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Access
to Miranda Lambert Denied, but Dad’s Willing to Talk
Despite my attempts to contact the tour manager by e-mail and my impressive credentials as a music writer, I do not see my name on the guest list. Later, a fan club member kindly informs me that the man selling T-shirts, CDs, and autographed photos is none other than Rick Lambert. Rick is Miranda’s father and the co-writer of two of Kerosene’s best songs, Greyhound Bound for Nowhere and the seminal Me and Charlie Talking. We chat for a good while about the music business in general, his daughter’s upcoming follow-up album, and the recent changing of the guard at Sony Music, parent company of Miranda’s record label. But even the artist’s father cannot grant access to the Nashville Star runner-up. Rick’s 17-year old son Luke is the Webmaster for Miranda’s Internet site. The super smart kid didn’t like country music until popsters like Jewel and Michelle Branch said they were ‘Ran fans. Rick and his wife own the concession business outright—the old man constantly updates a spreadsheet on his laptop while I bombard him with questions. As songwriter, Rick has received some nice royalty checks for Me and Charlie Talking—not just for radio airplay, but cell phone ring tones, too! The proud father is excited about tonight’s show and tells me Miranda’s set will be a lot different from those she plays for 15,000-plus crowds when she opens for George Strait. “She usually gets a half hour. Here, it’s about one and a half hours.” Considering that the dozen originals on Kerosene total about 45 minutes on CD, I wonder what else Rick’s girl has in store for us. He says there are some new songs and a few surprising covers—stuff I wouldn’t necessarily expect, songs women don’t usually do. Excited, I grab a seat at a table about halfway between the Swamp stage and the concession table. It affords me a good view of the stage as well as the bartender action, sort of like an unrated director’s cut of the movie Coyote Ugly. The doors opened at 7 p.m., but the opening act—a competent Gretchen Wilson wannabe from Nashville named Ashley Ray—doesn’t hit the stage until 8:30. Ray and her band run through a predictable but crowd-pleasing set of outlaw-flavored country and country-rock numbers like Good Hearted Woman, Whiskey River, and Keep Your Hands to Yourself. Miranda Lambert and her young band—they seem to have been recruited from the punk rock clubs, a far cry from the old Nashville pros like Randy Scruggs who played on Kerosene—kick off around 9:45 with a thunderous What About Georgia? followed by a version of Mama I’m Alright that is considerably tougher than the album version. “Sing along with this one if you know it,” Miranda says before she jumps into Me and Charlie Talking, one of the best songs about young love I can remember. The crowd responds enthusiastically—not bad for a single that didn’t crack the top 20. She introduces Greyhound with an acknowledgement to her daddy. As she begins the song, I turn around and observe her father’s proud smile. It’s a priceless moment, one that couldn’t have happened at an overcrowded arena performance. The young musicians do a creditable job of duplicating the session cats’ parts on the album tracks, although some of Kerosene’s production subtleties are impossible to translate to the stage. Miranda more than compensates with her fiery singing—there are dozens of attractive women singers with great voices, but few of them write as well as Miranda or connect with a live audience so effortlessly. I suspect tonight’s crowd represents more diversity than the rock shows that usually dominate the Swamp. The renditions
of other people’s songs turn out to be surprising, just
like Rick said earlier. The Band’s Up on Cripple Creek is
a highlight. “It feels good to be in the South tonight,”
Miranda says. “Y’all like Merle Haggard?” she
asks. A few cheers; mostly from the old-timers. Miranda seems
disappointed by the lukewarm reaction, but it doesn’t stop
her from delivering a rousing performance of Hag’s Tonight
the Bottle Let Me Down. Her other cover choices hold back nothing—a
flat-out rocking version of John Mellencamp’s Hurts So Good,
another high-energy pass on the Band (The Shape I’m In),
and a honky-tonk take on Led Zeppelin’s Rock and Roll complete
with a drum outro faithful to John Bonham’s original. A brief but very satisfying encore includes a stomping jam on the old Buddy Holly hit Not Fade Away with the guitar player on lead vocals, followed by the title track from Kerosene. “Sometimes revenge is so sweet,” Miranda declares. She and the band will take a short break before hitting the road again in May. Rick says the new album is in the can and should hit the racks this fall. Five Great
CDs You Should Get Your Mitts on Right Now |
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“Spinnin’
tires ain’t made for stoppin’,” Miranda Lambert
declares on the title track of her acclaimed, gold-certified 2005
album Kerosene. It’s also fitting for a Texas gal whose
constant touring has seen her opening for the likes of George
Strait as well as playing smaller clubs like Okaloosa Island’s
The Swamp, a joint that can hold about 1,500 fans comfortably.Copyright © The Beachcomber, Inc. 2003 - 2008. All rights reserved.