This Feels Big: Miranda Lambert Signs with Republic, Big Loud
When it was announced that Miranda Lambert was leaving Sony Nashville after 20 years in March of 2023, it felt monumental for a host of reasons. Now that she has signed with Republic Records, along with Big Loud helping out on the radio side, it feels monumental as well.
It’s not that it’s unprecedented for major label artists to switch companies. It’s that for many years now despite the consecutive “Female Vocalist of the Year” from the ACMs and other accolades, Miranda Lambert has felt systemically underserved and held back, in part because so much of her career transpired during country’s Bro-Country phase.
The career of Miranda Lambert is also important because when it comes to songwriters, Miranda Lambert has been one the their strongest champions, forging careers through songwriting cuts and collaborations, whether it’s through her recent album The Marfa Tapes with Jack Ingram and Jon Randall, her supergroup The Pistol Annies, or cuts on her albums proper.
Adam Hood, Waylon Payne, Ashley Monroe, Angaleena Presley, Brandy Clark, and more are songwriters who all received a major boost from Miranda. She’s also covered songs from John Prine, Tom T. Hall, Fred Eaglesmith, Shake Russell, and many others over the years.
On Tuesday (4-23), it was announced that Miranda Lambert had signed with Republic Records in partnership with Big Loud, with a new single called “Wranglers” to be released on May 3rd. Republic Records will be Miranda’s label home, while Big Loud will be there for radio promotion and other marketing stuff.
The announcement comes after months of speculation that Big Loud would at least be a part of Miranda Lambert’s career moving forward. As the home of Morgan Wallen, Hardy, and Ernest, Big Loud has been on the cutting edge of mainstream country success recently, along with working with more independent artists such as Charles Wesley Godwin and Jake Worthington.
Lambert collaborated with Morgan Wallen on the song “Thought You Should Know,” adding to the idea that Big Loud would be involved in her career moving forward. Then the Texas-born Lambert and Texas-born songwriter Jon Randall announced the launch of the label Big Loud Texas to focus on the Texas market, and later the signing of songwriter Dylan Gossett.
Though neither Republic nor Big Loud are Texas-based labels, this does feel like the codifiying of Miranda Lambert shifting her center of gravity back home to the Lone Star State. Lambert now has a house in Texas, and recently participated in inducting Jon Randall into the Texas Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Perhaps in previous eras, moving to Texas would be considered a step down in an artist’s career. But with the popularity of Texas music and independent country surging in general, this is no longer the case. What Texas does boast even if it’s from a more symbolic standpoint is artistic freedom in country.
“Being in Texas with Jon, recording where I cut my teeth as a young artist, felt like coming home. I thought about the women—and men—who’ve lived, loved and found power in my music, and I wanted to get back to the root of those spaces,” Lambert says. “Everyone understood my desires and vision for this next era of my music. Aligning like that is empowering; it gives you a license to really chase it. Signing with Republic has inspired me to find the sweet spot for me and all the people like me.”
Miranda Lambert also has folks excited about her new sing “Wranglers,” and the new music she’s been working on as she teases that it hearkens back to earlier in her career with more attitude and twang than some of her most recent work.
“Music is and always will be the thing that drives me, but having a new home has given me a hunger I didn’t realize I still had inside me,” says Lambert. “This song feels like it could be on the same record as ‘Gunpowder & Lead’; it has that same fury. I can’t wait to get out there with this new label and this new music…”
Of course, the music is the most important thing, not necessarily who is releasing it. But it will be interesting to see what Miranda Lambert comes up with after the biggest reset in her 20 year career. With country becoming more country across the board, it would be an opportune time for Miranda to return to her roots.
Miranda Lambert is performing at the Stagecoach Festival on April 27th, as well as at Under The Big Sky Fest in Montana in mid July.
April 23, 2024 @ 8:48 am
I’m here for all of this! I’ve felt like she’s been going through the motions for almost a decade now. This has a kind of rising tides sail all ships feel about it for all Red Dirt artist.
The social media tease last night, who is the band playing when she’s walking out on the stage? At first glance, I thought it was the Turnpike Troubadours.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6FQklqOCw6/?igsh=NHdzeDhrZWFvcXZh
April 23, 2024 @ 9:12 am
She still has a Nashville based band. All the way up until Four the Record, her band members were her original Texas crew. Beginning with Platinum, her touring band started becoming Nashville based.
April 23, 2024 @ 9:23 am
This headline was used before.
Let’s hope she doesn’t release another “Fastest Girl in Town.”
April 23, 2024 @ 9:40 am
So she moved to Nashville in 2015 to entrench herself in that world. Stated several times she was inspired by the other songwriters and wanted to ne in that world etc etc. Sony did not underserve her. They promoted the hell out of her and got her in front of critics. Got her awards. HDD wrote it became about diminishing returns. Her numbers dropped significantly. (And they also wrote another article about where she would end up. They were right. But it was the comment from her attorney saying he knew where the bodies were buried I found disturbing) So now she’s going back to Texas. I get that. I understand wanting to start over. But I’m not interested in music going backwards. She’s 40. So it’s back to burning things down he done me wrong. Getting revenge? “I think we can all identify with the character in this song, because we have all had a time in out life that we needed to find a way to find our strength and also get a little revenge on someone that did us wrong or hurt us.” Seriously? That’s all she’s written about for years. If this is the theme I’ll pass.
April 23, 2024 @ 9:40 am
It’s weird to think that Miranda Lambert now is the way we used to think of people like Vince Gill even 15 years ago. The slightly older of the newer country artists.
It’s weird to think that Miranda Lambert is not technically a new artist anymore. But also, you are right in your assertion that she was routinely overlooked during the height of the pro country airplane but speaking for myself, I think a lot of people who didn’t like the direction of country music through the baby out with the bathwater, and didn’t like her either because she was a newer country artist, and newer country artists had to be bad.
It wasn’t that long ago in the cosmic scheme of things, but there was no country music, just a radio industry, peddling pop music by white trash fort white trash While gaslighting people who dare point out that it didn’t sound like country music as being old out of touch, and in the way
I was one of those people. It wasn’t that long ago, that if you asked me about Miranda Lambert, she was part of the problem, not part of the solution. As a newer country artist, she was functionally no different than Luke Bryan, and Jason Aldean And that asshole she was married to who calls people like us old farts and jackasses
I think being married to Blake Shelton, the number one opponent of classic country music in the main stream for a few years, definitely didn’t help her case with people who didn’t like the direction of country music.
It wasn’t just that she was getting overlooked by the industry because the trend was something different, it’s that no one wants to sift through the shit house to find a single pearl
10 years ago, we were barely a year out from that one guy we don’t talk about who called us all old farts and jackasses, and main stream country music was about as shitty As a lone outhouse serving a 10,000 people music festival
And I don’t know about any of you, but I wouldn’t sift through that much shit if the hope diamond had fallen into it
And I say this as somebody who discounted Miranda Lambert for the crime of being a new country artist:
She has walked the walk when it comes to making sure that people lower on the totem pole than she is get the recognition they deserve
And I think it’s telling me that when Miranda Lambert is left alone to be Miranda Lambert, the results are really good, and it’s only when she’s forced to play the main stream radio game, that we the listeners wind up with the duds.
The dichotomy of Miranda Lambert, is that for every something bad, for every seemingly pointless, angry woman, radio friendly song, there’s a pistol Annies album, a tin man, etc
I hope eventually that enough time passes that we are as able to forgive Miranda Lambert, for her missteps, as we are for that awful Badonkadonk song Jamey Johnson did that everyone seems to have forgiven him over
April 23, 2024 @ 10:06 am
Good to have you back Fuzzy. I was a little worried as your last post or two were incredibly brief – like 2 sentences. I was worried your keyboard broke. I laughed out loud at your last sentence about Jamey. I wasn’t listening to country during the “bad” times as you describe them. So I assumed Miranda was just part of the cesspool that I was avoiding like the plague. I’ve come to realize I was wrong in that assumption. After finding independent country circa 2016/17 I’ve spent time digging back into her albums and it’s really good stuff. I’m OK with “Kerosene” and “Gunpowder and Lead” because they freakin rock. But I agree that maybe the burn-it-all down stuff isn’t where she should be headed with new songs. My hope is that Miranda leans more towards the “Me and Charlie Talkin, Waxahachie, Greyhound Bound for Nowhere” type songs but one or two light-it-all-on-fire heaters is ok by me.
April 23, 2024 @ 11:10 am
Rich,
Here’s a quote from Miranda that may leave you disappointed:
‘Wranglers’ is a tale of a woman taking her power back,” she shares. “I think we can all identify with the character in this song, because we have all had a time in our life that we needed to find a way to find our strength and also get a little revenge on someone that did us wrong or hurt us.” “This song feels like it could be on the same record as ‘Gunpowder & Lead’; it has that same fury,” she adds.”
Looks like it may be a wash, rinse, and repeat, but we’ll wait to see.
April 23, 2024 @ 6:54 pm
Don’t fret it, Tide stick’ll get it
April 23, 2024 @ 11:10 am
Bro country AirPlay not pro country airplane. My last phone had buttons for letters this one has a touchscreen and between that and voice to text sucking I just can’t win
April 23, 2024 @ 11:55 am
@savingcountrymusic.com – Don’t forget about Carrie Underwood, Fuzzy Twoshirts and Taylor Swift thought Tim Mcgraw was the last slice of bread. Oh, how time flies!. The Bro-Country era made our work-driving days a living hell. Blake Shelton was my salvation with “Austin”. Too bad he pretends to sing bro-country and hates classical music, but Blake Shelton is country music through and through. I guess Blake Shelton is an ‘old fart and (a) jackass’ as the rest of us classical music lovers.
April 23, 2024 @ 9:34 pm
Agreed, bro country was/is an absolute low point in Country. During the height of all that it was Alan Jackson et al class of 1989 cassettes that got me thru it. However Blake Shelton needs to keep his mouth shut and stay away from texting. He sold out long ago to bright lights, reality TV and banality of which he will not recover or be forgiven.
April 24, 2024 @ 11:44 am
Stay away from texting?? He texts you? He’s been off social media for years. Rarely “tweets “ anything. All artists have social media teams now. And he promoted country music, new and older country music, on a national platform for 13 years before he left last May. Now Reba is. I think he’s ok CB. But it would be nice for just once not to see him dragged into any conversation about Lambert. It’s been 9 years.
April 25, 2024 @ 7:38 pm
Yes, he’s been off social media for years, since his “team” finally reeled in his questionable texts…..lol…Google it.
April 23, 2024 @ 11:07 am
Miranda has long been my favorite of the country ladies. I love her voice.
April 23, 2024 @ 11:08 am
Huh? Miranda was never overlooked by the industry Fuzzy. From 2007 on there were 2 women who dominated the industry. Carrie (and yes we know how you feel about her) and Miranda. There were other incredible women artists who never got that attention during that time period. And no one forced Miranda to play the game. She wanted it. This is a woman who has a room just for her awards and said when she’s sad or blue she goes in the room and looks at her awards. Because that defined her. That recognition. And now it seems they have moved on from her she has to find something new. But just because you didn’t like the other music from the time you could have listened to her albums. She had good songs in her catalog. Miranda has always been Miranda. The music you didn’t like was her. The music you do like is her (well and her collaborators). And Fuzzy it’s been 11 years and you are still dragging up the old farts comment. And it’s a true statement. One can find examples of complaints about country music not being x,y,or z on here on any given day. Just move on.
April 23, 2024 @ 11:40 am
I’m new here and not to be a know it all, but Palomino is Miranda Lambert’s latest album. The Marfa Tapes were before Palomino. IMO Palomino was a solid country album along with Weight of These Wings. I have liked everything she has put out except Wildcard. That, IMO, was her weakest album. It sounded like was experimenting with pop influences too much. However she has always incorporated rock influences in her music going all the way back to Kerosene, which btw, was a banger of a debut. Glad she is making new music and I look forward to a new album in the future.
April 23, 2024 @ 12:45 pm
Earlier this year, I saw John Arthur Martinez, who finished 2nd on Nashville Star the year that Miranda finished 3rd.
His current project, The Outlaw Firm, is definitely worth checking out.
April 23, 2024 @ 4:59 pm
next headline: this feels dumb-motley crue signs with big machine
April 25, 2024 @ 1:11 pm
Didn’t Big Machine do that tribute album to Motley Crue about ten years ago?
April 23, 2024 @ 8:33 pm
I love how artists, when their star begins to fade, always want to get back to their “roots,” as if they really didn’t want to chase the dragon. Lol. I met Lambert right after Nashville Star ended, at a Sony function. She was all in when it came to being part of the music industry machine. Buddy Jewell was never meant to win Nashville Star, Sony wanted Lambert to win, they just didn’t count on so many people voting for Jewel and Martinez. Sony was going to sign her regardless.
While I do like some of her songs, Lambert’s voice has always been like nails on a chalkboard to me. That nasally twang is too much. I did find her voice much more enjoyable on The Marfa Tapes, but then I’m a big fan of both Jack Ingram and Jon Randall, so that might have helped balance things out. That record really stood out to me. It will be interesting to hear what she comes up with.
April 23, 2024 @ 10:20 pm
This is a music bizz story. She has a great band, which isn’t really important but I appreciate, great material, some lucrative bullshit on lower Broadway, a Vegas residency, a deeply dedicated fan base, she must be a top earner for whatever management is skimming, and the new one is pushing radio? Is he 80? Trig, start writing these stories. The geography doesn’t really mean anything anymore.
April 23, 2024 @ 11:40 pm
I have enjoyed some of her music but never a big fan. I saw her perform and her band was so loud, you could not hear her voice. Her albums have always had some good songs but a fair bit of filler. She did well on Sony and in Nashville. Her career is probably well past its peak now so it will be interesting to see how she does on her new label. Good luck to her.
April 24, 2024 @ 12:31 am
I definitely consider this a net positive for this stage of her career.
Chances are slim that she’s going to continue charting Top Five hits as a lead artist on the country airplay or composite country charts. But for quite a while now Lambert is that kind of artist that doesn’t need radio to win. After all, throughout even her radio career heyday, she had something of a checkerboard effect much like Eric Church between chart-topping hits and efforts which languished further down the chart but generated a lot of buzz.
“Palomino” didn’t make much of an impact compared to previous releases of hers, but it didn’t damage her momentum either and I believe the onset of this new era of hers will be met with plentiful goodwill and fresh enthusiasm. I think this is a win-win.
April 24, 2024 @ 6:19 am
I mean listen, if you want to make real country music nowadays, it’s hard to do it in Nashville. Beyonce’ and anyone else who is riding her coat tails (Shaboozy) whoever that is, didn’t feel so emboldened to make thinly vailed hip-hop records and pass them off as “country” records because of the musical culture in Texas and by extension, Oklahoma. Nashville did that, not Texas. Nashville isn’t for real country artists anymore. Oh there will always be the usual hold outs and people willing to pay there dues on the corners of Lower Broadway but Music Row wants trap beats, auto tune and electronic drums, not authenticity. Good for her for getting out.
April 24, 2024 @ 9:39 am
And programming, whatever that is. Does anyone know what that is?
April 24, 2024 @ 6:39 am
Miranda has a beautiful voice, one of the best in country, and was always good for some good songs even as a mainstream artist. When she released The Weight Of These Wings a few years ago it looked like she had triggered the second faze of her career as a veteran artist with more creative control. Only problem, despite the album being her best album in my opinion, it didn’t produce the big singles she had become accustomed to. This at first brought complaints by Miranda, and then what appeared to be panic as she went on to release her two worst albums of pop country. Also my opinion.
This new move to Texas and a promise to return to her roots may have some excited for a new direction for Miranda Lambert. One that will have her playing more traditional country music with a realization that her spot among the mainstream top performers has faded. I’m not so sure. She didn’t react well to what was a great, but not producing the top hits she expected.
Is Miranda Lambert ready to turn the page on Nashville success for a new Texas based sound? Maybe, but I’m skeptical. I suppose I would be open to a Miranda Lambert who includes some goods songs on her albums again though.
April 24, 2024 @ 7:18 am
I liked her on Nashville Star. “Greyhound Bound For Nowhere” is still a favorite. I haven’t been crazy over the Jay Joyce days. Hope this brings some OG Miranda vibes.
April 24, 2024 @ 5:41 pm
I’m a huge fan of Miranda Lambert, but I can’t help but roll my eyes at what seems like an obvious replication of her early work in this teased single. The marketing isn’t doing anything for me. It lacks freshness and fails to demonstrate maturity or growth as a lead single. Clearly, I’m biased towards growing with the artist and witnessing a wisdom arc. I was forever hooked on the transparency of her baggage in her writing, and how her themes continued to evolve with her life journey. I hope she focuses on the brute honesty and collaborations she’s always represented in this new chapter. Her bravado is what initially caught people’s attention? We’ll see if it brings in new streamers. She undoubtedly releases fun and entertaining material with personality that’s memorable. Lainey Wilson took a page out of her book. Any updates on a release date of the Lainey + Miranda song performed at last year’s NFR?