Miranda Lambert Readies New Single “Keeper of the Flame”
Miranda Lambert will release her latest single, and the 4th from her current album The Weight of These Wings when “Keeper of the Flame” gets shipped to radio April 11th. Likely targeted for a single from the album originally, it first appeared a few weeks ahead of The Weight of These Wings as a teaser track. Miranda Lambert also launched a “Keeper of the Flame” tour in 2016 when The Weight of These Wings was first released. The release of a new single also means fans shouldn’t expect a new album from Miranda any time in the near term.
The performance of the single will be interesting to watch after Lambert’s previous song “Tin Man” never made it into the Top 20 of country radio, despite the song being nominated for two CMA Awards, two Grammy Awards, being Certified Gold by the RIAA, and coming in at #15 on Billboard’s more consumption-based Hot Country Songs chart. Like many women in mainstream country, Miranda continues to struggle to find traction for singles on the radio. “Vice,” the lead single from her latest album, was Certified Platinum, made it all the way to #2 on the Hot Country Songs chart, but didn’t crack the Top 10 on radio.
“Keeper of the Flame” was written by Miranda Lambert with Natalie Hemby and Liz Rose. The song appears to be about keeping the flame of country music alive. “I’m walking in their footsteps, I’m singing their old songs. Somebody blazed this trail, I’m treadin’ on…” Miranda sings, with references to pilot lights “waiting to ignite” being the millions of true country fans waiting for a revitalization of the music. But of course these lyrics could be interpreted other ways as well, perhaps referring to country music women more than traditional country fans specifically.
“Keeper of the Flame” isn’t particularly traditional country itself, and it sits down in a mid tempo that may be difficult to succeed in today’s radio environment, especially after it appears commercial country’s radio programmers don’t seem convinced Miranda Lambert is capable of launching another major hit. But who knows what could happen with Chris Stapleton recently scoring a #1 with “Broken Halos” recently, and other quality songs making moves in the charts. Perhaps radio is shifting in a more favorable direction for an artist like Lambert.
Lambert is just finishing up her Livin’ Like Hippies tour, and will be embarking on the Bandwagon Tour in July with Little Big Town, and openers Natalie Hemby, the Turnpike Troubadours, The Steel Woods, and Tenille Townes.
March 22, 2018 @ 8:40 am
It’s only been a year and a half, but TWOFW and this song feels so long ago. Keeper of the Flame feels a little dated.
March 22, 2018 @ 8:45 am
This is great news for me. I’m seeing Miranda tonight in Newark and I was hoping she’d play this song. Wish she had done a tour of just the songs from The Weight of these Wings without all the back catalogue and radio hits. Don’t get me wrong, I love a lot of her material, but I’d rather listen to some of the underrated cuts off TWOTW than Little Red Wagon or Baggage Claim.
March 22, 2018 @ 10:16 am
Totally agree! Also seeing her tonight in Newark, and would prefer TWOTW deep cuts vs. old hits.
March 22, 2018 @ 8:58 am
What’s particularly surprising is that The last time she had a top 10 single was almost 4 years ago with the not so good “Somethin’ Bad”. I really don’t want to believe that radio is done with her although the truth is plain and clear
March 22, 2018 @ 9:03 am
“Vice” hit #2 US Hot Country, #11 US Country Airplay. I have no idea what’s the difference between these two charts, but wiki lists US Hot Country first.
March 22, 2018 @ 10:51 am
The first one is the chart that includes sales, streaming, play on pop radio, etc. The second is only play on country radio.
March 22, 2018 @ 8:59 am
Those clowns at country radio will screw this. It’s not Maren Morris nor Jason Aldean garbage after all.
March 22, 2018 @ 9:35 am
Miranda has a duet with Jason coming out I keep hearing,so everyone here who thinks Miranda is the best thing in country, will be OKAY with Jason from now on.
March 23, 2018 @ 6:53 am
I think everybody here is OKAY with Jason Boland. Oh, wait…never mind.
March 22, 2018 @ 10:31 am
Not her best single but it will keep her name on the charts for a couple of month. Top 30.
March 22, 2018 @ 10:42 am
I’m kind of surprised she never released “To Learn Her” as a single after performing it at the CMAs last year. It would have been both a test to see if country radio would have been willing to play a more a traditional country song, AND a middle finger to those who blast more traditional sounding country music all at once!
Alas.
But I’ll see how this goes.
March 22, 2018 @ 3:05 pm
Would have been great to see “To Learn Her” released to radio, such a great song! Also, has anyone noticed how similar this song is to Vince Gill’s “Look at Us”?
Look at Us
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqgLtJ68jiA
To learn her
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBqzcJFRhTE
March 22, 2018 @ 1:00 pm
I will be so glad when everyone finally gets all the 80s pop rock nostalgia BS out of their systems.
This song is a total snooze fest.
March 22, 2018 @ 1:48 pm
Yeah, it’s just pretty boring. It actually stands out as boring to me even AMONG the boring filler on this album.
March 22, 2018 @ 1:47 pm
I like a lot on this album, but Keeper of the Flame is pretty meh, in my opinion. I think she could do better from this album. Its too bad a lot of the better tracks are the slower more subdued ones, because I can see where she doesn’t want to go that route after Tin Man.
March 22, 2018 @ 2:30 pm
I thought this was one of the absolute best tracks on the album. Melodically it goes where only folks like Kacey Musgraves dares tread in these times….a GREAT organic feel / groove and arrangement and a stellar lyric delivered effortlessly by Ms L.. I think that in a just ‘country’ music climate this would be huge .
March 22, 2018 @ 2:37 pm
I can only imagine how ” Urban-ed-up” this song would have been had the mainstream kids gotten their hands on it ….fake drum edm shit ….snaps , claps and 14 more electric guitars playing rhythm on 11 all but burying the lyric in a sea of white noise . THIS is how completely accessible a vocal and a lyric SHOULD be in a COUNTRY record .
Yeah ……it could have used a steel guitar .
March 22, 2018 @ 4:23 pm
just use a strymon deco for tape saturation
March 22, 2018 @ 4:28 pm
Paused Robbie Fulks for a minute to listen. Nice voice but too poppy. Back to Robbie.
March 22, 2018 @ 4:29 pm
I like the vibe of this song, but the lyric is 180 degrees wrong. The song shouldn’t be in first person but be addessed to a “you.” She should sing songs to John Moreland. Why? Because she could inspire more of them.
March 22, 2018 @ 6:28 pm
This blog seems overly concerned with radio and charts. I don’t think most people pay attention to these!! More attention should be paid to good music!
March 22, 2018 @ 6:45 pm
93% of adults over the age of 18 tune into AM/FM radio each week. The number ticks up to 95% when considering just those between the ages of 35 and 49. Adults tune into radio 5.1 days a week on average. They spend an average of nearly 13 hours a week listening to AM/FM radio. Far and away, radio is still the major medium for music, and it is the last frontier in the effort to save country music. I appreciate that so many folks come here looking for music recommendations that often set the antithesis of consumer radio. But what happens on consumer radio is still very important, and that is why it’s such and emphasis here, especially when so much of the mainstream country industry also reads Saving Country Music on a daily basis.
March 24, 2018 @ 5:14 am
I like this song, but I’m surprised “Highway Vagabond” still ha
March 24, 2018 @ 5:15 am
sn’t been released as a single. It always seemed like an obvious choice.