Miranda Lambert is one of the most-awarded artists in country music history, with 13 CMA Awards and 33 ACM Awards to her credit. With so many accolades (and a nomination for another CMA Award), her house could be filled with trophies, but the Texan prefers to keep them mostly out of sight, as a reminder to herself to keep moving forward, instead of looking back. Unfortunately, the mother of her husband, Brendan McLoughlin, didn’t quite understand why her new daughter-in-law wanted to keep them so hidden.
“Ironically enough, I have a room that’s my music room, right in the front door, but it’s like a study,” Lambert told Taste of Country. “It’s got shelves, so I have my plaques, but it has doors. It’s paned doors, but I like to close them sometimes. I don’t care about that. My in-laws are in town right now, and I had the doors closed. My mother-in-law was like, ‘You should show this off! You worked so hard.’ I know, but I feel like it’s really nice to have all that.”
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Not only is Lambert not overly concerned with her awards, she purposefully didn’t look at any of them when writing for her latest Wildcard album.
“In fact, when I was writing for this record, I hung tapestries all over the walls to cover everything,” Lambert said. “Because I was like, ‘That’s great, but that’s in the past.’ I’ve got to keep moving forward. It’s a good reminder of how long I’ve been doing this, and how hard I’ve worked. But at some point, I was like, ‘I’m gonna hang tapestries everywhere, and put up sparkle lights.’ You gotta keep going. You can’t go back, ‘Well, that one time I won that award for this song.’ I gotta write a new song.’”
The 35-year-old bared her soul in Wildcard, her first new set of tunes in three years, finding a release in sharing so much in her music.
“Life takes its turns where it will and sometimes they’re not your favorite turns, but being a songwriter, I can use those life experiences sort of as therapy,” Lambert told PopCulture.com. “I’m so thankful for that, because I think it really is a healing process too. But definitely coming out of The Weight of These Wings into Wildcard is a totally different vibe and kind of feels like a little bit of the old me.”
Lambert is nominated for a CMA Award for Female Vocalist of the Year, and will also perform her current single, “It All Comes Out in the Wash.” The 2019 CMA Awards will air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 13, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
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