Lambert brings the big guns to Manchester

Friday, February 22, 2013

Courtesy photo


Miranda Lambert will perform with Dierks Bentley at the Verizon Wireless Arena at 7:30 p.m Sunday, March 3.

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IF YOU GO

Miranda Lambert’s “Locked and Loaded” tour

WHERE: Verizon Wireless Arena, Manchester.

WHEN: Sunday, March 3, 7:30 p.m.

FOR TICKETS: Call 644-5000 or 1-800-745-3000 or go to ticketmaster.com.

A mix of gun powder and girl power, country dynamo Miranda Lambert’s “Locked and Loaded Tour” will hit Manchester’s Verizon Wireless Arena on March 3 at 7:30 p.m.

Appearing alongside Lambert is chart-topper Dierks Bentley and Country Music Award for “New Artist of the Year,” winner Lee Brice.

“Making music for our fans is the best job in the world,” Lambert said. “It’s especially great to be able to take that music on the road with someone that I respect as an artist and as a human being.”

Lambert, of course, is singing the praises of co-star Bentley, as the two are still sizzling hot after their show-stopping duet, “Over You,” at last month’s Grammy awards.

“Some of my favorite times on tour over the years were with Miranda and her crew. We have a lot in common musically and our fans do too. It’s going to be a killer year,” Bentley said.

Lambert, who wed country hunk Blake Shelton in May 2011, making the duo country’s latest power couple, started performing on the Texas bar circuit as a teen and in 2003 placed third on the NBC reality talent show, “Nashville Star.”

“I was kind of glad I didn’t win,” she said with a laugh,” Lambert said. “I didn’t have to be thrown to the sharks right away, you know?

And though she’s on the road right now with “the boys,” she said she would love put together an all-girl tour, which could even include close friend Carrie Underwood.

“I would love to tour with the girls,” she said. “And I think Carrie would push me as a singer and I would open her mind to more rockin’ stuff, because I’m more of a rocker and she’s a great singer, so put the two together and we would be a force for sure.”

Lambert even likened the possibility of such of tour to the likes of Lillith Fair proportions.

“It’s such a great opportunity to know if that’s something that I would enjoy and something that would work. Carrie’s the first one that comes to mind every time I think of it. I saw a ‘Country Weekly’ poll this week – 75 percent of people are looking most forward to her tour. I said, “Alright! Go for the girls!”

And while Lambert might rally for a female country-star line-up, she has joked that her biggest competition is husband Shelton, a country star in his own right and a popular judge on the hit TV show, “The Voice.”

“I respect him so much as a person, then in a whole separate way, I respect him as an artist and a business man,” she said.

“He’s running a business and he has for 10 years, and I’ve learned a lot from him and his decisions. But because we love each other, we’re we’re happy for each other and support each other no matter what. But it’s so fun right now to both have success at the same time, because I know that’s not going to last forever. But I’ve really never had any jealousy at all as far as on my side, of him.”

That success includes her latest CD, “Four the Record,” which critics have hailed as Lambert’s most experimental album to date.

“I think I am at the point in my career where I felt more free to try out different material and sounds, but I wouldn’t really say it’s a big effort to make my albums sound different. For each one, I let the music that I love at that point in my life be my guide.”

No doubt, fans can expect the firecracker, foot stompin’ Lambert to rage and romp in her live stage performance, but don’t be fooled- she’s in the great tradition of powerful women in country music like Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette.

“The tough-girl thing comes naturally to me,” she says. “When I started out, I’d only wear jeans and tank tops. No dresses. I didn’t want these dudes in the bars that I was playing to look me up and down because I’m a blonde girl with blue eyes. I wanted to be heard, not seen. That’s how it all started.”

The Verizon Wireless Arena is at 555 Elm St., Manchester.

Tickets are $27 and $51.75 and may be purchased at the box office at 644-5000 and through Ticketmaster at 1-800-745-3000 or at ticketmaster.com.