CMT Blog: Miranda Lambert

You know that game "Would You Rather"? Imagine being able to play that with country stars. That's what this feature from CMT Mobile is kind of like. It's called CMT Minute. But it's not impossible-to-answer questions like, "Would you rather eat Rocky Mountain oysters or spend the day with Kayne West?" This is just 60 seconds of easy questions for your favorite country singers. Luke Bryan ends up choosing "Dixieland Delight" over "Mountain Music," fishing over hunting and sweet tea over regular tea, but he never really answers the toughie: cornbread or biscuits? Then Carrie Underwood chooses Garth Brooks over George Strait for a duet. And shoes over clothes and heels over flats and football over hockey. Miranda Lambert goes with hunting over shopping, Law & Order: SVU over Law & Order: Criminal Intent, gun over bow, cowboy boots over heels and four-wheelin' over a day at the spa. When it comes to the Brooks vs. Strait question, though, she says she can't answer.

Thank you, Billboard, for releasing a little bit more of Carrie Underwood's upcoming album, Play On, every time I turn around. This time, it's "Undo It." Before I even listened I knew I'd like it, because who hasn't had those moments in life when you want to start something over, clean the slate and all that? I was surprised, though, when I heard the intro because it sounds more like a Miranda Lambert song with an acoustic guitar and some sassy, bouncy fiddle. But by the time the chorus rolls around, and Underwood is belting that, "You stole my happy, you made me cry/You took the lonely and took me for a ride/And I wanna uh-uh-uh-uh-uh undo it," the music's big enough to keep up with her voice.

If you listen to music for a living, chances are you will eventually get sick of the music you are listening to over and over. Not me, though. If I'm reviewing an album, a country one anyway, I will dig most of the tracks long after they're considered "new." So this week, my list is made up of the newish tunes I still love and ones I will likely still love years from now.

"Heart Like Mine," Miranda Lambert
"Someone Else Calling You Baby," Luke Bryan
"If You're Tryin' You Ain't," Toby Keith
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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.

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A total of nine new music videos flooded the CMT New Music Video Evaluation Team this week, as CMT launches its New Music Weekend. Fresh work comes from Sugarland, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Michelle Branch, Miranda Lambert, Tim McGraw, Reba, and Billy Currington. So, out of that whole bunch, which one do you watch first? We'll never tell. In no particular order:

Artist: Carrie Underwood
Video: "Cowboy Casanova'"
Director: Theresa Wingert

Carrie Underwood's first single from her upcoming album, Play On, is a lush and brash song and video. The latter finds Carrie wearing a series of elaborate outfits and presiding over a flock of dancing girls in what some viewers see as a dancehall and others interpret as a fancy bordello.

Panelists comments: "Very impressive." "I love those gorgeous outfits." "A very good-looking video."

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Some folks would say that Twitter, the rapid-fire social networking craze, is just a way for people to hear themselves talk. Others might say it's just a marketing gimmick. But Blake Shelton uses the hell out of Twitter anyway he damn well pleases. His girlfriend, Miranda Lambert, is catching on, too, and told EW.com she looks at Twitter as a window for people to get to know you. "I'm not gonna be like, 'OK, getting dressed now! Everything's perfect! Buy my record!' That's not what Twitter's for," she said. So what then, is it for? "Twitter's for us to just be crazy idiots and say whatever we want," Lambert said. I don't know if they come across as crazy idiots or not, but their stream-of-consciousness mini-monologues are definitely random. Like one of Shelton's last Tweets, that read: "If you don't like George Strait you probably have naked pictures of your grandpa ..."

I realize I am hardly the heat-packing tough-chick rocker that Miranda Lambert is. Yet somehow, when I listen to her new album Revolution, I instantly have everything in common with her.

Like when she's singing about wishing she lived in an Airstream with homemade curtains just like a gypsy, I think, "So do I." I wouldn't, but that doesn't mean I don't wish I could.

And when "Dead Flowers" comes on, I am so with her on the sentiment that sometimes guys are just so clueless, saying things like "Man, ain't it such a nice day?" when we are clearly living in a hurricane.

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It's probably safe to assume that not a lot of CMT.com readers read Maxim. So allow me to share what the men's magazine had to say about Miranda Lambert's new album, Revolution (out tomorrow Sept. 29) in their October issue. Calling her "Nashville's gun-toting blonde bombshell," they asked her how many guns she had in the recording studio. She said, "Depends on who's around that day." Then they ask her about the haters. I guess they assume someone somewhere may be vocal about not liking the album. Lambert's got a plan, though. "I'm known to be packing. They won't have the balls." I'm sure she meant that as kind of a half-joke, half-threat. But I'll never know whether or not she really means it because I love the album.

I am so blessed. With my family, my health, this job. But I'm also feeling blessed with really good friendships today. I celebrated my birthday this weekend (I turned 29. Again.) and just feel so lucky to have a group of good pals to make the party such a blast. These are friends who make me laugh, but are there when you need a good cry. Friends who know all your dirty secrets but would never tell a soul. And friends who will buy you one too many Jack & Cokes, but then make sure you get home OK. So this morning I'm celebrating every song that has anything to do with friendships.

"Find Out Who Your Friends Are," Tracy Lawrence
"My Old Friend," Tim McGraw
"Friends in Low Places," Garth Brooks
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When I blogged that Carrie Underwood's new video for "Cowboy Casanova" would be premiering next weekend, readers wanted to know if they'd get to see any other new ones. Well, be careful what you wish for, because there are a lot. Starting on Oct. 2, it is literally CMT's Big New Music Weekend. So you can see them on TV and on CMT.com. But since I work in Chicago and not in the Nashville office, I haven't had the honoring of seeing any of them. Still, I have some theories about what they'll look like based on what they sound like. But I'd love to know what you think will transpire in these videos. Take your best guess, then come Oct. 5 we'll check back here and see who had the best vision for Tim McGraw's "Southern Voice," Kenny Chesney's "I'm Alive," Keith Urban's "Hit the Ground Runnin'," Sugarland's "Keep You," Reba's "Consider Me Gone," Miranda Lambert's "White Liar" and more.