Published: November 09, 2009 12:38 pm      

Uprising at War Memorial | Miranda Lambert brings 'Revolution' to downtown site

By TOM LAVIS

TLAVIS@TRIBDEM.COM

Country music star Miranda Lambert celebrates her 26th birthday today, but she is a seasoned performer well beyond her years.

Lambert will bring her road show to the Cambria County War Memorial Arena at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 20 in support of her latest album, “Revolution.”

While she has maintained her youthful feistiness, she warns her Johnstown concertgoers to hold onto their collective hats when she takes the stage for a different kind of uprising.

“We always give it 110 percent,” she said. “The more the crowd gets into it, the more fun we have onstage, and I like for everyone to leave their worries behind and have a good time.”

She maintains that live shows are all about escaping reality for a few hours.

Lambert is no longer the crazy, wild-eyed kid who wrote “Kerosene” at 18.

“I like to think I’ve matured both as performer and as person,” she said. “As a performer, I’m more comfortable in my live show because I have been doing it a lot longer and have more experience now in giving the audience what they came to hear and see, as well as knowing what I can bring to a show to make it more entertaining while still being true to myself.”

As a person, she has learned a lot in the past three years while traveling on the road, being in a relationship and figuring out how to be a young woman in her 20s.

She credits that maturity to the people she has toured with.

She said that each of her tour mates have brought something different to the table in terms of being a major influence on her and teaching her how to entertain people in different ways.

“It would be really hard to pick one,” she said. “Keith Urban is amazing. So is Dierks Bentley.

“Then, of course, there’s Toby Keith and George Strait. With Kenny Chesney this year, I learned so much. What an amazing performer and person.”

Lambert was born and raised in Lindale, Texas, and wrote her first song at age 17.

She gained recognition as a finalist on the 2003 season of “Nashville Star,” where she finished in third place and later signed to Epic Records where she produced her “Kerosene” album.

She shifted to Columbia Records Nashville for her second album, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which she won Academy of Country Music’s Album of the Year in 2008.

Although the title track failed to make Top 40, the next three singles “Famous in a Small Town,” “Gunpowder & Lead” and “More Like Her” were all Top 20 hits.

“Gunpowder & Lead” became her most successful single to date and her first Top 10 country hit.

It not only is her biggest hit, but it’s also the one she composed the fastest.

“I wrote the majority of ‘Gunpowder & Lead’ while taking the test for my concealed handgun license, which I passed with a 100 percent,” she said proudly. “With my notes in hand I brought them to my friend and co-writer Heather Little and through our collaboration we managed to write this song that feels like taking a stand for battered and mistreated women.”

Success has given Lambert the confidence to do things the way she wants and not to second guess it.

“Being a born-and-bred Texan, I guess I’ve just got that fiery personality as part of my heritage,” she said. “I’ve learned to stand up for myself and not take any crap, so I suppose that self-assertiveness holds true on and off the stage.”

With her demanding schedule, she’s finding it more difficult to find the time to write.

“I’m not someone who can just write anywhere,” she said. “For this album, I took a few months and spent time at home to completely focus on writing.”

The most rewarding aspects of her career are crystal clear: Performing for fans, winning ACM’s Country Music’s Album of the Year and performing her recent album “Revolution” at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, which she termed “as a dream come true.”

But life has a way of putting things into perspective, and that happened to Lambert.

She said sometimes the biggest “wow” moments happen in an unexpected way.

A young girl came up to her at a meet-and-greet for a show to tell her story.

“She had been in a car wreck, had lost a leg and been burned very badly,” Lambert said. “She shared that when the nurses replaced the bandages every day, the pain was so bad that the only way she could get through it was to sing.

“One of her friend’s brought her my records and she started to sing with me and managed to forget about her pain. She was crying, I was crying ... I was touched and amazed that by doing what I do, I had such an impact on someone’s life and was able to help her through my music,” she said.

She stated the most important things in her life are God, family, friends, music and her dogs.

When she’s on the road, the thing she misses most about home is her animals.

“I take Delilah and Delta Dawn (two dogs) with me, but I have to leave all my other animals at home,” she said.

When fans meet her, their biggest request is to have a picture taken with her, which she always grants.

“I have a lot to be thankful for,” she said.

Tickets are $37.75. They may be purchased at the arena box office, Ticketmaster outlets, by phone at (800) 745-3000 or by visiting www.ticketmaster.com.



In concert

Who: Miranda Lambert.

Where: Cambria County War Memorial Arena, 326 Napoleon St., Johnstown.

When: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 20.

Tickets: Arena box office, Ticketmaster outlets, by phone at (800) 745-3000 or visit www.ticketmaster.com.

Cost: $37.75.

Information: 536-5156.