|
This
album, which was certified Platinum in the United States, also produced
the singles "Bring Me Down", "Kerosene", and "New Strings". All four
singles were Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts.
After
Epic's Nashville division closed, Lambert was transferred to Columbia
Records Nashville for her second album, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which was
released in early 2007. Although the title track failed to make top 40,
the next three singles ("Famous in a Small Town", "Gunpowder &
Lead", and "More Like Her") were all Top 20 hits, with "Gunpowder &
Lead" becoming her first Top 10 country hit in July 2008. Lambert's
third album, Revolution, was released in September 2009. Five singles
have been released from the album, including Lambert's two Number One
hits "The House That Built Me," which spent four weeks at the top of the
chart, and "Heart Like Mine". Lambert has also been honored by the
Grammy Awards, the Academy of Country Music Awards, and the Country
Music Association Awards.
Early life Miranda
Leigh Lambert was born November 10, 1983 in Longview, Texas and raised
in Lindale, Texas. Her father, Richard Lee "Rick" Lambert, is a retired
police officer who in later life became a private investigator in
partnership with her mother, Beverly June Lambert (née Hughes). Miranda
was taught about guns by her father at an early age and later became an
avid deer hunter. Her parents took her to a Garth Brooks concert when
she was nine and this started her interest in country music. Her father
wrote and performed country music and she soon began singing in talent
contests under his tutelage.
|
|
At age sixteen, Lambert began
appearing on the Johnny High Country Music Review in Arlington, Texas,
the same show that helped launch the career of LeAnn Rimes. Lambert
quickly landed a recording session in Nashville, but left the studio
after she became frustrated with the "pop" sound of music. She then went
back to Texas and asked her dad to teach her how to play guitar so she
could write her own songs.
While still in high school, Lambert
made her professional singing debut. She fronted the house band at the
Reo Palm Isle Ballroom in Longview, Texas, a long-running venue that has
showcased Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, and is where Brooks & Dunn
started out as a bar room band.
Personal life In
2006, Lambert began dating fellow country singer Blake Shelton. Lambert
sang background vocals on Shelton's 2008 country cover of Michael
Bublé's song "Home". The two recorded and co-wrote duet "Bare Skin Rug,"
for his studio album Startin' Fires released later in 2008. Shelton
also co-wrote three songs on Revolution, and provided background vocals
on "Maintain the Pain." On May 9, 2010, Shelton proposed to Lambert,
after seeking (and receiving) her father's blessing and they became
engaged. The two got married on May 14, 2011 at Don Strange Ranch in
Boerne, Texas. Wearing her mother's wedding dress, Miranda walked down
the aisle and exchanged vows with Blake in front of five hundred fifty
family members and friends, including fellow celebrities Reba McEntire,
Kelly Clarkson, Cee Lo Green, Martina McBride, Dierks Bentley, Charles
Kelley, and the Bellamy Brothers. After the ceremony, Miranda expressed
her excitement saying, "I'm married to my best friend! Looking forward
to a lifetime of laughter."
2003-2006: Kerosene In
2003, Lambert auditioned for the talent competition Nashville Star,
eventually becoming a third-place finisher on the show. On September 15,
2003, she signed with Epic Records. Her debut single, "Me and Charlie
Talking" (co-written by her father and Heather Little), was released in
summer of 2004 as the lead-off single to her debut album. Titled
Kerosene, Lambert's first album comprised twelve songs, eleven of which
she co-wrote. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard Top
Country Albums charts, and eventually gained a Platinum certification by
the RIAA for shipments of over one million copies, selling more than
930,000 copies up to July 2008. Overall, the album produced four Top 40
singles on the Billboard country charts, including the title track which
was a Top 20 hit. Lambert also toured with Keith Urban and George
Strait in early 2006. In 2007, she toured with Dierks Bentley and Toby
Keith.
|
|
2007-2008: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Lambert's
second album, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was released on May 9, 2007. She
wrote eight of the album's eleven tracks, including its four singles.
Much of the track "Gunpowder & Lead," the album's third single and
her highest-charting single, was written while she was taking a
concealed handgun class in her home town.
In 2005, at the 40th
Annual Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas, Lambert won the
Cover Girl Fresh Face of Country Music Award. She was also nominated for
the Country Music Association's Horizon Award in 2005; in 2007, Lambert
also received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Country Vocal
Performance for her single "Kerosene". She also won the Top New Female
Vocalist award at the 2007 ACM (Academy of Country Music) Awards. At the
2008 ACM (Academy of Country Music) Awards, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend won
Album of the Year.
Lambert was ranked #90 on the 100 Greatest Women (of Country Music) by Country Universe in 2008.
In February 2009,
Miranda Lambert entered the studio to record her third album,
Revolution, which was to be released on September 29, 2009. Lambert
co-wrote all but four of the album's 15 tracks; the album also includes
co-writes from Blake Shelton, Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley of Lady
Antebellum. Ahead of the album's release, an EP, titled Dead Flowers,
was issued on September 8, 2009. The EP, available exclusively at Best
Buy, featured the Revolution album track "Dead Flowers" and three bonus
tracks previously included on limited editions of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
During
this time, Lambert (along with two other singers), became the new face
of Cotton Inc.’s revived “The Touch, The Feel of Cotton” campaign. She
has appeared in ads to promote cotton, and the website features a free
download of the full version of her song, "Fabric of My Life."
Lambert
debuted her new single, "Dead Flowers", at the 44th annual Academy of
Country Music Awards on April 5, 2009. It was released to country radio
on May 4, 2009, and was a minor Top 40 hit on the charts.
|
|
On September 24,
2009, Lambert and her band performed all the tracks on Revolution in
sequence at the Ryman Auditorium, five days before its scheduled release
date.
Upon the release of Revolution, Lambert's work was met
with significant critical praise. At Metacritic, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the
album received an average score of 85, based on 11 reviews, which
indicates "universal acclaim".
Rolling Stone magazine praised the
album saying, "Lambert remains country's most refreshing act, and not
just because she makes firearms seem like a matter-of-fact female
accessory." Entertainment Weekly magazine said, "She's found stylistic
shades of songwriters twice her age..." and that the album is "...a
portrait of an artist in full possession of her powers, and the best
mainstream-country album so far this year." Boston Globe commented that
“Revolution’’ is the sound of Miranda Lambert coming into her own."
Slant magazine also had high praises reserved for the album saying,
"Miranda Lambert expands on her fascinating, fully realized artistic
persona on Revolution."
The album's second single, "White Liar",
was released on August 17, 2009, and debuted at #50 on the U.S.
Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. In February 2010, "White Liar" became
Lambert's highest-charting single to date, reaching a peak of #2 on the
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
In promotion of
Revolution, Miranda Lambert launched a headlining tour; Roadside Bars
& Pink Guitars kicked off in March 2010 and included stops in over
22 cities, as well as a performance at the Bonnaroo Music Festival.
"The
House That Built Me," the album's third single, was released on March
8, 2010 and became a #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
It retained this position for four weeks and it received a platinum
certification from the RIAA on July 8, 2010.
|
|
"Only Prettier" followed as the
album's fourth single in July 2010 and its accompanying music video
became somewhat viral. The music video for "Only Prettier" was directed
by Trey Fanjoy and filmed in Joelton, Tennessee in June 2010, and
premiered on VEVO on August 3, 2010. It features a 1950s theme and cameo
appearances by fellow country artists Kellie Pickler, Laura Bell Bundy,
and Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum. In the video, Lambert and her
friends portray two rival cliques attending a high school sock hop. The
alter-egos are shown doing things such as spiking the punch, stuffing
their bras and smoking. Ultimately, the alter-egos have a bad time at
the party, while Lambert, Pickler, Bundy and Scott enjoy themselves the
entire night. Additionally, Lambert is also shown performing with her
band on stage at the event. The humorous video introduced Lambert to a
larger audience outside of her Country music base.
|
|
In December 2010,
"Only Prettier", eventually reached a peak of number 12 on the U.S.
Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, giving Lambert her seventh Top 20
hit. The fifth single from Revolution was "Heart Like Mine", which later
would become Lambert's second number one hit.
On February 13, 2011, Lambert won a Grammy Award in the Best Female Country Vocal Performance category for "The House That Built Me."
|
|
On April 4, 2011
during the taping of the Academy of Country Music's 'Girls' Night Out'
television special in Las Vegas, Lambert debuted her new project, girl
group Pistol Annies. The group consists of Lambert, Ashley Monroe and
Angaleena Presley. They released their single, "Hell On Heels", in May
2011.
Miranda Lambert is currently working on two albums which is
her fifth solo album and her band "Pistol Annies" debut album.
|
|
Comments
Post a Comment