Patsy. Loretta. Dolly. Miranda. She probably wouldn’t put herself on that country music Mount Rushmore, but hear me out: Since blazing onto the scene with her hell-raising albums and, Miranda Lambert has proved she has the old-school chops of Patsy Cline, the fire and grit of Loretta Lynn, and the buoyant effervescence of Dolly Parton. In 2015, the flames lowered into a slow burn—Lambert and fellow country star Blake Shelton divorced, and she retreated to a small Nashville studio where she wrote and recorded , a double album on which Lambert was at her most vulnerable and anguished. She never publicly addressed the drama with Shelton, telling me in 2016: “If you wanna hear my side of the story, it’s, and launched Velvet Rodeo, a Las Vegas concert residency that will continue through 2023. In April, she’ll release a cookbook,, featuring Texas-tinged recipes such as her favorite, Mom’s Meatloaf. And while Lambert resides on a farm outside of Nashville, she still often makes it back to Lindale, where her family runs the Pink Pistol boutique and a winery. Texas, she says, will always be in her blood.
