Miranda Leigh Lambert (born November 10, 1983) is an American country music artist who gained fame as a finalist on the 2003 season of Nashville Star, where she finished in third place and later signed to Epic Records. Lambert made her debut with the release of "Me and Charlie Talking", the first single from her 2005 debut album Kerosene. This album, which was certified Platinum in the United States, also produced the singles "Bring Me Down", "Ke ... See more [+] rosene", and "New Strings". All four singles were Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. After Epic's Nashville division closed, Lambert was transferred to Columbia Records Nashville for her second album, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which was released in early 2007. Although the title track failed to make top 40, the next three singles ("Famous in a Small Town", "Gunpowder & Lead", and "More Like Her") were all Top 20 hits, with "Gunpowder & Lead" becoming her first Top 10 country hit in July 2008. Lambert's third album, Revolution, was released in September 2009. Five singles have been released from the album, including Lambert's two Number One hits "The House That Built Me," which spent four weeks at the top of the chart, and "Heart Like Mine". Lambert has also been honored by the Grammy Awards, the Academy of Country Music Awards, and the Country Music Association Awards. In 2011, Lambert married fellow country singer Blake Shelton. She also released her fourth album, Four the Record, which includes the singles "Baggage Claim", "Over You" (also a number 1), "Fastest Girl in Town" and "Mama's Broken Heart." Lambert also collaborated with Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley in the side project Pistol Annies. Miranda Leigh Lambert was born November 10, 1983 in Longview, Texas, and raised in Lindale, Texas. Her father, Richard Lee "Rick" Lambert, is a retired police officer who in later life became a private investigator in partnership with her mother, Beverly June Lambert (née Hughes). Miranda was taught about guns by her father at an early age and later became an avid deer hunter. Her parents took her to a Garth Brooks concert when she was nine and this started her interest in country music. Her father wrote and performed country music and she soon began singing in talent contests under his tutelage. She started her career playing in local restaurants. At age sixteen, Lambert began appearing on the Johnnie High Country Music Revue in Arlington, Texas, the same show that helped launch the career of LeAnn Rimes. Lambert quickly landed a recording session in Nashville, but left the studio after she became frustrated with the "pop" sound of music. She then went back to Texas and asked her dad to teach her how to play guitar so she could write her own songs. While still in high school, Lambert made her professional singing debut with her band "The Texas Pride Band." fronted the house band at the Reo Palm Isle Ballroom in Longview, Texas, a long-running venue that has showcased Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, and is where Brooks & Dunn started out as a bar room band. Melissa Maerz, writer for Entertainment Weekly, stated, “Lambert’s childhood provided her with rich material for her music.” When she turned fifteen, her family opened their home to an abused woman and her daughter. "She had a black eye, and she was bawling," the singer remembers, her own eyes widening. "I had heard about domestic abuse, but that was when it became real. Obviously, that influenced the 2008 hit 'Gunpowder and Lead.'" Lambert is currently licensed to carry a handgun—on her forearm, there's a tattoo of two entwined revolvers emblazoned with angel wings—and she says that knowing she can defend herself makes her feel safe.”
