Green Bay Press Gazette (Dec. 25th 2008)
Country’s new power couple
Of all the romantic places in the world for a high-profile country couple to spend New Year's Eve, and somehow Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert settled on Green Bay.
"We had two options: It was either New Year's Eve in the Bahamas or Green Bay, Wis., and I wanted to go somewhere nice," Shelton deadpanned by phone from a road stop in St. Louis. "So we decided we would go where we could actually enjoy some outdoor activities."
Good-natured kidding aside, the pair said they really just wanted to be together for the holiday - even if it was a working one at that.
"Green Bay's got such a huge country music following up there, everything just made sense," Shelton said. "We love to play for crowds that are drinking and having a good time, and we know we'll be a part of it up there. So it really was a no-brainer for us."
Except for maybe the weather part ... He's from Oklahoma and she's from Texas, so the possibility of below-zero wind chills has sent a few shivers up their Southern spines.
"To be completely honest with you, I'm a bit frightened about the cold weather," Lambert said via e-mail during her holiday break. "I might have to go shopping for a new warm parka."
Whatever the weather outside, their joint performance should quickly heat things up inside Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena. The 32-year-old Shelton and 25-year-old Lambert, who have been a couple for three years, teamed up to do a handful of tour dates together this fall with immediate success.
Each travels with their own band, but the shows are seamless, with one, the other or both on stage at any given time. He brings arena anthems like "Some Beach" and "Ol' Red" and old-fashioned weepers like "The Baby" and "Austin." She pours on her trademark fiery hard country tunes like "Gunpowder & Lead," "Kerosene" and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend." Together, they have his cover of "Home," which featured her backing vocals on the record, their first official duet, "Bare Skin Rug," and whatever else they feel like collaborating on that night. Who opens and who closes is anybody's guess.
It's an approach that has turned the standard, heavily produced touring formula on its ear, and crowds can't get enough.
"I think there's a huge shock factor that happens in these concerts that doesn't happen in any other show I've been a part of," Shelton said. "She and I are very competitive. We're also very supportive at the same time, so there's a little bit of all of that in this show. From one second to the next, you really don't know what's going to happen. By the time the show is over, people are exhausted."
"We both bring different styles to the table, and I think it's fun for audiences to see the setup of this show," Lambert said. "We switch back and forth and try to make it unlike anything either of us has done before. We had a blast working together."
It doesn't hurt that 2008 has been particularly good to both artists.
Lambert's "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" racked up critical accolades, including the Academy of Country Music's Album of the Year. She has already started recording the follow-up and will go back into the studio in February, with the hopes of a finished album by next fall.
Shelton got a big boost this year with his unlikely cover of Michael Buble's "Home" and then returned to form on his fifth studio release, "Startin' Fires." It's an album he says is all about the things he loves, "which is drinking, planting corn, deer hunting and all those redneck things people expect from me."
As well as the two mesh their styles onstage, you have to go only as far as their individual tour buses to know they're two very different people.
"Well, my bus has fewer football games on the TV, and his bus has less animals," Lambert said. "I like to be able to come back to my bus and have it be my world - 'SVU' ('Law & Order: Special Victims Unit') on the TV, Beyonce concerts live on DVD ... Plus, my bus smells a lot better."
Country music loves a couple - Tim & Faith, Johnny & June, George & Tammy. While Blake & Miranda has definitely joined that list - she moved to Oklahoma for him and lives 6 miles away - they keep a relatively low profile away from the spotlight.
"I tend to like to keep my private life private," she said. "I guess it's no secret that Blake and I are together, but ya know, when you live in Oklahoma, it's a lot different than living in Hollywood. We just sort of keep to ourselves, and we are like any other couple. We're both really happy with each other, and the fact that we are both so busy, it just makes us appreciate when we do get to be together."
There's no denying that coupledom has upped the exposure of each artist, but Shelton doesn't get hung up on the pressures and expectations that can come with that status.
"I think you could convince yourself that there is pressure and then it becomes reality for she and I," he said. "We don't have anything to hide really, so there's never a moment where we're dodging people. We're pretty open about our relationship and the things that we do. ...
"It's just kind of is what it is, and it's going where it's going. We're learning things about each other each and every day, and we're having fun with that."
The Green Bay show will be the last one they do together anytime soon. The mini co-headlining tour was an experiment to see if it would work, Shelton said. Now that they have their answer, putting together a "for-real tour" is a possibility in 2010, he said.
Who knows, by then, maybe they'll even be sharing a bus.