How Miranda Lambert's live debut of 'Wranglers' kicks off the next stage of her career

Miranda Lambert's evolution into an artist and business mogul took its initial form over the last weekend of April at the Stagecoach Festival.

Alongside a headlining "Mane Stage" set (featuring a guest appearance by Lambert's hero and country icon Reba McEntire), the weekend and a multitude of other recent Lambert moments show how she could best evolve into an artist similar to Jimmie Rodgers' almost century-old "Blue Yodel No. 1" highlighting the best of Texas and Tennessee.

Miranda Lambert debuts 'Wranglers' at Stagecoach

"Wranglers," debuted onstage at Stagecoach on Saturday evening, is out on May 3. The song was recorded in Austin, written by Audra Mae, Evan McKeever, and Ryan Carpenter and co-produced by Jon Randall.

It's from a forthcoming Lambert album which has yet to have a release date.

The song highlights the revival of a cyclical movement defined by anthemic, female-performed songs churning heartbreak into anger. This movement is reviving itself in country music's mainstream industry.

Lainey Wilson's Southern rock-forward sound blends well with pop-country moments from two decades prior, including Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" and Lambert's own "Gunpowder & Lead" and "Mama's Broken Heart."

"Wranglers" most significant selling point? The burning point of a pair of jeans takes much longer than someone's immediate anger often will likely allow.

As noted by Lambert in a press release, the song's female protagonist "(takes) her power back" by getting "a little revenge on someone that did us wrong or hurt us."

"'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned' is a pretty powerful statement, and the way it's written, you can tell, we're not kidding."

Republic Records and Big Loud Texas

As of Nov. 2023, Lambert has been announced as having moved from her 18-year home at Sony Nashville to becoming a Republic Records-signed artist and co-founder of the Big Loud Texas imprint alongside previously mentioned frequent collaborator and singer-songwriter Jon Randall.

Lambert's a native of Lindale, a Northeast Texas town 90 minutes equidistant from Texarkana and Shreveport, Louisiana. For the past two decades, her career has been defined by being a Nashville label-signed artist whose Texas roots surface frequently.

As of 2024, Lambert, now two decades into being a three-time Grammy-winning and nine-time Academy of Country Music Music Female Vocalist of the Year, has merely shifted that paradigm 180 degrees. Via her label partnership with Nashville's Big Loud and global conglomerate Republic Records, she's a Texas-based artist and label chief whose Nashville roots remain a part of her business leanings, not often the whole.

In Nov. 2023, it was announced that Lambert and Randall would be directly involved in signing and developing artists on the Big Loud Texas roster, with Randall serving as president of A&R for Big Loud Texas and contributing as a producer.

Randall, a Grammy, CMA and ACM award winner, has three decades of history in Nashville's music industry, spreading from Emmylou Harris and Alison Krauss to Dierks Bentley and Brad Paisley and more, including Lambert's 2021 Grammy-nominated album "The Marfa Tapes" and 2022 album "Palomino."

"Every time I'm back home, I get to hear the incredible talent our state produces, and I feel a responsibility to help get more of those Texas voices heard," Lambert said. "I'm really excited to team up with my buddy Jon Randall and Big Loud to do just that. Get ready, y'all — we're bringing even more Texas to town."

Six months later, she adds the following about that creative challenge: "Being in Texas with Jon Randall, recording where I cut my teeth as a young artist, felt like coming home. I thought about the women — and men — who've lived, loved and found power in my music, and I wanted to get back to the root of those spaces."

Texas and Tennessee collaborations already bearing fruit

Lambert's ability to showcase the best of the burgeoning American pop culture hub Nashville, alongside highlighting the best of the Lone Star State, will be her modus operandi moving forward.

That's not just going to be reflected in the restaurant menu at her Casa Rosa Cantina, where her name will remain emblazoned on Lower Broadway in downtown Nashville.

Even deeper, she will continue working with her Nashville-based stylist, Tiffany Gifford, and other Music City creatives, including DanielXDiamond's Daniel Musto.

To the Tennessean, Musto notes that in executing Lambert's Stagecoach outfit, he and Gifford teamed up with Native American, Fort Worth, Texas-based turquoise jeweler Mud Lowery, blending DanielXDiamond's signature rhinestone work with a deconstructed turquoise Naja necklace all attached by hand, in Nashville.

New music, new artists

"Miranda Lambert's legacy as both a consummate storyteller and legendary performer speaks for itself. Her new music is spectacular and we are thrilled and honored to welcome her to Republic Records in partnership with Big Loud," says Republic Records founder and chairman Monte Lipman.

"We're honored Miranda Lambert has entrusted us with this next chapter of her career," adds Republic President and COO Jim Roppo. "As she puts the final touches on her fantastic new body of work, it has all the hallmarks of her signature sound, yet she continues to push herself as a songwriter, producer and performer. We're all at the beginning of a very special moment, and we're grateful to be on this journey with her."

Alongside her work, Big Loud Texas' first signed artist, Austin-born Dylan Gossett, has been making waves in Nashville recently.

At a recent performance at the EXIT/IN, Gossett performed his gold-selling Billboard all-genre Hot 100 crossover hit single "Coal." The song blends country stylings with the folk-pop sounds of The Lumineers and Lubbock-borne Americana favorites Flatland Cavalry. His viral, hook-driven appeal finds him appearing alongside artists like Zach Bryan, Wyatt Flores, and Noah Kahan in playlists.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Miranda Lambert debuts Wranglers, kicking off next stage of her career