The three have combined their talents on the album Hell On Heels as the Pistol Annies, a trio that, admittedly, might be a little different than anything you’ve ever heard before – from either of them! Lambert explains what brought them together.
“Ashley and I have been friends for a long time, and we started writing a bunch of songs that sounded so different – not like we would ever record on our own per se, then she played me some of Angaleena’s stuff, and she’s a great, great writer. Honestly, one day we said ‘Let’s start a girl band,’ and call her and see if she wants to be in it. That’s how it started. We hadn’t even met, Angaleena and I, and she was already a member.”
Lambert said the synergy was there right from the start. “The first time we met, there was a chemistry there – not only friendship-wise, but form writing songs. Now, our little couch dream is a reality,” she said in an exclusive interview with Roughstock.com
The themes on the album, I think, are all about honesty, and that’s a common thread through anything that I record. You’re supposed to be honest. If you ask me, girls are just like that. You will get songs that are honest, like on the Pistol Annies CD,” she says.
Of course, everyone knows about Lambert, but her two partners are equally talented. Presley is continuing to enjoy the success of Ashton Shepherd’s “Look It Up,” and Monroe has been kicking around town a while, collaborating with artists like Ricky Skaggs, Dwight Yoakam, as well as penning hits like “The Truth” for Jason Aldean.
Both Monroe and Presley are working on their own solo projects, and Lambert will release her new CD, Four The Record , on November 1. How can the three ladies mutli-task their solo careers with this new endeavor?
“You’ve got to just take it day-by-day, you know,” said Monroe. “We’re all like family on the road. I want to get my solo album out, Angeleena does, and Miranda will in November,” she says.
As for Presley, she’s enjoying every minute of it, especially watching “Look It Up” do as well as it has. “I am loving it. Ashton is one of my favorite singer-songwriters. We all love her,” Presley says, adding that “We have named her an honorary Pistol Annie. Anybody who puts the line in a song ‘Husband Stealing Heifer” in a song is our cup of tea. We want her to be successful, and we love her. She’s so cool to hang out with.”
The offbeat and irreverent lyrics are very much on display on Hell On Heels, such as the humorous look at hunting (from the wife’s standpoint) of “The Hunter’s Wife. “Angaleena wrote that song a long time ago,” said Lambert. “I said ‘We have to put that on there. That’s my life. That’s what I’m married to, so I could really relate to the lyrics of that song. I think our audience, the country audience, grew up with that - living for hunting, and going to deer camp, big buck shows, and hunting shows.”
Lambert should know. Her husband, Blake Shelton spends quite a bit of time in the woods. Blake is also the only outside writer on the album, helping to craft “Family Feud.” Lambert says the trio approached the song from a serious standpoint. “That’s everybody’s family when someone passes away. People have said that it’s a funny song, but it’s not meant to be funny at all. It’s a serious subject. He had our favorite line on the song—‘She’s probably rollin’ over in her grave
‘Cause the good Lord giveth and the family taketh away.’ He’s the only other writer who snuck in on us three.”
Monroe gets to shine on the beautiful “Beige,” and Presley works magic on “Lemon Drop.” Lambert takes a decidedly dark turn on “Housewife’s Prayer,” which may be one of her most stark performances yet.
“Angaleena had the idea for that song, and it is dark song about a dark subject,” said Lambert of the tune.
Many of the songs on Hell On Heels have a lived-in feel that is reminiscent of one of Lambert’s vocal partners from last fall, Loretta Lynn. “We need to get Miranda to call her right now,” exclaims Presley. “I’m from where she’s from. I grew up a ‘Coal Miners’ Daughter,’ so she was always my hero. I think that growing up listening to her records gave me more courage as a woman and as a writer. She had a take on topics that a lot of women wouldn’t tackle.”
“She definitely was not a sissy,” said Lambert. “She was the first one to talk about pills. How lucky is it that I have two amazing singer songwriter friends and together we make an unstoppable musical force,” shares Lambert. “We say things in our music that women all across the country are thinking. This is a great creative outlet for me as a solo artist and it's cool as hell! ‘Hell On Hells’ will knock your socks off.”
For more on the Pistol Annies, check out www.PistolAnnies.com!
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