Don't mess with Texas

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Miranda Lambert brings her spitfire personality to Countryfest mainstage. (CP)

BEFORE feisty Texan Miranda Lambert totes her pink guitar onto the mainstage at Dauphin’s Countryfest on Saturday night, there’s a good chance she’ll be soaking up more R&B than R&R in her dress­ing room.

Lambert won't dish about the backstage habits of her fiancé, country star Blake Shelton, who plays the same headlining Countryfest slot on Sunday. But she says her own pre-show ritual is watching concert footage to get herself fired up.

"I love watching live-show DVDs from other artists before I go on stage," says the chart-topping, Grammy-nominated 26-year-old in an email interview. "I have a great selection and I try to mix it up a bit.

"I'm a big Beyoncé fan and have seen her many times live. I got to meet her at her show in Dallas last year... So I like to see her before I go on, as an inspiration...

"And recently I got into Tina Turner, watching her live-show DVDs. She is the original entertainer when it comes to strong women artists."

Lambert, winner of the Academy of Country Music's 2010 top female vocalist award, is known for being strong herself. The angelic-looking blond often earns adjectives like "fiery" and "bad-ass" for her numerous songs -- which she usually co-writes -- about getting revenge on cheatin' or abusive guys or their new women, such as White Liar, Kerosene, Gunpowder & Lead and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

Esquire magazine named Lambert "Terrifying Woman of the Year" in 2008.

She admits to having a "rowdy, crazy, headbanging, rock-star-girl side." She has a tattoo of pistols with wings on her left forearm. On her third and most recent disc, Revolution (the Academy of Country Music's album of the year) she covered Canadian Fred Eaglesmith's Time to Get a Gun.

The "redneck diva," as she's been dubbed, was raised in small-town Lindale, Texas, where her parents were private investigators. She is licensed to carry a concealed firearm and is an enthusiastic deer hunter.

Last year she told Rolling Stone, "The other day, I went into a Bass Pro Shop and came out with a pistol and a bikini. Now, that's redneck!"

Asked whether all her songs about scorned women retaliating might put ideas into fans' heads, she replies, "So far, no fan seems to have used extreme measures of revenge that I know about."

Lambert has been singing professionally since high school, but got a career boost when she finished third on the TV talent competition Nashville Star in 2003. Her 2005 debut disc, Kerosene, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard country album chart and she hasn't looked back. Her devoted followers have dubbed themselves "Ran Fans."

She has toured with major stars including Keith Urban (who has Countryfest's Friday headlining slot as a replacement for the cancelled Brooks & Dunn), Dierks Bentley and Toby Keith.

Her current Roadside Bars and Pink Guitars tour is her first as a headliner. "Gibson Guitars gave me a custom-painted pink guitar at the beginning of my career," she says, "because I mentioned to them that I love pink. I guess it kind of stuck, and now I have a large selection of pink guitars that I treasure."

The singer, whose most recent hit is the touching ballad The House That Built Me, says her opinion of Canadian audiences has changed since her first encounter with them, on tour with George Strait in 2006.

"It was one of my first tours I got to be on," she recalls, "and I remember the crowd being very serious. They didn't get up and dance or sing along.

"It was tough for me, as I wasn't used to that type of reception. Touring in Texas in my late teens, the audience was wild and crazy and everyone was standing and dancing...

"Then last year I was on tour with Kenny Chesney. I remember being in Toronto and the fans were jumping up and down and having a great time. So that changed my opinion about the Canadian audiences. They can get rowdy!"

Lambert is expecting to be exposed to a new kind of audience when she plays 11 U.S. dates of the all-female Lilith Fair travelling festival this summer.

"I'm looking forward to getting to share the stage with Sarah McLachlan, Heart, Mary J. Blige and Brandi Carlile," she says. "I'm also curious to check out some of the side-stage artists that I'm not that familiar with."

Girl power will also be showcased in the forthcoming video for Lambert's sassy new single, Only Prettier, about a Southern girl and her friends standing up to an enemy posse of girls ("We're just like you, only prettier.").

Fellow Southern country gals Kellie Pickler (who performs at Countryfest just before Shelton on Sunday), Hillary Scott (from Lady Antebellum) and Laura Bell Bundy star with Lambert in the video, which is about two rival cliques of girls at a high school dance.

Lambert met the Oklahoma-bred Blake, who is 34 and divorced, when they performed together on CMT's Top 100 Greatest Duets in 2005. He popped the question last month.

The bride-to-be, who played a bride who shuns her groom at the altar in the video for White Liar, has confessed to watching TV's Say Yes to the Dress but won't disclose any details about the wedding, reportedly scheduled for next spring.

"With all this touring for the summer, the planning will have to wait for the time being," she says. "Most likely I will hire a wedding planner... I'm just looking forward to the party."

alison.mayes@freepress.mb.ca

Countryfest

facts

The 21st annual Dauphin's Countryfest runs Thursday to Sunday at the Selo Ukraina Site, 10 km south of Dauphin.

The phenomenally popular event is Canada's longest-running country music festival.

All 12,000 four-day passes sold out less than 12 hours after they went on sale last November. All 4,000 camping spots are also spoken for. About 500 day passes are sold for each day, and some may still be available for Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

A total of 46 acts will entertain on three stages. Aussie star Keith Urban has replaced the high-profile Brooks & Dunn, who had to cancel because Ronnie Dunn is ill.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 30, 2010 E10