ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You released your last album,Wildcard, in late 2019.
Had you thought about new music in between that project and the pandemic?
Also, we couldn’t go anywhere else, so whynotgo to the middle of nowhere?
Jon Randall, Jack Ingram, and Miranda Lambert in Marfa, Tex.Spencer Peeples
We listened to our voice notes through the car speakers after we wrote.
I’m a little scared.
There’s nowhere to hide behind them.
Randall, Lambert, and Ingram performing the ‘Marfa Tapes’ single ‘In Your Arms’ at this year’s ACMs.Ryan Musick/CBS via Getty Images
Somebody said that people usually wait until they’re really old or gone to show behind the curtain.
I was like, “Well, I’m still very much in it.
I’m just going to do it now.”
Lambert performing on the Living Like Hippies tour in 2017.Reid Long
As a Texas native, what is it about Marfa that connects with you and yourMarfa Tapescohorts?
It was pretty epic.
I was like, “If it works, it ain’t broke!”
There’s something magical about going to Marfa, specifically.
Part of that is, you’re not worried about your daily life.
It gets harder the more successful you are.
Family and friends and work and everything else gets involved.
Sometimes, the ideas get lost.
The first six months of 2020, I didn’t writeanything.
I painted and cooked.
I was a little panicky about the state of things.
You know when people say when you go on vacation, it takes three days to wind down?
It took me threemonthsto wind down from a life of all of that.
I don’t feel like myself."
That’s where Marfa came in.
It was my burst of creativity.
When you slow down that much, you’re like, “Wow.
I was really going 100 miles an hour, not only physically but mentally.”
It was nice to just check out.
It’s the best job in the world, but it’s such a weird job.
I love to be on my farm and hang out with my friends and go camping.
I don’t consider myself an extrovert.
I think I learned once I hit a certain level and it became bigger, around the time ofRevolution.
I grew up a shy kid.
In my 20s, I feel like I thrived on the energy of people.
It kept me going.
And then in my 30s, I found that I really need quiet moments to recharge instead.
I used to just say, “The more the merrier, keep rolling!”
I was doing 200 shows a year, not including press and all the other stuff.
I lived on a bus with 11 dudes for five years.
I get my feet on the ground again, and then I’m ready to go.
I always said I wanted longevity.
I wanted the art to matter enough that I could play until I couldn’t anymore.
But then you’re like, “Now what?
What do I want to do?”
A lot of my goals have changed from strictly career things to life things.
I really want to take my Airstream to California and back.
Since I was 17, I was like, “I’m on this train.
This is what we’re doing.”
What’s going on?
Who am I?"
You know what I mean?
I’m trying to figure that out myself.
I think it’s going with my gut, man.
I was with [producer] Frank Liddell on every record I’ve ever made, includingPistol Annies.
It was like the sweetest release because we realized we were in different places creatively.
[With Frank,] I got to makeThe Weight of These Wings, and Ineededto make it.
I needed to get that all out, and then I was ready to have fun again.
I was ready to put on some colors.
I feel like my life was sepia-toned, kind of like the record.
And it worked, thank God.
WasWingssomething that felt necessary to you because it gave you the chance to reclaim your own stories?
I was writing aton.
I moved back to Nashville, and I got to really explore my songwriting.
But I just had fun.
I was writing a ton.
Then it was, “Well, I have all these songs.
No one says Ican’tput them all on a record.”
It was that closure for me for that whole chapter.
Are those conversations ongoing?
Or do people get it now?
I pretty much feel like I’m there.
Like, I don’t know that I would have put outThe Marfa Tapesa decade ago.
Maybe I would have.
I want to hear what the promotion team who has to work this every day has to say.
But when it comes down to, “What song?
What’s the look?
What’s the vibe of the tour?”
I feel like I’ve walked that line pretty good throughout my career.
You’re often praised for the way that you champion women, behind the scenes and elsewhere.
What do you feel like you’ve achieved with your platform?
I grew up on the classics, with Dolly and Loretta and Tammy and Patsy.
And then there was Reba, and then there was Faith and Martina and Shania.
And then… there was a gap and it was a big gap.
I didn’t really have a lot of help like, no one.
I only went on tour with men because the men were touring.
I wanted to talk to somebody.
Sometimes, no one understands that but a female artist.
I take it close to the heart to be there.
You don’t strike me as someone who likes to celebrate your own legacy.
Have you gotten more comfortable doing that as you’ve grown these past 20 years?
I was like, “Where have I been and where do I want to go?”
I needed to get perspective.
It was a pretty small room.
I was like, “This is all great and I’m so proud of it.”
But I hung tapestries over everything.
Or do you not allow yourself to do that?
I don’t do it a lot.
I just need to sit down with Dolly.
I have so many questions.
She seems to know it all.
She’s like, “Okay, I’ve done all this stuff but I’m still really rolling.
I’m not ready for closure.”
My husband stopped me in the hall, and he’s like, “Do this.”
[She lifts her arms in a celebratory pose.]
He’s like, “You just won a Grammy!”
And I’m like [feigns it sinking in], “I just won aGrammy!”
