Country superstar Miranda Lambert courts legendary status at FirstBank Amphitheater

2022 Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year Miranda Lambert celebrated the release of "Palomino," her eighth studio album, with a 21-song live, headlining set at the FirstBank Amphitheater in the Nashville suburb of Thompson’s Station, Tennessee. Lambert's performance was a table-setter for her nearly 40 touring dates scheduled nationwide through the rest of the year.

This concert also highlighted that while the Longview, Texas native is deserving of her status as a great artist, she's potentially nearing an era where she could eclipse her high standard of excellence. So, humorously, when Lambert told the crowd she was "nervous" about her forthcoming touring cycle, it was, perhaps, actually highlighting a first-world problem — she's actually a superstar nervously maneuvering into cementing legendary status.

The "If I Was A Cowboy" vocalist was not for significant banter during the evening. Instead, she let the hits — like the current country radio top 20 track just mentioned — carry the weight of speaking for her. “I know I’ve thrown a couple of new ones at y’all tonight – thanks to singing along to those, by the way," she noted about the capacity crowd's voices resonating with a track found on her just-released 15-track album in a spacious, picturesque venue carved into the reclaimed Graystone Quarry.

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Fans did not welcome the evening's best moments with resounding singalongs. Instead, her performances of songs like 2005's "Kerosene," 2008's "Gunpowder and Lead" and 2013's "Mama’s Broken Heart" were treated with an excited reverence. At some point in a top artist's career, their work exceeds the space of being treated as one of many great songs. Instead, their hits are elevated to being generation-defining artistic works.

This moment occurred on April 28 for Miranda Lambert.

As country music survives and emerges from COVID-19, an emerging slate of chart-topping female artists have shined, including Lauren Alaina, Gabby Barrett, Elle King (Lambert's collaborator on 2022 country radio No. 1 "Drunk") and Carly Pearce. New stars appear because other established artists have set standards that, with consistent effort, are eventually achievable.

Listening, in particular, to live performances of a pair of double-platinum sellers from Lambert's catalog — her 2010 mega-breakout anthem "The House That Built Me and her 2019 CMA Award-winner "Bluebird" — denote that level of a standard being set.

On both, the presence of mournful blues that has colored Lambert's voice since the beginning of her career felt more deeply worn into the crevices of her singing and guitar playing than ever before. As much as Lambert has two decades of experience as an artist, she's also released 54 tracks in four years. The ability to maintain both excellence and evolution as simultaneous goals is impressive.

2022 also finds Lambert having headlined 14 tours in 15 years. During that same time, she's also solo or collaboratively released 13 albums and achieved ten No. 1 Billboard singles on country radio. She's also a 37-time Academy of Country Music Award winner.

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Though she's still quite driven, her core motivations remain simple.

As a series of spotlights settled on her and her acoustic Gibson guitar before she played her 2018 ACM Song of the Year, “Tin Man," she made a statement that resonated deep at the core of her craft:

"I’m a sucker for a sad song.”

Set List

Actin Up

Kerosene

Fastest Girl In Town

Strange

Settling Down

Famous In A Small Town

If I Was A Cowboy

Bluebird

Only Prettier

Vice

Tin Man

House That Built Me

Automatic

Heart Like Mine (with Ashley Monroe)

Willin' (with Ashley Monroe and The Cadillac Three's Jaren Johnston)

Tequila Does

World Goes Round

Gunpowder and Lead

Mama's Broken Heart

White Liar

Little Red Wagon

Drunk

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Miranda Lambert performs at FirstBank Amphitheater in Franklin