Listeners won’t get much closer to actually being at a recording session than when they hear Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram and Jon Randall’s ”Anchor.” This newly released The Marfa Tapes track is so untouched that you can hear the singers’ chairs creaking throughout and a howling wind at the song’s end.
“Anchor” is a love song, though it could just as easily be about a place or thing as it is about a person. Rather than holding someone down, though, this anchor is a centering, comforting force — at least, if you’re an optimist. The lyrics are nebulous enough to offer multiple interpretations.
“Be my anchor / Pull me under,” goes the chorus. “‘Cause I can’t breathe / When I’m with you / When I’m with you, I can fly …”
Although Lambert is the most well-known artist among the three, she’s clearly sharing the spotlight completely with The Marfa Tapes. On “Anchor,” she adds quiet backing vocals only.
Lambert, Ingram and Randall announced The Marfa Tapes on March 4, and shared one of its songs, “In His Arms,” one day later. Due out on May 7, the album collects 15 songs — the previously released “Tin Man” and “Tequila Does,” plus 13 others — that, the country star explains, are a byproduct of her escapes to Marfa, Texas, to “recharge” with Ingram and Randall.
“You can hear the wind blowing, the cows mooing …,” she says. “We wanted you to feel like you were right there with us, sitting around the campfire, escaping the world, disappearing into the music.”
In addition to “In His Arms” and “Tin Man,” Lambert, Ingram and Randall have also already released “Am I Right or Amarillo” from the project.
Lambert certainly hasn’t been idle during the COVID-19 pandemic: She recently released a new collaboration titled “Drunk (and I Don’t Wanna Go Home)“ with Elle King, and has announced a partnership with TC Restaurant Group that will make her the first female artist in country music to open a branded bar on Broadway in downtown Nashville. Miranda Lambert’s Casa Rosa will be located at 308 Broadway in downtown Music City; it’s due to open later this year.
