Wrangler shirt; Lantern Dancer Gallery belt (bottom), cuffs (left arm), necklaces; Frame jeans; Tennessee Turquoise Company rings, necklaces, squash blossom; Kemo Sabe hat; Jenny Lauren Jewelry necklaces, Harpeth Goods Co. hat band, right cuff; Ruby Blu Jewelry bracelets; Ralph Lauren belt (top).

Miranda Lambert talks music, mutts and her locational loves: Nashville and Austin.

“It makes me happy that we live in a place where we celebrate our roots–country music–and that so many people want to visit.”–MIRANDA LAMBERT

Wrangler shirt; Lantern Dancer Gallery belt (bottom), cuffs (left arm), necklaces; Frame jeans; Tennessee Turquoise Company rings, necklaces, squash blossom; Kemo Sabe hat; Jenny Lauren Jewelry necklaces, Harpeth Goods Co. hat band, right cuff; Ruby Blu Jewelry bracelets

Miranda Lambert is the most-awarded artist in Academy of Country Music history, a three-time Grammy winner and a seven-time Country Music Association (CMA) Female Vocalist of the Year with 14 total CMA trophies. She’s also the first female country star with a bar on Nashville’s famous Broadway strip, a Vegas success (her Velvet Rodeo residency closed out its run at Planet Hollywood in 2024), a businesswoman with a clothing line and a home line, a label head and a philanthropist, but that doesn’t mean Lambert’s lost sight of her roots. In fact, she credits her upbringing in Texas and her Nashville success story as key factors in all she does.

Star Struck Vintage top; Idyllwind jeans; Free People bra; Kemo Sabe hat; Streets Ahead belt (top); Lantern Dancer Gallery belt (middle), ring (right pointer finger); Tennessee Turquoise Company belt (bottom), earrings, rings (left pointer finger and right pinky finger); Ruby Blu Jewelry rings (right ring finger, right middle finger, left pinky).

So it makes sense that Lambert has made homes for herself and her husband of six years, Brendan McLoughlin, in both Nashville and Austin. Lambert grew up in East Texas, just an hour from Louisiana. “I think that’s why my accent’s so thick,” she laughs. She made her musical mark from an early age in Dallas and Austin before moving to Nashville as a teen to follow her dreams.

“I always say my heart is split equally in half between Texas and Tennessee. I love that both places are based around music,” she says.

“In Nashville I have the best of both worlds. We’re right in town, which is great for my husband–it’s close to golf and the gym. And I have a farm an hour from Nashville. That is my happy place. That’s the beauty of Nashville. It’s every amenity you would need from a city with all the food, and the bars, and nightlife and the entertainment, but you drive 30 minutes and you’re in beautiful historic Franklin, and then 30 more minutes and you’re in the boonies.”

Lambert often spends her Music City days writing with friends. She says those sessions remind her of what makes Nashville so special.

“Whether it’s a planned co-write or a last minute, ‘Hey, somebody canceled, do you want to come in on this write?’ One of my favorite examples of that is with Jelly Roll,” she says. “My friend Jesse Frasure said, ‘Someone canceled and he’s been wanting to meet you!’ I went and wrote and became great friends. That’s something I love about Nashville. It feels like a family. The family you choose.”

When she’s not writing, Lambert and her husband love to hit Belle Meade staple Sperry’s for what she laughingly calls an early bird special.

“We’re usually there at five, having a glass of wine and a salad bar. We’re pretty low-key.”

Star Struck Vintage top; Idyllwind jeans; Free People bra; Kemo Sabe hat; Streets Ahead belt (top); Lantern Dancer Gallery belt (middle), ring (right pointer finger); Tennessee Turquoise Company belt (bottom), earrings, rings (left pointer finger and right pinky finger); Ruby Blu Jewelry rings (right ring finger, right middle finger, left pinky).

“I WANTED TO GET BACK TO HOW ALL THIS EVEN STARTED–ME WITH MY LITTLE GUITAR ON MY PORCH IN THE PINEY WOODS.” –MIRANDA LAMBERT

That doesn’t mean the couple doesn’t love a little rowdy fun. Lambert is known to stop into her own Broadway bar, Casa Rosa, on a Sunday fun day downtown or head over to Loser’s or Corner Pub to check out the bands.

Both ensembles by Idyllwind fueled by Miranda Lambert

“Sometimes I like to be a tourist in my own town because there’s always a new restaurant or shopping area popping up,” she says. “I don’t mind the development. It’s good for our economy. It makes me happy that we live in a place where we celebrate our roots–country music–and that so many people want to visit.”

Lambert, who grew up in Lindale, TX , which she calls “the quintessential Friday night football, Sunday morning church, storybook Texas town,” is all about celebrating country music. She cut her musical chops playing around Texas. Her first gig was at Rudy’s Country Store & Bar-B-Q in Tyler, where she played three-hour sets for $100 and “all the brisket I could eat.” Soon, she was playing in Dallas and Austin–the latter of which captured her heart.

Both ensembles by Idyllwind fueled by Miranda Lambert

“My little brother went to UT [the University of Texas], so I’m obviously a Longhorns fan through and through. He went to Austin at 17 and never left,” she says. “Now I have a little place in Austin, and that’s where our family meets a lot.”

It’s no coincidence that many of the things Lambert loves about Nashville carry over to Austin, namely good music, good food and good times. She and McLoughlin enjoy exploring South Congress, hitting up Soho House and, of course, dancing at the famous Broken Spoke. “Our place in Austin is walkable to things, and I enjoy that aspect,” she says. “The weather is so great all year. I love walking Lady Bird Lake. Every single person has a mutt. It makes me so happy!”

Lambert’s love of “mutts” grew from her Texas upbringing and culminated in launching MuttNation with her mom, Bev Lambert, in 2009. The donation-supported 501c(3) nonprofit organization promotes the adoption of shelter pets and advanced spay and neuter. It also works with transport partners to assist and relocate animals during times of natural disaster and raises money for pet-related causes. Lambert also has a line of pet toys and supplies available exclusively at Tractor Supply Company stores, with proceeds going directly to the organization. “To date, we’ve raised over $10 million for shelters, raising awareness, for adoption and helping with spaying and neutering.”

“I’m so thankful that the thing I love to do, music, this career, has set me up with a platform to give a voice to the voiceless. It was a natural thing for me because animals have always been a passion. I grew up in rural East Texas, where there are strays everywhere. We always had random stray dogs become our pets. This was a natural progression,” she says.

She also pays tribute to her Texas upbringing with her newest music venture, cofounding the label Big Loud Texas with frequent collaborator (and fellow Texan) Jon Randall and the Nashville-based Big Loud Records. “Our goal is to bridge the gap between Nashville and the Texas music scene,” she explains. “They’ve always been their own thing, but there’s a lot of overlap, and I want to nurture that. I’m so lucky that I grew up in a state that has its own chart, its own scene. You can play in Texas for 10 years straight and never play the same place twice.”

Most recently, Lambert recorded her 2024 album Postcards from Texas at Austin’s Arlyn Studios. “I just felt like I needed to go back to where this whole thing started,” she says of the project. “I wanted to go back to how all this even started–me with my little guitar on my porch in the piney woods.”

With so much on her plate, Lambert looks to her past and her passion to stay grounded. “I have to keep that at the forefront because it gets busy. Everything that I’m chasing has to be rooted in the music,” she says. “Those three chords and the truth are what led to all these amazing things I get to be part of.”

Ensemble by Idyllwind fueled by Miranda Lambert

PHOTOGRAPHED BY JAMES MACARI/ART DEPARTMENT LA

STYLED BY TIFFANY GIFFORD

STYLING ASSISTANT: ALEXANDRA KARALASH

HAIR BY JOHNNY LAVOY, MAXIMIZE BEAUTY

MAKEUP BY MOANI LEE

LOCATION: MONTESINO RANCH, LODGING & EVENTS, WIMBERLY, TX