CMT Blog: Miranda Lambert

If you missed the New Music Seminar in New York earlier this week, then you missed a session called "The Creative Conundrum -- Increasing Your Odds With Radical Differentiation." I'm here to translate what they said into tips that could be relevant to a country artist trying to stand out in a sea of serious talent. The best advice sounds like something your dad would've told you the day you left for college: Find your niche. Think about how well that's worked for the current breed of new country artists. Zac Brown Band's niche is Southern country rock. Lady Antebellum's is edgy pop-country. Jamey Johnson's is old-school, don't-give-a-damn attitude music. Taylor Swift's is modern young-love ballads and catchy tunes.

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Faith Hill is playing at a vineyard in the Sierra Foothills in California tonight (July 23), so she chatted with the local paper about the show, her family and this and that. But here's what I loved the most. She said that right now, her favorite artists are Zac Brown Band and Miranda Lambert. She cites the Zac Brown Band because "they can play the hell out of a song" and praises Lambert as "an honest singer with a spitfire attitude." I couldn't agree more. She also talks a little bit about how technology has changed things for her, for the good and the bad. But if you're wondering if she'll follow in Lambert's social-networking footsteps, I'm guessing no. In this story she comes right out and says, "I don't tweet."

I heard a Keith Whitley song on the radio the other day. One that I am crazy about. And I thought, "Well, that was nice." Nice because it was a change of pace. But would I want to hear a steady stream of old-school country? Not really. Because if there was too much old, how would you ever discover the new?

Just for the sake of argument, let's assume radio never had stopped playing Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette. What if that prevented the world from hearing fresh country voices like Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill, Taylor Swift or Miranda Lambert? That would be a shame, wouldn't it?

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Lady Antebellum's Hillary Scott loves music. All kinds of music. So I was thrilled when I got the chance to ask her about the song she recorded with rockers Maroon 5. She talked about how sexy frontman Adam Levine's voice is. And how she wore out her copy of their Songs About Jane album from 2002. But more than that, she was all about producer Robert "Mutt" Lange who put the album together. "That was just a dream come true to work with Mutt. We were on a conference call and he was calling from his castle in Switzerland. It was unreal," she said. The song is called "Out of Goodbyes" and will be on Maroon 5's next album, Hands All Over.

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I've recently discovered the Celebrity Experiences up for auction at CharityBuzz.com. If you win one of these pricey-but-awesome hangs with stars, the money goes to a variety of notable causes like Habitat for Humanity, American Red Cross, Songwriters Hall of Fame, Susan G. Komen Foundation and other worthy non-profits. So if you work out with Hugh Jackman or hang with Alec Baldwin on the set of 30 Rock or get a walk-on role in HBO's Entourage, for instance, your cold hard cash would do a lot of good. But as priceless as those celebs are, I can think of a few Celebrity Experiences that would be worth even more. Maybe you could have a major role in the next Taylor Swift video. Or play Miranda Lambert's stylist for a day. Or sing a duet live with Lady Antebellum at a concert near you. Or go on a yoga/mani-pedi/Starbucks run with Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman. They did just have a Zac Brown Band "Eat & Greet" that gave you the chance to have lunch with the band before their show and get VIP seats, with the proceeds of that going to Urban Farming whose mission is to eradicate hunger, alleviate poverty and green our environment. More of that would be nice.

The Lilith Fair organizers have had their ups and downs, that's for sure. But all that really matters to fans is how the women of Lilith fared when they took the stage. And all that really matters to me is how Miranda Lambert sounded. So if you believe EW.com, she was the high point in an otherwise overpriced show. She had the somewhat lazy crowd on their feet, and gave a shout-out to Emmylou Harris when she sang "Easy From Now On," which was a country hit for Harris in 1978. Then she brought another performer to the stage, pop-rocker Brandi Carlile, for a duet on Patsy Cline's "Crazy." The review says, "Two women singing those lyrics in perfect harmony while grinning into each others' eyes? A Lilith dream come true on every level." I know the tickets were expensive, but hearing Lambert do "Crazy" seems pretty priceless to me.

It's a pleasure doing business with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. Now that the $2.2 million in ticket sales were all added up, the proceeds can be donated to the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee to help flood victims still trying to overcome the tragedy that hit back in May. (You can make that number even higher by grabbing some post-concert merch like T-shirts and posters.) So the Nashville Rising: A Benefit Concert for Flood Recovery show was more than just a fun night full of country's best and brightest stars, including Jason Aldean, Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift. It was a no-brainer way for celebs and fans to make sure Music City gets back on its feet. "We cannot thank Faith Hill and Tim McGraw enough for stepping up and marshalling the gifts of all who were both onstage and back stage during this once-in-a lifetime event," said Ellen Lehman, the head of the organization.

Photo credit: Fred Breedon/Getty Images

One of the first country stars I started following on Twitter was LeAnn Rimes. I didn't really have the hang of it back then, but I remember thinking how cool it was that she decided to just be herself with her tweets. You could really tell it was her talking and not the work of some digital marketing intern with a tweet quota to fill. But now she's quitting Twitter (some might call that a Qwitter) and I can honestly say I'm going to miss her and the goofy, upbeat things she had to say.

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By the time you're reading this blog entry, I will be aboard the Barefoot Lady Pontoon Excursion, deep in the crystal clear waters of a Wisconsin lake. As you might imagine, I elected myself Music Director and put together a playlist of songs to thoroughly entertain my friends and me as we cruise up and down and around this lake. But I didn't want to make it all about the patriotic weekend, because we'll have enough of that on Sunday. Nor did I want to make it all fun-in-the-sun songs, since too many of those can feel like you are actually trying to turn your day into a country song. But now that I look at this mix I've come up with, I realize I'm a little heavy on the good-time songs, so please add a few I-Heart-America songs to the list to balance it out.

"Water," Brad Paisley
"Redneck Yacht Club," Craig Morgan
"Drive (For Daddy Gene)," Alan Jackson
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You certainly do not need to pay to be a fan of someone's music. That comes absolutely free. So there is occasionally talk (OK, vehement disagreements) about whether or not country artists should charge you to be in a fan club. I think maybe people aren't hearing both sides to the story, so I'd like to shed a little light on it.

Just like there are benefits to joining anything from Costco to a swanky country club, there are benefits to being a card-carrying member of a fan club. The most valuable ones are presale tickets and meet-and-greet passes. For example, if you pay $34.68 for a year's membership in Carrie Underwood's official fan club, you get those kinds of opportunities that aren't available to nonmembers. It's not always a guarantee that you'll be sitting in the front row, but it does increase your odds of being up close at a concert.

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