Miranda Lambert Admitted She’s Trying to Work Up the ‘Guts’ to Cover 1 Country Song
Miranda Lambert said her father introduced her to country music. While she connected with much of the music he showed her, she said she felt particularly drawn to Emmylou Harris. Lambert said she has admired Harris’ career and songwriting. She hopes to cover one of Harris’ songs, but she said she has to work up the courage first.
Miranda Lambert hopes to cover 1 country song
One of Lambert’s favorite Harris songs is the 2000 song “Red Dirt Girl.” She hopes to cover it someday.
“I’ve been saying it since 2000, but if I ever have the guts, I’d love to cover ‘Red Dirt Girl,’” she wrote for Rolling Stone. “That’s one of those songs that just stopped me.”
When she first heard it, the song stopped both her and her mother in their tracks.
“I was in the car with my mom when I was 17; we were going around to radio stations and handing out my CD, trying to get anybody to care, Loretta Lynn-style. ‘Red Dirt Girl’ came on while we’re on this drive to El Paso or wherever, and my mom just pulled over,” she recalled. “It was the most stunning, beautiful story I’d ever heard. And then I looked up who wrote it and it was her, alone, of course.”
The song has made her want to become a better writer, even years after she first heard it.
“That set a new songwriting bar for me at that very moment,” she wrote. “I was like, ‘I’m not doing it right. Whatever that is, I’m chasing that.’ And I’m still doing that 23 years later.”
She said she grew up on Emmylou Harris’ music
Lambert loved Harris since she first heard her music. Her appreciation took on a greater depth once she started writing songs of her own.
“I grew up on Emmy, but it wasn’t until I really started getting into music and thinking maybe I’ll do this for my life that I reheard her,” she wrote. “I knew all the words by heart, but they didn’t hit me the same until I really dove into songwriting around age 16 or 17.”
She said one of her favorites wasn’t a song Harris had written. Still, it showed a side of the artist that Lambert wanted to emulate.
“I think the first song was ‘Two More Bottles of Wine,’ which was written by Delbert McClinton,” she wrote. “I’d heard the male version, but it hit harder with her singing, because I had gone through this phase of ‘How do I be a bada** and still be feminine?’ Emmy exuded all of that. Her delivery in a beautiful song like ‘Boulder to Birmingham’ just rips your heart out. But then ‘Two More Bottles of Wine,’ I was like, ‘This girl’s here to party and not take s***.’ I like this, too.”
Miranda Lambert said she hopes her country music career is like Emmylou Harris’
Given her praise of the other artist, it’s not surprising that Lambert hopes to have a career like Harris.
“I always said from day one, I want a career like Emmy’s, because it’s a never-ending career,” she wrote. “She has 26 albums, and none of them are the same.”
She also hopes to achieve the artistic freedom Harris has.
“Emmy’s got this certain freedom because she sings with whoever she wants, whenever she wants; she covers whatever songs she wants; she writes whatever songs she wants to write,” she wrote. “It’s very inspiring to watch.”
