Continuing my ranking of the songs from Miranda Lambert’s new album Palomino…
#12. ‘Country Money’
A clever song rich with wordplay about rural entrepreneurs, like “Connie Johnson” with a “farm in Wisconsin” and the “best beef in the cheese state, baby.” The track’s sleek production and chill-out vibe make it a real grower. I could see this one moving up my list over time.
Friday, April 29, was akin to a national holiday here at Meet Me in Montauk, as it marked the release of a brand-new Miranda Lambert album.
Palomino is the country superstar’s ninth solo studio album, and her first since 2019’s Wildcard. Last year, she released The Marfa Tapes, a lo-fi collaboration with fellow singer-songwriters Jack Ingram and Jon Randall, an album that — like this one — was inspired by our COVID times.
This is the eighth song I’ve posted from Miranda Lambert’s 2016 double album The Weight of These Wings, and the fourth on a Random Weekend.
A couple of years back, I named this album the best of the 2010s, an easy call. There isn’t a weak track among its 24 songs, even as it jumps around between atmospheric ballads, traditional Americana, and country pop.
Plenty of artists used the COVID quarantine to produce new work of one sort or another. Through Zoom concerts and table reads, virtual presentations became ubiquitous. On the more ambitious side, Taylor Swift hunkered down and recorded not one but two full-length albums.
Miranda Lambert split the difference with a surprise release of her own. Teaming up with two friends and songwriting collaborators, Jack Ingram and Joe Randall, she headed to the small town of Marfa, Texas, to record a decidedly low-fi quarantine album.
Today’s random SOTD is from The Weight of These Wings, Miranda Lambert’s splendid 2016 double album (which I recently named my favorite of the previous decade).
‘Keeper of the Flame’ is one of the album’s upbeat tracks, and one of the few that isn’t about going through or recovering from a breakup.
This song is about Lambert’s place in a long line of women in both country music and music industry generally.
Meet Me In Montauk 