Miranda Lambert's 2009 CD, Revolution. Photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

"It’s antagonistic, in a fun way. It sounds just like something I would say and probably have said. This is the first time I ever wrote with Natalie Hemby, who is (co-producer) Mike Wrucke’s (co-producer) wife. I sat down with her at her house in Nashville, and we wrote four songs in two hours—just blazing through—and literally cut them the next day. ‘Only Prettier’ was her idea, and I loved the attitude behind it. It kind of fools you, because it’s got this really country, laid-back intro, but then it’s balls to the wall the rest of the way."

"Me and Your Cigarettes"
(Miranda Lambert/Ashley Monroe/Blake Shelton)

"This one definitely has a retro feel. Ashley (Monroe) had the idea and came down to my house in Texas a couple years ago. I had already cut my last album, and she wasn’t cutting at the time, so it fell by the wayside for a while. But I always felt it was a brilliant analogy. Blake (Shelton) had come to the studio to hear a few songs, and late that night he started playing this cool groove, and I started singing the words to the old song Ashley and I had written. We finished writing it at midnight and at 9 am I was in the studio cutting it. I thought: I hope Ashley’s not mad that we redid the song. But she loved it and came in to sing on the record."

"Makin’ Plans"
(Miranda Lambert)

"I feel I’m a little more stable in life, and not the crazy, wild-eyed kid that was writing ‘Kerosene’ at 18. I’ve been through a lot and grown up a lot on the road. And I’ve always kind of been a little older than my age anyway. I have a farm in Oklahoma, a place in Texas, I have a steady relationship, a good career going, and good people around me. I was just driving home from the airport one night thinking about all those things, and thinking about how I bought a farm in Oklahoma [to be with] a boy. Having someone that grounds you in your life is really priceless. ‘Makin’ Plans’ is about having somebody that always is your foundation, and wherever they are is home."

"Maintain the Pain"
(Miranda Lambert)

"I had that title for a long time in my head, and I couldn’t figure out what I was going to do with it. It started out a little more mellow. But the more intense the lyrics got, the more I thought, okay, this needs to be a rocker. I wrote it at my farm in Oklahoma. I went over to Blake’s and asked him to play on the demo, just on my Garage Band with me. And he added that guitar lick, which is so signature to the song now. I told him he still doesn’t get a co-write! But he added that cool sound to it, and he’s the one screaming in the background."

"Time to Get a Gun"
(Fred Eaglesmith)

"I’ve known that song for a while. And it’s not at secret that I like guns, and that I am a redneck girl. That song is so fitting for the times, and it’s political—but not really. I don’t ever want to use my platform for politics. We all come together through music, so it’s best to leave those opinions at home. ‘Time to Get a Gun’ to me is just a cool, straight ahead song—and it’s also fun. He’s talking about partying, and maybe he’d be able to afford his gun if he didn’t drink as much. I was just insistent on cutting it. It really sounds like me and sounds like my life."

"The House That Built Me"
(Tom Douglas/Allen Shamblin)

"That’s another one of those songs where I think, "Dang it, why didn’t I think of that?"
Everybody’s had that comfortable home place—or maybe even a person— that made you who you are, but that you can’t ever really go back to. I grew up on an old dairy farm in the country. We had older ladies knock on the door all the time and ask if they could come in because they were raised there, or their husband lived there when they got married? so many different stories. My mom would give them tea, and I’d sit there and listen to them tell the story about our house. And now I know the people that live there. I would be really sad if I could never go back there again?because our dog is buried in the yard, and there are just so many memories. I heard this song and I cried for two hours. When a song hits you like that, you know it’s gonna affect other people the same way."

"Love Song"
(Miranda Lambert/Dave Haywood/Charles Kelley/Blake Shelton)

"Lady Antebellum’s Charles and Dave came down to Blake’s farm last year. We’re really country and all we do at home is drive back roads or fish or have a fire. So we did all that, but we wrote too. They stayed for two days, and we wrote four songs. I would never think a song called ‘Love Song’ would be on my record because I just don’t sing songs like that. But this song is about just knowing each other. My favorite part is the bridge. It says ‘Everybody always sings about it/how they’re never gonna live without it/But we don’t have to talk about it/Because we’re living it out.’ To me that wraps up the whole song. It’s not this fairy tale, bubblegum, happy, everybody’s in love song. It’s just about two real people. And Charles sings on it, which is unbelievable. It’s so different for me. I guess I’ve reached a point where it’s all right to maybe love somebody.

Miranda Lambert photo by Randee St. Nicholas, courtesy of Front Page Publicity.

"‘Heart Like Mine’ started in Pigeon Forge. Ashley and I went up to Dollywood and spent the night in a cabin for a couple of days to just write and hang out and have some girl time. Some people might get mad about the lyrics but I grew up in church, and I’ve been a Christian my whole life. I feel that there are so many judgmental attitudes out there and this song is autobiographical in a way, because I’ve definitely had my share of being judged. I’m playing a character a little bit in every song. I don’t really smoke, but it sounds cool in the song."

"Somewhere Trouble Don’t Go"
(Julie Miller)

"I heard it on Buddy and Julie Miller’s record. You could easily soak up every inch of everything they ever sing. And I thought that this song would be fun to sing live. I play a lot of live shows, and I always think, I want to make sure I put some songs on here that are gonna be awesome to play live. That’s one of them, definitely."

"Sometimes I Wish"
(Miranda Lambert/Natalie Hemby)

"I’ve been obsessed with Airstreams for a while now. I don’t really know why. Don’t have one, don’t need one. But I want one! I always do ‘The Way I Am’ by Merle [Haggard] in my show, if I have an encore, just because I love that song, and it’s not right not to play a Merle song onstage. I was telling Blake one day, ‘There’s a song missing that I haven’t written yet.’ He said, ‘Why don’t you go write "The Way I Am" for you?’ And I did. That song is definitely, what if I wasn’t doing this? What if I could just fly away out of my body for a day?"

"Dead Flowers"
(Miranda Lambert)
"I was about to go record right after Valentine’s Day and I had gotten roses and they were so pretty, but I had to throw them out, because they get really nasty. I figured by the time I get back, they’ll be dead, so I just threw them in the yard. I was packing my bags and I thought, man, that’s sad. Those beautiful flowers are just wasted. I also leave my Christmas lights up all the time, because ? I don’t know, why not? And I looked out there and they were kind of hanging off the porch like they needed to be redone. I wrote that song in 20 minutes and I’m very proud of it lyrically. The longer you go not writing by yourself, the harder it gets. So I always try to keep writing by myself as much as I can."

"Sin for a Sin"
(Miranda Lambert/Blake Shelton)
"If Blake and I plan to co-write, it usually never works. We wind up getting bored or deciding to go drive back roads instead. But if we just happen upon it, something great comes out of it. This was late at night, and it was so cool because Blake put himself in a 25-year-old girl’s place and wrote from my perspective. It’s basically about cheating, love gone bad, and the death of something, whether it’s love or a person—however you want to interpret it. My mom always says, never return evil for evil. So I kind of put that into my own words and wrote ‘A Sin for a Sin.’ Because drinking and digging a hole in return for cheating doesn’t solve anything—but people do it! To me that’s the song on my record that sounds most like ‘Kerosene’ and ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.’ It’s me in a nutshell. If people have never heard my music before, there’s kind of a little theme going there. Nobody really gets to live out all their fantasies. I just get to sing mine in songs."

"White Liar"
(Miranda Lambert/Natalie Hemby)
"Yes, there is a sin for a sin in this one, too. I just had been listening to tons of Buddy and Julie Miller and the Steeldrivers, that rockin’ bluegrass music. Cheatin’ in a small town basically is what it’s about. I hope it is a single. Well, hell, I want all of them to be singles!"

"That’s the Way That the World Goes ‘Round"
(John Prine)

"I was really nervous to record it the way we did, because I respect John Prine beyond belief. But to me, if you’re going to cut somebody’s song, don’t do it just like they did it. Put your own twist on and make it your yours. We cut it "crazy"—a little bit Miranda, a little bit country, a little bit punk. That song was the most fun I’ve ever had recording. It sounds like we were having a party when we cut it, and believe me we were."

"Virginia Bluebell"
(Miranda Lambert/Natalie Hemby/Jennifer Kennard)

"Natalie has such cool ideas that I would never think of. I always go straight to love gone bad—pretty much the same thing all the time. I didn’t really know what a Virginia bluebell was. But it’s a little flower that hangs down like a bell, and it sort of droops, but it’s beautiful. This song is something so different for me. I’ve never heard a song like that and never would have thought of writing it on my own. The dead flowers came back to life as Virginia

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