Miranda Lambert is kicking off her new era with a new song taking it back to a classic country theme: getting revenge on a no-good man who’s done you wrong.
Lambert, 40, released “Wranglers” on Friday, May 3, a week after she performed the song live for the first time during her set at the Stagecoach music festival. In the track, Lambert blends her rage into sadness while torching the pants of a former lover.
“If he ever loved her, he never let it show / If she didn’t need him, she’d have left him long ago / She set it all on fire and if there’s one thing that she learned / Wranglers takе forever to burn,” she sings on the chorus.
“Wranglers’ is a classic tale of a woman taking her power back,” explained Lambert in a statement accompanying the song’s release. I think we can all identify with the character in this song because we have all had a time in our lives where we needed to find our strength and also get a little revenge on someone who did us wrong or hurt us,” she adds.
Audra Mae (who provides vocals for the song), Evan McKeever and Ryan Carpenter wrote the song, and Lambert said she was so “proud” to sing it. “It feels like it could have been on the same record as ‘Gunpowder & Lead’ [from her 2007 album, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend] in a lot of ways. ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ is a pretty powerful statement, and the way it’s written, you can tell, we’re not kidding,” added Lambert.
“Wranglers” is likely the lead single of her forthcoming 10th album, expected out this year. It’ll be Lambert’s first album for Republic Records. Lambert signed to the label in April after leaving Sony Music Nashville, her home for 20 years, in 2023.
Lambert’s previous album was 2022’s Palomino, which earned a handful of award nominations, including one for Best Country Album at the 2023 Grammys.
In March, Lambert spoke with Us Weekly about the final dates of her Velvet Rodeo residency. She’s been performing at Las Vegas’s Bakkt Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino since September 2022, but it’s time for the next chapter in her story.
“I’ve loved the Velvet Rodeo shows so much, and I feel so grateful that the fans loved us back—enough that we were invited to extend the run not once, but twice,” she told Us. “At the same time, I’m really excited for some things we have coming up and I’m ready for the next challenge.”
