Sassy singer Lambert comes to Cape
By Vince Hoffard
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Vince Hoffard |
Mirand Lambert and Blake Shelton – Country music. 8 p.m. Oct. 10. Show Me Center, Cape Girardeau. Tickets are $39.50 and $29.50. (573) 651-5000.
Miranda Lambert wasn't able to fly under the country music radar very long.
The 24-year old Texan was a third-place castoff from the cable talent search show "Nashville Star" in 2003, but she was able to parlay the brief exposure into a major record deal. She immediately capitalized on her golden opportunity, releasing the album "Kerosene," which contained four Top 40 singles and was certified platinum.
There was no sophomore slump for the sassy singer, who aggressively attacks each concert performance with a gritty "take no prisoners" approach. Her "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" album shocked the movers and shakers on Music Row by capturing Album of the Year honors from the Academy of Country Music earlier this year.
A few weeks ago, Lambert's career soared to an entirely new level when she was nominated for a pair of Country Music Association Awards, including the prestigious Female Vocalist of the Year honor and Single of the Year for "Gunpowder & Lead."
Lambert and her boyfriend, superstar Blake Shelton, have joined forces for the "Seamless" tour, which has a stop scheduled for Cape Girardeau.
A gorgeous platinum blonde, Lambert's career has steadily built momentum for five years, pushed to a virtual new peak with each new single release. She has gained a reputation as a female who cannot be pushed around with tunes like "Kerosene," which was nominated for a Grammy in 2007, and "Gunpowder & Lead," her only Top 10 hit.
After trying to deliver a knockout punch with each verse as a beginning songwriter, Lambert says she has evolved with her writing skills to a point where she feels comfortable being personal and introspective. She is definitely showing a softer side on latest single "More Like Her," which was released last month.
"I had a situation where there was another woman who I felt was getting the things I wanted. It almost scared me to put it on the record, but my fans deserve that from me," she says. "I just needed to go for it. I felt it so much in the studio, and you can hear it in my voice. This is the first time I've let myself be that vulnerable. I'm usually the girl who won't take any crap, but that's not realistic all the time."
The daughter of a mother/father team of private investigators, Lambert's curiosity about a possible future in the entertainment industry was stoked at the tender age of 9, when she attended a Garth Brooks concert.
A talented teenage vocalist, at 16 she started appearing on the Johnny High Country Music Review in Arlington, Texas, the same show that launched the career of LeAnn Rimes. Lambert quickly earned a shot at a record deal, but left Nashville dejected when producers tried to give her a "pop" sound.
She made a triumphant return to Music City a few years later on "Nashville Star." The advance publicity from the show allowed her "Kerosene" album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. It contained minor hits like "Me And Charlie Talking" and "New Strings." The buzz created by the album led to tour dates opening for George Strait, Keith Urban and Toby Keith.
In 2007, Lambert started dating Shelton, who has cranked out hits like "Austin," "Some Beach," "The Baby" and "The More I Drink." She provided background vocals on Shelton's recent tune "Home."
"I've always thought that Blake is one of the greatest artists in country music and he brings such a dynamic presence to his performance," Lambert says. "Pairing up for these shows will not only be fun for us, but I think it's going to be an amazing show for fans. Anytime you play with a great artist, it makes you strive to be even better � and we will do that every night."
Lambert is in great company with her CMA nomination for Female Vocalist of the Year. Other nominees are Carrie Underwood, Martina McBride, Taylor Swift and Alison Krauss.
Country notes: About the same time Lambert left Texas, local favorite Wild Horses left Southern Illinois to be closer to family and mount a full-out assault on the thriving Texas music scene. The band has been dominating Lone Star state roadhouses with a turbo-charged arsenal of original material that can best be described as a blend of ZZ Top and George Jones. The growing popularity of the group is documented by reading reviews from a MySpace page that includes more than 1,100 friends.
The band opens this month for Rick Trevino and next month for Jake Owen and Neal McCoy. One of the influences mentioned by lead singer Michael Blake Mahler is rowdy rockers Cross Canadian Ragweed, which Wild Horses shared a stage with Sept. 13.
Ragweed and recent SIU graduate Emily Riesen will be in concert Oct. 10 at Copper Dragon in Carbondale, the same night as the Lambert/Shelton extravaganza. Tickets are $15 in advance and can be purchased by calling 549-3348.
VINCE HOFFARD can be reached at 658-9095 or via e-mail at vlh76@midwest.net.
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