \u201cBut I was really shy, and terrified of crowds. Like I wouldn\u2019t even order at McDonald\u2019s for myself. I just didn\u2019t really pursue it until I was about 16. I got my first guitar when I was 14, but it wasn\u2019t my idea. It was my dad\u2019s idea. I was like, \u2019I\u2019m busy being a cheerleader.’\u201d <\/p>\n

She did, however, write her first song when she was 14. \u201cGet this. It was about a girl named Mandy Lee and she was moving to Nashville to be a country singer,\u201d she laughed. <\/p>\n

Her small town of Lindale, Texas was all about football, she said, and while she was in drama club and had roles in the musicals, she longed for a proper choir. \u201cI thought, \u2019What am I gonna do? I\u2019m not good at anything else.\u201d So my mom and I started a petition to get a choir. The first week, 55 kids signed up. That was pretty telling. And they still have a choir 20 years later. At the time, I was like, \u2019Where do I fit in anywhere? There\u2019s got to be other kids like me.’\u201d <\/p>\n

Then came the True Value Country Showdown. \u201cI sang in a youth group, so after church one day, I stayed to make a secular tape. Singing my secular songs! I used the church sound system to record a demo on a cassette tape, and put it in an envelope and mailed it in. And I got a call. I was in the contest, I came in third. But I was singing on a stage in bar. The Reo Palm Isle. And I was, \u2019Ohhhhh, this<\/em> is what it is. There\u2019s smoke. And neon,’\u201d she said. \u201cI think that was the point when I got addicted right away. And I ended up getting a house gig at that bar when I turned 17. I was like, \u2019Am I old enough to be in here?\u2019 I had the gig for four months, three nights a week, I made $200. But it\u2019s where I started to get my chops.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the only thing that ever came naturally.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI played bars for two and a half years opening for all Texas acts. My mom drove me around to all the stations in Texas in her Expedition with bologna sandwiches. Super Loretta Lynn-style. Like for real. I was like, \u2019Hey I have a guitar. Can I sing?\u2019 Some said no, some said yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

With her mom\u2019s continued encouragement, Lambert auditioned for Nashville Star<\/em>. \u201cI went to Dallas, and I sucked real bad. I didn\u2019t even make the top 25. I sang \u201cStill the One\u201d by Shania Twain, which I love. I didn\u2019t execute, because I didn\u2019t try. My mom was like, \u2019You didn\u2019t give anything. I\u2019ve given you everything. I\u2019ve driven all over this state. That\u2019s not fair to me. You\u2019re doing it again in Houston.’\u201d <\/p>\n

Lambert went in with a different attitude in Houston, sang Patsy Cline\u2019s \u201cCrazy,\u201d and came in just close enough to the top to get noticed by Nashville. She said she looked at the show like her college. Navigating her way from DFW to BNA and then to living in a house with ten strangers. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll the grit from playing in bars, all the moments where nobody was listening, and people were fighting in front of the stage, requesting waltzes. That was what set me on this dream,\u201d she said. \u201cI thought (Nashville) was gonna try to j\u00fcj my image, which I was terrified of because I was a little rough around the edges.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result of all that grit (and no j\u00fcj) was 2005\u2019s Kerosene<\/em>. And then six albums later, Lambert made Wildcard<\/em>. \u201cI went into it with the same hunger and mentality I made Kerosene<\/em> with,\u201d she admitted. <\/p>\n

And now, at 36, Lambert has 33 Academy of Country Music awards to her name, a roomful of awards, and a magic porch at her house in Nashville\u2019s Green Hills neighborhood where songs almost write themselves. <\/p>\n

She ended the hour by picking up her guitar and singing two songs off her latest album Wildcard<\/em>, \u201cDark Bars\u201dand \u201cHow Dare You Love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stay tuned tomorrow for the second half of the conversation with Lambert.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
Alison makes her living loving country music. She’s based in Chicago, but she’s always leaving her heart in Nashville. <\/div>\n

@alisonbonaguro<\/a> <\/div>\n

via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alison Bonaguro 28m ago At this year\u2019s Country Radio Seminar, Miranda Lambert sat down for an hour-long conversation (and a little bit of music) on Wednesday (Feb. 19) to talk about everything from getting her gritty start to what her mindset is right now, 17 years into her official music career. And she started […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1318327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 07:18:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1318327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1318327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1318327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1318327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}