CMT Blog: Archive

You know how when you're at a concert and an artist tells you they are going to play some new stuff and everyone sits down and/or heads for the beer tent? Well, that rule apparently didn't apply to Miranda Lambert as she headlined the Chicago Country Music Festival on Saturday night (Oct. 3). Despite the 50-degree, rain-soaked miserable conditions in Grant Park, she kept the crowd in awe for a good 90 minutes.

Lambert definitely made time for the big hits and fan faves like "Kerosene," "Famous in a Small Town," "Gunpowder & Lead," "Dry Town" and "Guilty in Here." Good covers too, like the Faces' "Stay With Me" as well as an impromptu and very fitting set-starter, "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" from Creedence Clearwater Revival. But it was the response to the six new songs off Revolution that surprised me the most. That album isn't even a week old, but it felt like everyone had known the tunes for years. "Sin for a Sin," "Dead Flowers," "White Liar," huge crowd-pleaser "Only Prettier" and her haunting Fred Eaglesmith cover, "Time to Get a Gun." Best, though, was when Lambert perched herself on a stool at the edge of the stage, practically in the rain, to sing "The House That Built Me" with Aden Bubeck on the upright bass behind her.

Before the show, Lambert told me she was anxious to get the new music out there. "It's like, I get tired of certain songs, so we have to switch it up," she said. "I've been waiting for people to hear the music even though you just never know how they're gonna react to it." Now, though, she knows. The reaction was purely positive. And I think it will only get better from here.