''Palomino'' is the ninth studio album by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

singer

Miranda Lambert Miranda Leigh Lambert (born November 10, 1983) is an American country singer and guitarist. Born in Longview, Texas, she started out in early 2001 when she released her self-titled debut album independently. In 2003, she finished in third place o ...

, released through Vanner Records and

RCA Records Nashville RCA Nashville is an American country music record label based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is distributed by Sony Music Nashville which is part of Sony Music. Current artists *Kane Brown *Andrew Jannakos *Miranda Lambert *Niko Moon (RCA/River Hou ...

on April 29, 2022. Lambert produced the album alongside Luke Dick and

Jon Randall Jon Randall Stewart (born February 17, 1969) is an American producer, songwriter, and musician. His career began as a guitarist for Emmylou Harris' Nash Ramblers with whom he won his first Grammy for their ''Live at the Ryman'' album in 1992. B ...

and co-wrote 14 of the 15 tracks. It was preceded by the single "

If I Was a Cowboy "If I Was a Cowboy" is a song by the American country music singer Miranda Lambert. It was released on October 15, 2021, as the lead single from her ninth solo studio album ''Palomino (Miranda Lambert album), Palomino''. The song was written by L ...

". The album was nominated for the

Country Music Association Award for Album of the Year The following list shows the recipients for the Country Music Association Award for Album of the Year. George Strait has won the most awards. Other artists with multiple wins are Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Charlie Rich, Ronnie Milsap, Willie Nelso ...

Background and writing

Lambert began writing the songs on her farm in

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

in 2020 with Luke Dick and

Natalie Hemby Natalie Nicole Hemby Wrucke (born March 24, 1977) is an American country music songwriter and singer. She has written songs for Lee Ann Womack, Eli Young Band, Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert, Sunny Sweeney, Little Big Town, Jon Pardi, Kacey Musgrav ...

. In 2021, Lambert collaborated with

Jack Ingram Jack Owen Ingram (born November 15, 1970) is an American country music artist formerly signed to Big Machine Records, an independent record label. He has released eleven studio albums, one extended play, six live albums, and 19 singles. Although ...

and

on the album ''

The Marfa Tapes ''The Marfa Tapes'' is a collaborative studio album by American Country music, country artists Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram and Jon Randall, released on May 7, 2021 through RCA Records Nashville, RCA Nashville. It is Randall's fourth, Lambert's ei ...

'', on which "In His Arms", "Waxahachie" and "Geraldene" first appeared in a "stripped" acoustic form. The tracks were re-recorded for ''Palomino''. Lambert collaborated with

the B-52's The B-52's, also styled as The B-52s, are an American new wave band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1976. The original lineup consisted of Fred Schneider (vocals, percussion), Kate Pierson (vocals, keyboards, synth bass), Cindy Wilson (vocals, p ...

for "Music City Queen" and covered

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

's 1993 song "Wandering Spirit" for the album.

Promotion

"Strange" and "Actin' Up" were released ahead of the album as promotional singles. Lambert performed "Geraldine" at the

56th Annual Country Music Association Awards The 56th Annual Country Music Association Awards was held on November 9, 2022 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. Luke Bryan hosted the ceremony for the second time, with Peyton Manning as his co-host. The ceremony was broadcast liv ...

.https://www.billboard.com/music/awards/2022-cma-awards-performers-1235160636/

Critical reception

On review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, ''Palomino'' received a score of 83 out of 100 based on seven reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". In an early review, Jon Freeman of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' gave ''Palomino'' four out of five stars, calling the album a "welcome departure" for Lambert. Will Hermes of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' gave the album a 7.6/10, stating that "Lambert’s breadth is on full display"

Year-end lists

Commercial performance

''Palomino'' debuted at number four on the US ''Billboard'' 200 with 36,000

album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditi ...

s (including 24,000 album sales), making it the highest debut of 2022 for a country artist and the most units earned in the first week for a country album in 2022. It is Lambert's seventh top-10 album.

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians

Cary Barlowe Cary Barlowe (born 1982) is an American country music songwriter, and a former member of the rock band Luna Halo. Born in Virginia and raised in North Carolina, Barlowe originally performed with his older brother Nathan in the rock group Luna ...

– electric guitar *

Sarah Buxton Sarah Jane Buxton (born July 3, 1980) is an American country music singer, formerly signed to the independent Lyric Street Records. Between 2006 and 2008, she issued three singles from an extended play titled '' Almost My Record'', in addition t ...

– background vocals *Luke Dick – acoustic guitar, bass guitar, electric guitar, ganjo, harmonica, keyboards, percussion, programming,

steel guitar A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conve ...

, background vocals, handclaps *

Fred Eltringham The Wallflowers is an American rock solo project of American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jakob Dylan. The Wallflowers were originally a roots rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1989 by Dylan and guitarist Tobi Miller. The band h ...

– drums, percussion, handclaps *

Ian Fitchuk Ian Fitchuk (born February 13, 1982) is a songwriter, music producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist. Early life Fitchuk was born and raised in Chicago by parents who are both accomplished classical musicians and educators. He cites Paul ...

–

B-3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

, bass guitar,

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...

, keyboards, percussion, piano *

Kenny Greenberg Kenneth S. "Kenny" Greenberg is an American guitarist, songwriter, producer, and session musician. He is known for bringing a rock-and-roll sensibility to Nashville recording sessions. Biography Greenberg was born in Cleveland, Ohio but attend ...

– steel guitar *

– background vocals *

– lead vocals, background vocals *Jason Lehning – bass guitar, keyboards *Alfreda McCrary – background vocals *Beverly McCrary – background vocals *Regina McCrary – background vocals *Rob McNelley – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, handclaps *

Al Perkins Al Perkins (born January 18, 1944) is an American guitarist known primarily for his steel guitar work. The Gibson guitar company called Perkins "the world's most influential dobro player" and began producing an "Al Perkins Signature" Dobro in ...

–

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...

Kate Pierson Catherine Elizabeth Pierson (born April 27, 1948) is an American singer, lyricist, and founding member of the B-52's. She plays guitar, bass and various keyboard instruments. In the B-52s, she has performed alongside Cindy Wilson, Fred Schneid ...

– background vocals on "Music City Queen" *

– acoustic guitar,

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

, background vocals, handclaps *Mikey Reaves – bass guitar, electric guitar, programming *

Fred Schneider Frederick William Schneider III (born July 1, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter, arranger, and musician, best known as the frontman of the rock band The B-52's, of which he is a founding member. Schneider is well known for his ''sprechge ...

– background vocals on "Music City Queen" *Jimmy Wallace – keyboards *

Cindy Wilson Cynthia Leigh Wilson (born February 28, 1957) is an American musician and one of the vocalists, songwriters and founding members of new wave rock band the B-52's. She is noted for her distinctive contralto voice and also plays percussion during ...

– background vocals on "Music City Queen" *Craig Young – bass guitar, handclaps

Technical

*Luke Dick – producer (all tracks) *

– producer (all tracks) *

– producer (all tracks) *Mikey Reaves – producer (track 11) *Jason Lehning - Mixing Engineer (all tracks)

Other

*Alena Moran - Production Coordinator (all tracks)

Charts

References

{{Miranda Lambert 2022 albums Albums produced by Jon Randall Miranda Lambert albums RCA Records albums