NEW YORK– NEW YORK (AP) — Miranda Lambert’s 10th studio album starts with a gutsy honky-tonk stomper, full of folksy imagery and an upbeat vibraslap sound:
“Well, I met an armadillo / In Amarillo / And he asked me for fire,” Lambert’s voice rocks, “I said where you going” / He said “I don’t really know” / And I said, “Brother I’ve been there twice. ”
It may be a standout, for listeners expecting a collection more in line with the album’s lead single, the classic rock channel “Wranglers,” but it’s also the perfect tone-setter. With the 14-song release, Lambert strives to deliver sometimes traditional country with a lot of heart.
Throughout, “Postcards From Texas” is a sonic road trip through Lambert’s home state — from the steel guitar-led ballad “Looking Back on Luckenbach” to the funny, nonsense-talking breakup anthem “Alimony,” with its not-so-thinly veiled lyrical geography .
“I called that lawyer in Dallas,” she sings in the chorus. “If you leave me in San Antone / Remember the alimony,” teased the final word to change “Alamo” to “alimony.” It’s such a rewarding lyrical reversal, it feels almost prototypical—like it was plucked from a great country music songbook rather than written into it.
Lambert’s voice is where ‘Postcards From Texas’ finds its cohesion, from dreamy ballads, like ‘Way Too Good At Breaking My Heart’ and country-rock swagger, like on ‘B—— On the Sauce (Just Drunk)’ to classic covers , as in the case of ‘Living on the Run’, from David Allan Coe’s 1976 album ‘Longhaired Redneck’.
Lambert co-produced the album with Jon Randall and recorded it entirely at Arlyn Studios in Austin, Texas, the first time she recorded an entire album in her home state since she was 18. At that time, long before she became a fixture of Nashville’s Music Row, it’s easy to imagine she wasn’t thinking about a homecoming — especially in a state where those considered Texas country greats are overwhelmingly male.
At this stage in her career, Lambert has nothing to prove — and that’s one of the many reasons why “Postcards from Texas” is a ride that works.
