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The conventional wisdom for artists performing on awards shows is that they should stick to playing and promoting their latest single. But on the 44th annual Country Music Assn. (CMA) Awards show on Nov. 10, out struts Miranda Lambert, dressed to kill on her 27th birthday, with a rocked-out, twangy version of John Prine's "That's the Way the World Goes 'Round," a track on her 2009 album, "Revolution."
Her performance, much like her career, was all about attitude, and Nashville's Bridgestone Arena crowd went wild, as did, apparently, many of the estimated 33 million viewers who tuned in.
Though the CMAs are billed as "country music's biggest night," it was most assuredly Lambert's biggest night as well. She was nominated for a record nine CMA Awards and picked up three, including album of the year for "Revolution" and top female vocalist honors. Additionally, her hit song "The House That Built Me" was named song of the year for songwriters Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin, and her husband-to-be, Blake Shelton, took home the top male vocalist trophy. Lambert says it was probably her best birthday ever.
Video: Miranda Lambert Performs at the 2010 CMA Awards
In the short term, the result of Lambert's big night at the CMAs was an increase in sales: "Revolution" moved from No. 12 to No. 6 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart in the week following the CMAs, moving 29,000 units and up 137% from the week before. Her previous albums also jumped 50% or better in sales, and her digital song sales for the week were 93,000, up 136% from the previous week. Overall, Lambert has sold more than 5 million digital tracks.
But in the bigger picture, nights like these make stars. The combination of a knockout performance; winning big awards over such stars as Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum; and watching her betrothed also win big exponentially raised Lambert's profile and made the pair country's newly crowned power couple in the process.
CMA Awards 2010: 5 Must-See Moments (Video)
Suddenly, on that CMA Awards night, all the promise of this Texas-born singer/songwriter who cut her teeth in roughhewn bars as a teenager and turned heads as a tough-as-nails firebrand on her first album, 2005's "Kerosene," was fulfilled.
"Everybody had said to me, 'This is your year,' and I was thinking, 'I hope you're right. I don't really know what that means,' "she says. "But 2010 has changed my world a lot. I turned 27. I have been playing music for a living for 10 years, and all of a sudden I can physically feel this jump in levels. Before, I had this slow, steady build, which is completely fine with me because I want to be here forever. But all of a sudden it kicked into gear. Ten years of work is showing up right now, and it's kind of crazy."
Miranda Lambert Makes History with 9 CMA Award Nominations
She may be rock'n'roll noisy, but few would question Lambert's country pedigree. " Loretta Lynn told me to my face, 'You're countrier than I am,' and I thought, 'This is coming from a woman who rhymes 'hard' with 'tired.'"
Lambert has been kicking up dust for a while. She finished third on the 2003 season of "Nashville Star," signed to Epic, then "Kerosene" came out of the box at No. 1 on the country chart and went on to sell 1 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Her follow-up, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," on which she made the move to Columbia, sold 929,000 units in the States and yielded her first top 10 hit, "Gunpowder & Lead."
Lambert signed with Dixie Chicks manager Simon Renshaw in 2003, with Marion Kraft handling her day-to-day responsibilities. "It was a lot of grunt work, and we developed a relationship," Kraft says. When Kraft left Renshaw's firm in 2009 to form her own Shopkeeper Management, Lambert came along.
"Who knows if I would have been as good a manager with someone else, because she makes you be good," Kraft says. "You don't have a choice with her. You're not allowed to be wishy-washy, because she's so upfront and center. She was never willing to conform to what she thought the world wanted her to be."
It seems like everything fell into place with Lambert's third album, "Revolution," released in September 2009 and, like her previous efforts, produced by Frank Liddell and Mike Wrucke. "Revolution" included "The House That Built Me," a nostalgic ballad extolling the country-music verities of hearth and hard work that showcased Lambert's tender side.
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