On November 3rd’s episode of Austin City Limits, Miranda Lambert played thirteen songs — to the delight of both the live crowd and the audience at home. The set included some of her biggest hits, sported a huge band with back-up singers and all, as well as a considerable light show.
However, the highlight of the performance came when Lambert stood alone on the stage and played “Tin Man” by herself, with just her acoustic guitar for accompaniment.
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“I wrote this song with two of my best friends… Jack Ingram and Jon Randall,” Lambert said, giving credit where credit is due. “I think we all needed to write this song. At the time that we wrote it, we all sort of took equal parts in each others’ pain and put it down on paper and on a record, so I recorded it but I wanted to do it by myself [tonight] because I feel like that’s where it starts—with a song and a guitar and a person and a girl and some emotions, so I’m going to leave it there tonight.”
Lambert lived up to that introduction with a soulful, heartfelt rendition of her song. She stood calmly, commanding the stage just as easily by herself as with a mob of musicians behind her. She took her time with the sad ballad, giving each lyric the space to sink in before the next one came around.
Miranda Lambert’s album The Weight of These Wings is available now from RCA Records Nashville, and her “Livin’ Like Hippies Tour” begins in January.
Watch her performance of “Tin Man” above.
