Atlantic City Weekly

Country rocker Miranda Lambert did not suffer through a sophomore jinx. After she exploded on the Nashville scene with her debut platinum album Kerosene, she kept the fire going with her second album, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Lambert's current summer tour stops at the House of Blues tonight (Thursday, Aug. 7).

Lambert pulled off a major upset in May. After earning a surprise nomination for Album of the Year from the Academy of Country Music, she won the award, besting Nashville heavyweights Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley and Rodney Atkins, as well as the other hot female on the scene, Taylor Swift.

If that wasn't enough, her current single "Gunpowder and Lead" became her first Top-10 single, a milestone she got to celebrate with her boyfriend, country star Blake Shelton. Together they are the hottest country couple this side of Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. Not bad for a former contestant on the reality TV series Nashville Star.

As for that current single, "Gunpowder and Lead," Lambert -- who writes or co-writes most of her songs -- knows her way around guns. Her parents are former law enforcement officers and she will be the cover girl for the Sept./Oct. issue of Garden & Gun magazine. I had the opportunity to hear Lambert shooting from the hip in a phone interview about her current tour.

Even you must have been surprised on May 18 when instead of Brad Paisley or Kenny Chesney, your name was called for album of the year.

I was. I still am. I really, really genuinely didn't think I had a chance. I was surprised I was even nominated. Being a songwriter, I definitely poured my heart and soul into Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. The fact the industry felt that I deserved to take home the trophy is something I'll never forget.

You were on Nashville Star in 2003. How important was that for your career?

It got me in front of people I needed to be in front of. Winning was not the right thing for me, but getting third place gave me time to make an album that I could be proud of, and set myself up for a long career.

A lot of times with a debut album, the record company wants you to forget your own songs and use veteran songwriters. Did you face that issue?

I was really lucky because I didn't have to fight necessarily, but there was pressure. They put me with hit songwriters and they said they wanted [certain] producers. I did the politically correct thing of going to meetings with other producers and songwriters, but I knew at the end of the day I was going to do what I wanted to do.

Your music has a whole lot of southern rock in it. How did you develop that style?

I don't really know because I am such a huge country fan. My dad always listened to Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Doobie Brothers and Creedence Clearwater Revival, but I don't have a lot of that in my background. I love it now, but I sort of found it on my own. I've always been a traditional country fan. I think my music is a good mix of both.

Who are your musical influences?

Merle Haggard is a huge hero of mine. He writes songs about real life and it's honest. I think country music strayed away from just being honest for way too long. I've always wanted to be honest with my music. Jack Ingram, he's a new artist [he won the new male vocalist at the ACM awards] but he's not new to me, I grew up in Texas and I've been watching him since I was 16. He's an insightful writer. I've always stuck to those more songwriter-y-type artists that have been my heroes.