Miranda Lambert is one of those country stars who’s massive in the States but no-one’s heard of this side of the Atlantic. Famous since her early twenties, she’s had a quarter century career, encompassing seven Top Five US albums, including one chart-topper, as well as parallel success as part of trio Pistol Annies. But the most she’s troubled the British album charts is reaching No.52 a decade ago. This is a shame as she’s talented and sassy and her new album is a treat.
Lambert’s songwriting chops derive from the best country traditions of storytelling, southern wit and chewy wordage, unafraid of humour but equally willing to embrace sentiment. Very much in the vein of Dolly Parton, she inhabits an empowered, don’t-give-a-damn feminine persona, whether on the leery, self-explanatory “Bitch on the Sauce (Just Drunk)” or the steel guitar-laced lovelorn nostalgia of “Looking Back on Luckenbach”. As the title implies, she’s big on her no-bull Texan persona.
Musically, it’s untrammelled country’n’western with a tiny pinch of Swiftian pop suss. She utilises plenty of trad instrumentation, but isn’t a studied retro reveller in the vein of, say, Molly Tuttle. She’s also not afraid of adding rock guitar heft to proceedings, as on the sturdy wronged-woman single “Wranglers”.
The short of it is that Postcards From Texas is just a great listen. 14 songs that offer a varied, literate and entertaining feast. Even on the power ballad-esque on likes of “Run”, I was invested enough in Lambert to hang in and enjoy the ride. The songs zing back’n’forth between everything from the delicious strummed love ruminations of “Way Too Good at Breaking my Heart” to the roadhouse honkytonk “Alimony” (“What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine/So go on, baby, have a real good time/I’ll be countin’ the dollars, you’ll be rollin’ the dimes/Freedom don’t come free”!).
Quite apart from all the above, she wears a cowboy hat excellently! With that and the music and the look she’s adopted for the video below, well, what more could anyone ask for?
Below: Watch the video for "Wranglers" by Miranda Lambert
