Dream Setlist for a Miranda Lambert ‘Eras’ Tour

On her recent appropriately titled ‘Eras’ tour, Taylor Swift has been blazing a trail for how to curate a setlist that appeals to your hardcore fan base while also appeasing those who may just have been dragged along and only know the hits.

Taylor has split her setlist into ‘eras’, playing a selection of tracks from every album (except her debut) in sections, totalling 44 songs from her ten albums. To keep things interesting she includes two random song choices near the end of her set. The running time of the show is about three hours fifteen minutes, rivalling even Springsteen for stamina.

What’s great about this idea is that unlike a Greatest Hits show or a show that focuses on a new or old album, Taylor is clearly trying to celebrate her back catalogue by honouring the fans who have been with her since the beginning and those who have invested time in her discography. She knows she can’t make everyone happy (that would involve her performing every song, from every album on a loop for the rest of her life only stopping to break up with a new boyfriend and write new songs) but she’s doing her best in the way only Taylor can.

And so I got to thinking about some other artists who I’d love to see do an eras-style setlist. Miranda Lambert is the obvious choice to me since she’s my favourite but also because she has enough albums to make it interesting.

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Album Review: Rachel Baiman – Common Nation of Sorrow

Earlier this year Rachel Baiman previewed some of these songs during her set at Celtic Connections, and on the strength of that performance I’ve been looking forward to hearing this new album ever since. ‘Common Nation of Sorrow’ offers thoughtful, state of the world folk music – a rallying call to unite against the suffering caused by economic and political oppression.

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Album Review: Elle King – Come Get Your Wife

With her twangy voice and tattoos, Elle King fits perfectly into a particular type of country music: the rock and roll inspired style perfected by Miranda Lambert and taken up by Ashley McBryde in most recent years. Having made her name with a catchy pop song or two, Elle made successful guest appearances on mainstream country songs and has now made the full leap over to the genre with this recent album ‘Come Get Your Wife’.

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Album Review: Brit Taylor – Kentucky Blue

This past week has seen Kentucky native Brit Taylor making her debut on the Grand Ole Opry stage, a lifetime ambition realised for this hardworking songwriter who moved to Nashville sixteen years ago. The album which has propelled her to these new heights is ‘Kentucky Blue’, thirty three minutes of stylish classic country, co-produced by Sturgill Simpson no less.

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Album Review: Iris DeMent – Workin’ On A World

More than most in the music industry, Iris DeMent is a thinker. Her musical output is slower than most, not because of indifference, but because she makes sure she has something worthy to share with the listener first. Of these songs on her new album ‘Workin’ on a World’ Iris has said: “Not everybody’s going to get them, but there’s people that get them – and they need them.”

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Album Review: Margo Price – Strays

To stray is to go off the beaten path, wandering without a home, scratching survival on your own terms.

No surprise then that Margo Price would name her new album ‘Strays’, since she has embraced that identity since the beginning of her career. In her recent memoir Maybe We’ll Make It she underlined how hard she’d worked to remain a stray – to never compromise the vision she had for her music.

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Live Review – Emily Scott Robinson with Violet Bell and Alisa Amador @ Celtic Connections 28/01/23

Last year Emily Scott Robinson, Alisa Amador and duo Violet Bell released an E.P. called ‘Built on Bones’ written for a production of Macbeth. In the songs they sang from the perspective of Shakespeare’s three witches and Lady Macbeth herself, in an attempt to reclaim and reframe the narrative of these women’s stories.

Taking to the Celtic Connections stage was a natural fit then for these artists – where better to sing the songs inspired by the Scottish play? The hallowed surrounding of the Mackintosh Church, only added to the beauty of the evening’s entertainment.

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Live Review: Lucinda Williams @ Celtic Connections 23/01/2023

‘I can still sing,’ Lucinda Williams said on stage during her show on Monday night, a defiant reminder that despite a stroke she still has her voice. As a singer and lyricist she’s always turned the broken and fragile parts of her life into songs, and they felt even more vital and powerful after all she’s been through to get back on tour again.

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Live Review: Sierra Hull & Rachel Baiman @ Celtic Connections

On a freezing January evening there is nothing more restoring to the soul and the spirit than a night of brilliant music, courtesy of the wonderful Celtic Connections festival. Returning to Glasgow after many covid postponements Sierra Hull and Rachel Baiman brought the best of Nashville musicianship to Scottish shores and were greeted warmly by a sold-out and appreciative crowd of folk music lovers.

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