Miranda Lambert Opens Up About the Creative Struggle Behind Her New Album, Crisco
For Miranda Lambert, making her new album Crisco was not always a confident or easy process. At one point, the country star found herself sitting in a songwriting session in tears, convinced she had lost the ability to find the words.
The moment came while Lambert was working on the album with longtime collaborator and friend Luke Dick. Speaking on The Kelleigh Bannen Show, she revealed that even after years of success in country music, creative uncertainty can still hit hard.
Lambert’s latest album arrived on October 2, 2026, marking her first album in two years. The 12-track project includes the title song “Crisco,” as well as collaborations with Ella Langley and Chris Stapleton.
But before the songs came together, Lambert had to work through a period when she was not sure she had anything left to say.
Miranda Lambert Says Writer’s Block Has Happened “100 Times”
Writer’s block is hardly a new experience for Lambert. During her conversation with Kelleigh Bannen, she acknowledged that creative droughts have happened repeatedly throughout her career.
“Oh yeah, I’ve had them 100 times,” Lambert said, adding that she had experienced another one the previous year.
This particular episode happened when she went to write with Luke Dick, one of her closest friends and frequent creative partners.
Instead of arriving with a clear idea for a song, Lambert found herself unable to figure out what she wanted to say. She described sitting there in tears and admitting to Dick that she simply did not have it that day.
“I don’t have it today, I don’t know where it is, I can’t find it,” she recalled saying.
For an artist who has spent decades turning personal experiences and observations into songs, that kind of uncertainty can be especially difficult. Lambert said she did not even know what she wanted to write about. She wondered aloud whether she was dealing with burnout or something else entirely.
The problem was not a lack of experience. It was the uncomfortable feeling of being unable to access the creativity she normally relied on.
She Learned to Stay With the Uncertainty
Rather than trying to force herself out of that feeling, Lambert has come to see those difficult periods as part of the creative process.
She told Bannen that it can be valuable to experience those moments because the discomfort itself has to be allowed to exist. For Lambert, sitting with uncertainty can ultimately create room for an idea to emerge.
“I think it’s good to feel those times because you got to sit in it,” she explained. “It’s uncomfortable.”
That perspective appears to have served her well this time.
After struggling to find a subject or direction, Lambert suddenly had an idea that she never expected. The word that came to her was “Crisco.”
“All of a sudden I was like, ‘Crisco, well, that came out of nowhere, how fun!’” she recalled.
What began as a frustrating writing session eventually became the starting point for the album’s title and one of its defining songs.
The title track was released as a single in May 2026 and marked Lambert’s first release under her new partnership with MCA. The song combines country influences with a 1970s-inspired disco sound, reflecting the different musical directions she explored on the album.
The Album Took Shape After the Doubt
The finished Crisco is a 12-song collection released on October 2, 2026, with a total running time of about 38 minutes. Its track list includes “Snakeskin Boots,” “Crisco,” “Cowgirl Curtsy,” “Two Things Can Be True,” “Cuttin’ Onions,” “Till The Going’s Gone,” “To Everything,” “Whiskey Business,” “Right Where We Left It,” “A Song To Sing,” “I’ll Have To Say I Love You In A Song” and “Sunset Marquis.”
Lambert also brought several notable collaborators into the project. Ella Langley appears on “Snakeskin Boots,” while Chris Stapleton joins Lambert on “A Song To Sing.” The album also includes Lambert’s version of Jim Croce’s “I’ll Have To Say I Love You In A Song.”
The record represents a lighter and more playful direction for Lambert, with the country-disco influence giving the project a distinctly different feel. The title track, in particular, grew from the very moment when she was questioning whether she could still find the right idea.
From Tears to “Crisco”
The story behind the album offers a reminder that even an established songwriter can reach a point where nothing seems to come naturally.
Lambert had already experienced those creative blocks many times, but this one left her questioning herself in a particularly vulnerable moment. Sitting with Luke Dick, she could not find a subject, a direction or even the words to begin.
Then, seemingly without warning, an idea arrived.
That unexpected turn eventually became Crisco, an album that Lambert released on October 2 after two years between albums.
For Lambert, the experience did not prove that she had lost her creative voice. Instead, it reinforced something she had learned over years of songwriting: sometimes the only way forward is to remain in the uncomfortable space long enough for the next idea to find you.
And in this case, that idea arrived with a name she never saw coming.
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