Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram and Jon Randall have released an album like no other – The Marfa Tapes.
Recorded in a very raw and intimate way in Marfa, Texas, the 3 singer-songwriters looked to bring music to listeners in a unique way.
The most important ingredient in the process of making this album, was the place it was record, according to Miranda, “Marfa is such a magical place. It just – the songs are in the air out there in the desert. And I can’t really explain it but we try to do our best to bring people to Marfa through this music, and it’s one of those places where you just go to disappear and you know writing with two people that you can really be your total self with you know it’s – it feels good that we all get to go out there and just celebrate each other and celebrate creating music.”
Miranda adds, “The way we approached putting out The Marfa Tapes was truly just putting out work tapes. I mean we were going to just put them out as work tapes on our phones but we didn’t feel that the quality was good enough on some of them because the West Texas wind blowin’. But we took two microphones out there and just kinda documented how the songs would go down. We did one take and you know some of them were around the fire. Some of them were in the cabin. Some of them were recorded on a ridge watching the sunset but it definitely was just meant to be very raw and real and in the moment.”
The Marfa Tapes is also a culmination of Miranda’s musical relationship with Jack Ingram and Jon Randall, “I grew up watching Jack play the Honkey Tonks in Texas and following him around since I was 15 and I’ve known John for 20 years…so just have a long history of friendship and they are two of my favorite artists and writers, and so we sort of started this little trio of songwriting together and have been doing it for six years.”
While they have worked together before, this was a first for Miranda to record with both guys in this way, which meant a lot to her, “When you get to work with your heroes, it’s a cool full circle moment. You know, Jack and John both being somebody that – 2 people that I really look up to as musicians and songwriters. You don’t just show up and give your weakest lines. You know I definitely bring my A-game when I’m out there writing with those boys because they’re absolutely amazing at what they do and even though, we all have such different styles, somehow when we write these songs together our voices just become this little trio of different styles coming together but it somehow works.”
Fans will get an even better look into the project tomorrow evening (Saturday, May 8th – 7 ET/ 6 CT), when The Marfa Tapes film debuts on Miranda’s Facebook page for 24 hours.
Check out a preview here…
One of the tracks on The Marfa Tapes is Miranda’s “Tin Man” — originally written for her The Weight Of These Wings album, by Miranda, Jack and Jon, the version that now appears on this new project gives the song even more depth in the rawness of this recording…check out the music video here…
Headline Photo Courtesy of Sony Music Nashville
Additional Photos Credit: Spencer Peeples & Sony Music Nashville
