Miranda Lambert’s New Album ‘Crisco’ Is Out Now With Ella Langley Duet

Miranda Lambert has never been shy about going big. Twelve albums’ worth of barroom brawls, love letters to her home state, and middle fingers aimed at anyone who underestimated her will do that to a person. But her new record, Crisco, might be the most audacious swing she’s taken in a while — a 12-track album that braids together old-school country storytelling and disco grooves, and it officially arrives everywhere today, Friday, October 2, 2026, via MCA Nashville.

And if you want to know exactly what you’re getting into, don’t skip the opening track. It’s the mission statement.

“Snakeskin Boots” — a duet with Ella Langley — opens the record, and it also makes its world premiere at country radio today. It’s a cinematic, retro-Western stunner built on the swagger of late-1960s Western soundtracks and the dark, simmering attitude of Nancy Sinatra’s “Bang Bang.” Lambert and co-producer Jesse Frasure leaned hard into the era’s dramatic, stylized soundscapes, and the official release notes put it best: the thing sounds equally at home in a Quentin Tarantino film or on the dance floor at Studio 54.

That combination — dusty frontier drama meets mirrorball — is basically the thesis of Crisco in miniature. The album digs into the shared history of country and disco, two genres that sound like strange bedfellows until you remember they both love a dramatic beat, a sequined silhouette, and a story told a little larger than life.

“Snakeskin Boots” Is Thelma and Louise With a Better Ending

So what is the song actually about? Lambert describes “Snakeskin Boots” as a larger-than-life story about a woman who knows “exactly how to make her escape.” In the lyrics, she and Langley step into the boots of a mysterious woman who’s always on the move — someone who left Los Angeles behind, keeps escaping trouble, and simply can’t be caught or tied down.

But Lambert, being Lambert, summed it up better than any press release could. “To me, this song is kind of Thelma and Louise if they didn’t drive off the cliff,” she said, calling it the story of two women “getting away with something.”

It’s a perfect shorthand. Everybody knows the defiant, dust-clouded romance of that movie’s road trip — two women done with playing by the rules, flying down a desert highway. Lambert’s version just skips the tragedy and keeps the freedom. Two badass women, one open road, zero regrets. Honestly? We’d watch that movie.

And here’s the fun bit: Langley wasn’t a last-minute add-on. She wasn’t flown in after the track was finished to sprinkle some star power on the chorus. This song was built for her from the ground up.

Written With Ella in Mind

“We wrote ‘Snakeskin Boots’ with Ella in mind. She and I are kindred spirits, and when we were working on her album, I realized how many retro influences we share,” Lambert explained. “She’s the perfect partner for that.”

You can hear that shared DNA in the concept itself. Both women have built their artistry on being a little too much for the room — too loud, too honest, too unwilling to sand down the edges. Langley broke through with her unapologetic brand of country songwriting, and Lambert has been the genre’s resident firestarter since Kerosene lit up radio back in 2005. Pairing them on a song about two women slipping out of town with a smirk is the most natural thing in the world.

The writing credits are a family affair, too. “Snakeskin Boots” was written by Lambert, Natalie Hemby, Jesse Frasure — and Brendan McLoughlin, Lambert’s husband. The couple married in 2019, and McLoughlin has been quietly building his own songwriting résumé alongside her. A husband co-writing a song about a woman making her escape with her girlfriend? There’s a joke in there somewhere, but we’ll let it sit.

The Mentor and the Protégée: A Partnership That Keeps Paying Off

This duet didn’t come out of nowhere. Lambert and Langley’s creative relationship has been one of the most interesting slow burns in country music over the past few years, and it keeps delivering bigger results every time they team up.

Lambert has been a mentor, co-writer, and co-producer for Langley as the younger artist’s star has risen. She co-produced Langley’s Dandelion project and joined her as a duet partner on the album track “Butterfly Season.” Then came the real blockbuster: Lambert co-wrote and co-produced Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas,” which made history by becoming the longest-running No. 1 song by any artist or song in Billboard Hot 100 history — 23 weeks at the top, breaking a record that had stood for years.

Let that sink in for a second. The establishment artist doesn’t just show up for a feature verse — she co-writes and co-produces the protégée’s chart-shattering hit, then brings her onto the opening track of her own album. That’s not a vanity collaboration. That’s a genuine creative partnership, and the industry has noticed: Lambert recently picked up seven CMA Award nominations connected not only to her own artistry but also to her contributions to Langley’s work.

There’s something quietly radical about the way Lambert is handling her position in the genre right now. Plenty of legacy stars treat younger talent as competition, or worse, as background decoration. Lambert’s doing the opposite — pulling the next generation into the studio, handing over production credit, and letting them shine on her own opening track. “Kindred spirits,” she called them. It sure sounds like it.

What the Rest of Crisco Sounds Like

“Snakeskin Boots” is just the entryway. The 12-track album — Lambert’s first with MCA Nashville — covers a lot of ground. The already-released title track “Crisco” gave fans an early taste of the concept, and the record also features “A Song To Sing,” her collaboration with Chris Stapleton, which has already picked up a Grammy nomination. There’s also a take on Jim Croce’s “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song” — a choice that makes total sense once you hear how this album treats its retro influences less like costume pieces and more like a living language.

Musically, Crisco moves between danceable grooves and stripped-down, lyric-first moments. Some tracks lean into ’70s disco and soul; others double down on Lambert’s grittier, narrative side. It follows her 2024 release, Postcards from Texas, but this one feels less like a homecoming and more like a joyride — the sound of an artist with nothing left to prove and nowhere she’d rather be than exactly where she is.

For the record: this is Lambert’s tenth studio album. Ten records, three Grammys, a mantel full of CMA and ACM trophies, and she still sounds like she’s having the time of her life. Not many artists can say that.

Why Today Matters

Album release days come and go, but this one feels like a hinge moment for country music. You’ve got one of the genre’s defining voices of the last two decades putting out her most conceptually daring record yet, opening it with a full-throated duet with the artist she’s personally championed — and doing it on the same day the song hits country radio nationwide. That’s not a cautious rollout. That’s a statement.

Crisco is out now on MCA Nashville. Put on your snakeskin boots — metaphorical or otherwise — and press play.

Source: Just Jared