Miranda Lambert’s brand new girl band Pistol Annies has a brand new record out. [Pistol Annies is composed of Miranda Lambert (Lone Star Annie), Angaleena Presley (Holler Annie), and Ashley Monroe (Hippie Annie).] Today marks the album’s one week birthday!
I preordered “Hell on Heels” from the Annies’ website and was so excited to find it in my mailbox on the very day of its release. I started listening right away. My first reaction wasn’t over the moon, but after a few more spins the music has really grown on me. It’s definitely one of a kind and oh-so-country.
I preordered “Hell on Heels” from the Annies’ website and was so excited to find it in my mailbox on the very day of its release. I started listening right away. My first reaction wasn’t over the moon, but after a few more spins the music has really grown on me. It’s definitely one of a kind and oh-so-country.
My life is like a lemon drop
I'm suckin' on the bitter to get to the sweet part
I know there are better days ahead
The album's second track is called “Lemon Drop.” It’s been stuck in my head for a few days now—the melody and the harmony are happy, hopeful, and light, considering the hard time this woman is having.
“Beige” is a beautiful and sorrow-filled song, sung by the amazing Ashley Monroe. The music sets the stage for the emotional lyrics that tell the story of a young woman who didn’t wait and ends up wearing beige at her shotgun wedding. Ashley’s voice is soft and sorrowful and makes you feel what this girl must be feeling. “Beige” also showcases Ashley and Miranda’s incredible talent for writing heart-wringing lyrics:
“Bad Example” will make your foot start tapping. I love the energy in this song, and I don’t think the message is harmful or meant to be taken too seriously.
“Family Feud” is the last song on the album, and the girls co-wrote it with the one and only Mr. Miranda Lambert. This song addresses the greed in human nature. A girl’s mother has recently passed away, and just two days after the funeral, her relatives are looting the house. The daughter in the song is disgusted with her family and condemns their behavior:
My muffler’s tied on with a guitar string
I owe $7,000 to a bank machine
Before this car is ever really mine
Angaleena really did tie her muffler to her car with a guitar string once. She told Country Weekly, “[‘Lemon Drop’] was just about my life and my struggle at that time and just knowing in my heart that a better day was going to come . . .” It's said that writers should write about what they know. These girls know hard times and the better days that follow. That's what makes their music so strong.
“Beige” is a beautiful and sorrow-filled song, sung by the amazing Ashley Monroe. The music sets the stage for the emotional lyrics that tell the story of a young woman who didn’t wait and ends up wearing beige at her shotgun wedding. Ashley’s voice is soft and sorrowful and makes you feel what this girl must be feeling. “Beige” also showcases Ashley and Miranda’s incredible talent for writing heart-wringing lyrics:
The song in no way recommends or endorses its subject matter; it is simply sharing the story of one girl who ended up in this situation. I love CW’s interview with the girls on this song. Miranda talks about how the idea came out of the blue. The word beige popped in her head, and she yelled it at Ashley, who had no idea what she was talking about. Miranda, who recently got married, explained her thought process: girls who are pregnant wear beige for the wedding. Then she and Ashley wrote a song about it—to tell the story of the bride wearing beige.A bride shouldn’t be four months and three weeks . . .Daddy’s pride and joy was marrying some boy . . .Everyone in this place knows I didn’t wait
Cause I was wearing beige . . .
“Bad Example” will make your foot start tapping. I love the energy in this song, and I don’t think the message is harmful or meant to be taken too seriously.
Somebody had to set a bad example
Teach all the prim and propers what not to do
It’s a fun song. The twangy vocals take you straight back to the original country queens like Loretta Lynn and June Carter Cash. The harmony is perfect.
Angaleena takes the lead in “Housewife’s Prayer,” a song she wrote about a time in her own life. She told CW, “I was going through a divorce and sitting there literally thinking about how I could burn my house down because I was in a really low place, scared, and didn’t know what to do.” This song tells the story of a woman in that same boat. She’s at the end of her rope and needs a break. Granted, the best idea isn’t to set the house on fire, but it sounds good to this woman in this moment, and she just needs to vent.
Angaleena takes the lead in “Housewife’s Prayer,” a song she wrote about a time in her own life. She told CW, “I was going through a divorce and sitting there literally thinking about how I could burn my house down because I was in a really low place, scared, and didn’t know what to do.” This song tells the story of a woman in that same boat. She’s at the end of her rope and needs a break. Granted, the best idea isn’t to set the house on fire, but it sounds good to this woman in this moment, and she just needs to vent.
Track 6 is sort of an autobiography of the band members. The lyrics express how the hardships of life on the road and trying to make it in the music business—
We owe $400 to the boys in the band
Gas light’s blinkin’ on our broke-down van
Livin’ on truck stop burgers and fries,
Crossin’ our fingers for a vacancy sign
Ain’t tryin’ to get rich, just tryin’ to get by
By playing for tips on Saturday night.
—often result in some bad habits. “Takin’ Pills” expresses how the girls could deal with the stress: “One’s drinkin’, one’s smokin’, one’s takin’ pills.” Ashley told CW, “Everybody has a vice, and parts of it are definitely exaggerated, but it’s kind of like what we would have been if we started this band right out of high school.” Miranda defends the song further saying, “That's the good thing about song writing. You can write about killing people, but you don’t actually do it."
“Family Feud” is the last song on the album, and the girls co-wrote it with the one and only Mr. Miranda Lambert. This song addresses the greed in human nature. A girl’s mother has recently passed away, and just two days after the funeral, her relatives are looting the house. The daughter in the song is disgusted with her family and condemns their behavior:
Who gives a damn about a cedar chest
When we just laid her soul to rest?
I love that the girls get back to the basics of real country music. They tell stories about real life without apology. I appreciate the incredible artistic talent it takes to compose such stories in such short lines, while getting the point across in less than three minutes. I love the album's "bluesy country sound," its "sparse production, unabashedly country lyrics, and strong rhythm sections." It's good-ole country music.
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