Miranda Lambert‘s “Tin Man” is already her most vulnerable moment but on The Marfa Tapes, the singer decided to reveal even more. The mistakes, the wrong notes, the cracked vocals, the missing words — Lambert says you can hear all of it.
“You can hear the cows and the wind,” she tells Taste of Country Nights. “In ‘Tequila Does’ you can hear the border patrol flying over (laughs). It’s pretty funny, we looked up and were just laughing.”
The 15-track album is a true original for Lambert, or any 21st century country artist. For years she’s brought songwriters Jon Randall and Jack Ingram to west Texas to write in a quirky little town called Marfa (pop. 1,800). Last September — after what Lambert calls a very extended break from work — they returned, bringing her parents along to cater them, since this time they were way out in the middle of nowhere.
“We were running over to my parents’ place, like little kids: ‘Wanna see our new song? We just wrote a great one!'” she says, laughing at the memory.
One day, they all sat in the car and listened to the years’ worth of worktapes. Lambert was overcome with anxiety about what would happen to these beautiful moments when they finished. Some may find an album. In fact, some may end up on the studio album she’s currently working on, she admits. But the rest …
“I just didn’t want the songs to just live in our phones somewhere and never have a life,” she shares.
A new project was born.
“Tin Man” and “Tequila Does” are the only two songs the trio have written that have reached a record, meaning as many as 13 new songs could come from the group when The Marfa Tapes is released. Lambert sings on most. Hitmakers Ingram and Randall sing lead on a few others. The only plan was to not have a plan, and that shines through.
“Jon and Jack and I just did one take each,” she tells the syndicated radio show. “We took two microphones into the desert and sat on a ranch and drank tequila and wrote country songs and sang ‘em into the microphone. That’s exactly how it is.”
LISTEN: Miranda Lambert Talks About The Marfa Tapes
