Palomino

Miranda Lambert hits the road on Palomino, her eighth solo album and the follow-up to her 2019 Grammy-winning LP Wildcard. Across 15 tracks, Lambert treks all over the United States, spinning colorful yarns of a rambling life out on the road. “We go to 36 different locations in this record and meet all kinds of characters that we made up,” Lambert tells Apple Music. “Or it might have been characters we have all met in our travels, put into these songs. I've never written with that much purpose.”

Lambert sets the freewheeling tone with opener “Actin’ Up,” a swampy ode to bad behavior. Tracks like “Scenes” and “Tourist” are some of Lambert’s most image-rich material yet, while “Music City Queen”—a collaboration with pioneering New Wavers The B-52’s—is easily one of her most fun. Some songs, like standout “Geraldene,” previously appeared in demo form on Lambert’s critically acclaimed The Marfa Tapes, a 2021 collaborative LP with Jack Ingram and Jon Randall, and take on new life thanks to thoughtful production from Lambert, Randall, and frequent collaborator Luke Dick. Below, Lambert shares insight into a handful of tracks on Palomino.

“Geraldene”
“She's everyone. I feel like we've all known one or been one at one point or the other. I just had that title because I was watching Heartworn Highways like a million times, and in that movie, Townes’ dog is named Geraldine. And Geraldine's this German shepherd, and I was like, ‘That's a cool name.’”

“Country Money”
“Aaron Raitiere pulls me in on a write one day. He's like, ‘Hey, come write with me and Mikey Reaves.’ I had never written with him before, and I was like, ‘Okay, cool, that'd be different,’ and we wrote ‘Country Money.’ It fit right into the vibe of this road trip we were taking. So it all just happened easily, which makes me a little nervous because I'm like, ‘Okay, when's the other shoe going to drop?’”

“Carousel”
“That is a real feeling. We joined the circus in one way or another, and we're so lucky to be part of it. I mean, I'm like, ‘If I ever lived before, I think I was either best friends with Calamity Jane or riding an elephant somewhere.’ Truly, that's what I was doing, because this is as close as I could get to those two things, what I do for a living. I miss so many weddings and funerals and baby showers and important moments of people that are important to me, and of my own, just because I'm rolling. But I think ‘Carousel’ puts this romantic spin on it where it's like, ‘It's okay. There's this whole other life that can happen, too.’”