Fresh off the success of her Grammy-nominated single, “Tin Man,” Miranda Lambert announced she will release “Keeper of the Flame” as her next single. The song is the fourth release from Lambert’s 2017 The Weight of These Wings album.
Lambert penned “Keeper of the Flame” with hit songwriters Natalie Hemby and Liz Davis. With lines like, “I’m the keeper of the flame / The teller of the story / Keeper of the flame / For the ones that came before me / For the little pilot lights waiting to ignite / Like fireflies in the rain / Keeper of the flame, the idea for the song was sparked from text message between Lambert and Hemby.
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“One time, [Lambert] sent me a text in the middle of the night,” Hemby recalled to American Songwriter. “It said, ‘Like fireflies in the rain.’ I think she was watching a storm. I texted back, ‘I’m the keeper of the flame.’”
The message of “Keeper of the Flame” is especially important now, as Lambert and other female artists try to find their place in a male-dominated genre.
“I think right now, it’s kind of a dude’s pond,” she told Omaha’s World Herald. “But it’s going to change. You can’t get caught up in it. When I talk to other girls about it, we just have to do what we do. If you keep delivering and doing what you do and stand beside it, people can’t ignore you.”
The Weight of These Wings came out after Lambert’s divorce from Blake Shelton, but the 34-year-old insists it isn’t about the end of her marraige.
“It’s not a divorce album,” Lambert recently told the Cleveland Scene. “Divorce isn’t a big enough deal to deserve an entire record. It’s part of the story, but I found happiness and playfulness on this record. It’s a little dramatic to call it a divorce album.”
“I just wanted to tell a story,” Lambert continued. “I was kind of wrapped up in a tabloid frenzy, and that’s completely the opposite of who I am. I’m a pretty private person. I wanted to tell my side of the story and use the emotions of going through something hard in your life. I think I achieved that.”
Lambert is nominated for four trophies at the upcoming 2018 ACM Awards, including Female Vocalist of the Year (a category she has won consecutively for the past eight years), and Song of the Year, for “Tin Man.”
The 2018 ACM Awards will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 15 at 8:00 PM ET on CBS.
“Keeper of the Flame” will be released to radio on April 16. Download the single on iTunes.