Miranda Lambert Opens Up About Divorce in Raw New Album with Band Pistol Annies
Following a five-year hiatus, the Pistol Annies finally released a new record-and their searing lyrics and soaring harmonies were worth the wait. Interstate Gospel is the latest from the female trio comprised of country singers Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe, and Angaleena Presley, and much like their dynamic debut album, Hell on Heels, the band's brand-new tracks tackle topics ranging from the humorous (as in the sassy single "Got My Name Changed Back") to the heartbreaking ("Best Years of My Life").
In honor of their roaring return-and ahead of their CMA Awards performance-here's everything you need to know about the girl group everyone's talking about.
Pistol Annies have been around for years.
Ashley and Miranda met first and started jamming together, and then they convinced Angaleena (of whom both were big fans) to get in the mix.
"I would say [the first female artist to change my life is] Ashley because she and I became best friends right off the bat when we realized what each other were about, and we were just kindred spirits," Miranda said in an interview with CMT. "She's how I met Angaleena. So, this band is so important to me and for female music and perspective."
Their first album, Hell on Heels, was released in 2011, and their second, Annie Up, came out in 2013.
But their new music is more mature.
"We have all grown up a lot since our last record. All three of us have had so many life changes in the past five years," Angaleena told Stereogum, seemingly referring to divorce (Miranda's 2013 split from ex-husband Blake Shelton) and babies (Ashley and husband John Danks welcomed a son last year, and Angaleena is currently expecting with husband Jordan Powell). "We've been through a lot and we write about it on this record."
Each woman embodies a different "Annie."
Because of her Texas roots, Miranda is "Lonestar Annie," while Tennessee native Ashley goes by "Hippie Annie" and Angaleena is "Holler Annie," a nod to the mountain hollows, or "hollers" of Kentucky, where she attended school.
They don't shy away from sticky subjects.
The feisty yet fun "Got My Name Changed Back" contains cutting lyrics that call to mind Miranda's own divorce three years ago. That's par for the course for the women, who are all famously honest in their music.
"Pistol Annies is such a relief," Miranda said about the songwriting process to HITS Daily Double in June. "Because there's three of us, it's such a relief in a different way. It makes me more brave, because when there's three of us, we can say whatever we want."
All three women are solo artists as well.
While Miranda is the most well known, Ashley and Angaleena have both released records under their own names. Angaleena was outspoken as ever in 2017's Wrangled, and Ashley's Sparrow, which came out earlier this spring, made Rolling Stone's list of the best country and Americana albums of 2018. However, within any one of these records' credits, you'll find familiar names: The ladies like to feature each other's vocals and writing on their projects apart as well.
And they're friends in real life.
"It's almost like we were sisters in another life," Angaleena said in the CMT interview. "There's just this known connective thing that's we've had since the first time we all met. It's only grown."
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